Principles
- The safety and wellbeing of the child come first.
- Children are listened to and taken seriously.
- A person may raise a concern without needing to prove that misconduct occurred.
- Reports are handled sensitively and fairly.
- AGMS will not penalise a candidate for making a genuine complaint or safety report.
- Information is shared only where reasonably necessary for safety, investigation, advice or legal compliance.
- AGMS will not use an internal process to delay urgent external reporting.
What can be reported
Any behaviour, incident, practice, communication or environment that may affect the safety or wellbeing of a child can be reported, including suspected abuse, grooming, sexual misconduct, physical harm, emotional harm, discrimination, bullying, inappropriate communication, privacy breaches, unsafe examination arrangements or breaches of the Child Safe Code of Conduct.
How AGMS responds
- Receive the concern and check whether a child is in immediate danger.
- Take immediate protective action where necessary, including pausing an examination, restricting contact or system access, or separating a person from child-related duties.
- Record the report accurately and securely.
- Assess whether police, Child Safety, a screening authority, regulator, insurer or another body must or should be notified.
- Plan a fair and child-focused response. AGMS will not ask a child to repeatedly recount information unnecessarily.
- Keep relevant parties appropriately informed, subject to privacy, procedural fairness and any external investigation.
- Document the outcome, actions and risk controls.
- Review whether policies, training, systems or venue arrangements need improvement.
Anonymous reports
AGMS accepts anonymous concerns. An anonymous report may limit AGMS’s ability to seek further information or provide an outcome, but it will still be assessed for child-safety risk.
Support person
A child or complainant may ask to have a parent, carer, teacher, advocate or other support person assist them, where appropriate.
Procedural fairness
AGMS will act to protect children while also providing procedural fairness to a person whose conduct is the subject of an allegation. Immediate risk controls are not a finding of wrongdoing.
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