Following hot on the heels of the new Ministerial Order 1359 (which will replace Ministerial Order 870 from July 2022), the VRQA has just released updated Guidelines to the Minimum Standards.
The VRQA has also released the School and School Boarding Premises Financial Capability Assessment Guideline which sets out the regulator’s graduated approach to information requests in this key area of registration.
The new Guidelines – and the Financial Capability Assessment Guideline – are already in effect, being backdated to January 2022.
Here are the highlights of the updated Guidelines to the Minimum Standards:
Boarding Houses
- Building on the new Minimum Standards for school boarding premises, schools which operate a boarding house using the same entity as a school must ensure the school documents cover the boarding house (including constitution, risk management framework, delegations, risk register and governance charter).
- Operating a boarding house is not – for clarity – a prohibited arrangement, provided it meets the requirements of the Guidelines (similar to the ELCs).
Third party providers
- Those offering senior secondary courses and VET must themselves be registered (noting the new Ministerial Order 1359 also imposes child safety obligations on schools to ensure students with third party providers are safe in what is regarded as part of the school environment).
- These providers must follow their own new set of Guidelines to Minimum Standards for registration.
Governance
- Evidence now includes a diagram of the structure, including identifying the proprietor, the school governing body, committees of the Board, and any related entities (as appropriate).
- DMI information is required – and the business plan still needs to be validated by an independent accountant.
- The not-for-profit requirements (except those applying to senior secondary schools) have been relaxed to clarify that written agreements are required only where the agreement is with a related entity.
- The school must for the avoidance of doubt, comply with other requirements in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic), including publishing an annual report.
Curriculum
- Additional evidence is now required regarding teaching hours and timetables in order to demonstrate the eight key learning areas.
Care Safety and Welfare
Schools must have:
- a COVIDSafe Plan; and
- policies and procedures to enable it to comply with mandatory vaccination requirements, including policies and procedures:
- to ensure all education workers are fully vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19) by the specified date(s) or hold a valid exemption; and
- for maintaining records in accordance with the information gathering and record keeping requirements.
Please note it appears schools may need to hold vaccination information to meet this standard – not just sight it – which also brings into play the strict requirements of the Health Records Act.
Given the new Guidelines are already in effect, schools may need to consider updating their key governance documents now, rather than waiting to pass them at their AGM in May/June.
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