The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) administers a scheme to assess claims from people who experienced abuse or neglect in certain types of state schools, called ‘Sensitive Claims’. In 2023, Cooper Legal, who represent a large number of claimants who have sought redress through this scheme, complained to the Ombudsman that the Sensitive Claims process was unreasonable in several ways.
Since the complaint was received, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions opens page in this tab released its final report and the Government took steps to implement some of its recommendations. The Government committed $774 million to “improve the redress system and strengthen the care system to prevent, identify, and respond to abuse in the future.” Improvements to the redress system include introducing a common payment framework across agencies, providing top up payments to survivors with settled claims, and increasing system capacity so agencies can process more claims and therefore reduce the time a claimant waits for a settlement.
The Ombudsman reviewed the system as it was operating when the complaint was received, while keeping in mind likely future changes. He hopes the recommendations help the Ministry and Crown identify improvements to the current scheme and inform future conversations.
The Ombudsman formed the opinion that these aspects of the scheme/the Ministry’s administration of the scheme were unreasonable:
- The time taken to process some claims was far too long; and
- There were unjustifiable delays in proactively publishing relevant information, including but not limited to, settlement frameworks and evidential guidelines.
The Ombudsman also found that while the Ministry is following current legislation, the exclusion of claims relating to open state secondary schools before 1 October 1989 from the Ministry’s process creates significantly different experiences between claimants in a way that is unreasonable.
The Ombudsman recommended that the Ministry:
- Identify ways to streamline the Sensitive Claims process and reduce the average processing time;
- Publish its guidance material; and
- Ensures Ministers receive advice on whether and how claims that would ordinarily sit with Boards of open schools move into the Ministry’s Sensitive Claims process.
Although the Ombudsman did not sustain some of the complaint, he did make some observations and, where relevant, suggestions for improvement.
The Ministry accepted the recommendations. It has published the guidance material on its website. The Ministry is working with the Crown Response Office, and other state agencies, to improve timeliness, and provide advice to joint Ministers, including advice on redress for claims that currently sit with school boards as the correct respondent.
Note: we have anonymised some parts of this opinion that referred to individual complainants.