New laws to streamline
blue card system
About the Criminal History Screening Legislation Amendment Bill
The Criminal History Screening Legislation Amendment Bill, passed by Parliament on 25 February, aims to reduce unnecessary duplication of screening for people working with children and young people in Queensland and make it easier for people to work across different areas of child-related employment. Some of the key benefits of the legislation are:
- registered teachers and police officers who are screened as part of their professional duties will be eligible for an exemption from holding a blue card, enabling them to provide services to children covered under the blue card system (for example coaching at the local soccer club)
- all employees and volunteers of local and state government providing child-related services and health practitioner students providing services to children as part of a student practicum will be screened under the blue card system. This will promote consistency of screening and ensure that a person providing child-related services is only screened once.
In addition blue card holders will be eligible for an exemption from holding a yellow card to enable them to provide services to adults with a disability.
By listening to stakeholders who use existing screening systems, opportunities to reduce the number of checks a person needs to undertake to work across different systems were identified. The new laws will achieve consistency of criminal history screening checks to enable exemptions to operate across systems. This will create a simpler system for Queenslanders and ensure essential safeguards for children as well as people with a disability are maintained. The Commission will work with the community and service providers to help implement any agreed changes. We will continue to provide updates and information on progress of the reforms.
Building on the effectiveness of the blue card system
The reforms will build on the existing effectiveness of the blue card system by achieving consistency across criminal history screening processes to enable exemptions to operate between systems while maintaining safeguards. It will also consolidate screening for some groups. This has significant potential benefits for the community and service providers. The safeguards provided by the blue card system are:
- A requirement for regulated organisations to implement risk management strategies to mitigate risks of harm to children. The Commission works in partnership with organisations to achieve improved safeguards for children. In 2008–09 the Commission engaged with more than 266,000 people to educate stakeholders about the blue card system.
- A requirement for regulated organisations to ensure individuals providing services to children undergo a blue card check, which prevents high risk individuals from providing services to children. Since the blue card system’s inception more than 3,500 high risk individuals have been prevented from providing services to children. This is an indication of the effectiveness of the screening process. It is very likely that a significant number of other high risk individuals are deterred from applying altogether because of the reputation of the system in identifying and challenging them.
- Monitoring of the criminal histories of more than 478,000 blue card applicants and holders and assisting organisations to comply with their risk management and blue card requirements. Since the blue card’s inception nearly 350 people have had their blue card suspended as a result of a change in their criminal history.
The community’s acceptance and support of the blue card system is a strong indicator of its effectiveness in establishing safeguards for children in regulated areas. In 2008–09 our annual client satisfaction survey conducted by the Office of Economic and Statistical Research found that the majority of respondents (77%) believe the blue card system is an effective initiative which assists in creating safe and supportive environments for children and young people in Queensland.
