Guidance for completing our web-based Entity Report form

Every employee who is the subject of an allegation notified under the Reportable Conduct Scheme has a distinct OCG reference number – e.g., where your Entity Report relates to a matter involving 2 or more subject employees, each subject employee will have a distinct OCG reference number. You will find the reference number for each subject employee in the acknowledgement letter we sent you after assessing your 7-day notification. Our reference numbers generally follow this format – e.g., RN/2022/0000 or, for older matters, C/2019/0000.

Please note: You must submit an Entity Report form for each subject employee, though the attachments only need to be uploaded on one of the forms – e.g., where you are providing us with one investigation report relating to 2 or more subjects of allegations.

We ask you to report on any allegations against the employee that you have sustained as reportable conduct (or where a determination of a reportable conviction has been made). You can find more information on making a finding of reportable conduct.

This field has a tick box list from which we ask you to select the type of reportable conduct you have sustained – eg. ‘Sexual offence’, ‘Sexual misconduct’, ‘Assault’, etc. You can tick as many boxes as relevant – eg. if you have made sustained findings of ‘Assault’ and ‘Neglect’, please tick both boxes.

For some categories of reportable conduct, an additional tick box will appear when you tick the box on the first level. This is the case for a finding of a ‘Sexual offence’ or ‘Neglect’, and where a determination of a ‘Reportable conviction’ has been made. If you tick one of these boxes, you are then asked to select from the second list of tick boxes to further specify the finding made – eg. if you tick that you made a sustained finding of ‘Neglect’, please select the ‘Neglect type’ – Clothing, Food, Lodging, Medical aid, Nursing or Supervision. 

For sustained findings of ‘Assault’, you will be asked to confirm if you have made a finding of ‘Serious physical assault’. This detail is necessary because all findings of ‘Serious physical assault’ require referral to our WWCC Directorate.

Please note: Where a Head of Relevant Entity (HRE) makes a finding of a ‘Sexual offence’, ‘Sexual misconduct’ or a ‘Serious physical assault’, we are required to refer the finding to our WWCC Directorate under s56(1) of the Children’s Guardian Act 2019.

This section also includes a text box for you to provide specific information about any sustained findings of reportable conduct you have made. It is important that you list each sustained allegation exactly as it was put to the subject employee so we have the precise detail of the sustained finding you have made.  

When making a finding, the HRE or approved delegate must apply the mandatory considerations at s40(3) of the Children’s Guardian Act.

For this reason, there is a tick box on the Entity Report form for you to acknowledge that it is a mandatory requirement for the HRE or approved delegate to consider the factors specified at s40(3) of the Act. Your considerations of the factors at s40(3) should be clearly documented in the material you submit with the Entity Report form.

In this field, you are asked to acknowledge whether you have included all relevant information in your Entity Report and attached copies of all relevant documents, as specified under section 37 of the Act. You do this by selecting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in the dropdown box. If you select ‘No’, a text box will appear for you to enter the reasons why you have not provided the relevant information and/or documents as specified at section 37. 

Please note that we ask you to provide the information and documents specified at section 37 of the Act so we can assess the matter with reference to all relevant material. If you do not provide all relevant information and copies of documentation with your Entity’ Report form, we will contact you.   
 

The first field here captures the action you have taken in relation to the subject employee at the end of your investigation – eg. dismissed, increased supervision/performance monitoring, warning/direction, no action warranted, etc. There is also an option for you to tick ‘Other’, and a text box that appears for you to provide further detail on what action you have taken in relation to the employee.

The second field captures ‘Other action’ you have taken at the end of your investigation. It has a tick box list from which ask you to please select these other actions – eg. changes to systems and/or policies, information referred to another entity. 

If you tick ‘Changes to systems and/or policies’ you will be asked to respond to the statement, ‘The changes to systems and/or policies improved our organisation’s implementation of the Child Safe Standards’ by indicating ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on the dropdown box provided.

If you tick ‘Information referred to another entity’, a text box will appear in which we ask you to provide the name of the entity to which you referred information (and any other relevant details about the entity). Please also add further information in the text box that appears if you tick ‘Other action’. This text box captures information about any other action you took at the conclusion of the matter. 
 

If your investigation was suspended from progressing at any point, please provide us with the start and end dates of any suspension/s. Please also advise us of the reason for the suspension. 

The first field in this section can capture only the start and end dates of one period for which your investigation was suspended. If your investigation was suspended more than once, there is a second field. This field has a text box in which you can provide the details of any subsequent suspension/s. Please include the start and end date of any subsequent suspension/s and the reason for the suspension/s in this box. 

In response to the question, ‘Did the investigation take more than 6 months?’, we ask you to choose between ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ from the dropdown box. If you select ‘Yes’, please select the factors that contributed to your investigation taking more than 6 months. You can select from several listed factors including complexity, difficulty locating witnesses, suspended due to third party involvement (eg. police), etc.

We are required to make annual reports to Parliament on the number of investigations that have not been completed within 6 months of commencing, as specified at section 138 of the Act. We collect the data above on the reasons/factors that have contributed to an investigation taking longer than 6 months to ensure we are reporting in a nuanced way.

This field captures whether you have provided information to the involved child/ren and/or their parent or carer, in line with section 57 of the Act.

If you select ‘Yes’ to the question about whether such information was provided, we ask you to choose the type of information provided (from the tick boxes that appear). Please ensure the detail of the information provided to the involved child/ren and/or their parent or carer is included in the documentation attached to your Entity Report form. 

If you select ‘No’ to the question, please indicate each of the reasons why you did not disclose information to the involved child/ren and/or their parent or carer (from the list of tick boxes that appear). Where there is more than one reason, please select all reasons that apply – eg. where you did not disclose because it was ‘not in the interests of the child’s safety, welfare or well-being’ and for fear such a disclosure might ‘jeopardise a current or future police investigation or proceedings’, please tick both boxes. There is also a text box in which you can detail the other reason/s you did not provide the involved child/ren and/or their parent or carer with information.  

You can find more information on disclosing information to children, parents and carers.
 

Once you have submitted all the information related to your Entity Report form, our system will generate a copy of the information you have submitted in your Entity Report form, which you will receive by email. This email will be sent to the HRE or their delegate as named on the Entity Report form (cc the contact person for this matter). Please ensure you enter the correct email address. 

If you submit your Entity Report form between 9am-4pm on a weekday, you can expect to receive a copy of the information around one hour after you submitted it.

When we have assessed your Entity Report, we will send you formal correspondence which may include feedback to assist you in any future reportable conduct investigations you undertake. We may also contact you to seek further information.

If you’re experiencing any issues with the form, in the first instance, please ensure you have the latest version of your browser downloaded – eg. Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, Samsung Internet.

If you continue to have issues once you have downloaded the most recent version of your browser, please email us at entityreport@ocg.nsw.gov.au.