Director, Child Safety and Integrity (Policy and Operations)

About the Department

The Department of Education (DE) leads the delivery of education and development services to children and students both directly through government schools and indirectly through the regulation and funding of early childhood services and non-government schools.

About the Division

The Conduct and Integrity Division provides expert advice and support to school principals and other people managers on managing employee conduct and performance including child safety concerns and fraud and corruption.

• Preliminary Investigations Branch
• Child Safety Investigations Branch
• Child Safety and Fraud Investigations Branch
• Child Safety and Integrity (Policy and Operations) Branch.

The Division leads critical functions with respect to both school and corporate employees and operations:

• child safety misconduct and reportable conduct investigations, including notifications to the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) under the Reportable Conduct Scheme in relation to departmental employees and others engaged in departmental workplaces and notifications to the Disability Worker Regulation Commission
• fraud and corruption investigations, including mandatory reporting to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and public interest disclosures
• developing and maintaining the department's guidelines on managing complaints, misconduct and unsatisfactory performance for the teaching service and the public service
• providing expert advice and support to principals and people managers to manage allegations of misconduct, unsatisfactory performance and fitness for duty
• expert advice and management of fraud and corruption, conflict of interest, and integrity performance monitoring and reporting
• pre-employment screening, and expert advice on suitability for employment and management of the department's Employment Limitation policy
• managing relationships with oversight and integrity bodies (including the Victorian Institute of Teaching, CCYP, IBAC, Victorian Ombudsman and the Victorian Public Sector Commission)
• capability building and training activities aimed at increasing staff confidence to prevent, speak up, identify and respond to inappropriate behaviour, reportable conduct and misconduct
• strengthening avenues for staff to speak up about inappropriate behaviour and misconduct
• driving behavioural and system change to build a stronger culture of integrity in the department.

About the Role

Reporting to the Executive Director, Conduct and Integrity Division, the Director, Child Safety and Integrity (Policy and Operations) is a pivotal leadership role within the division. The role leads teams that own Departmental conduct and integrity policy, operations, engagement and reform and the department's responsibilities under the Reportable Conduct Scheme and Victorian Disability Workers Scheme.

The Director will support an exciting reform program and will lead high performing, multi-functional team that drives strategic and operational excellence in the delivery of the division's key objectives:

• ensuring the department complies with obligations under the Reportable Conduct Scheme and the Victorian Disability Workers Scheme
• building capability to identify, manage and respond to conduct and integrity risks through strengthening systems, policies, and training
• ongoing monitoring and maintenance of the Department's conduct and integrity policies
• supporting the Executive Director to lead reforms to the division, implementing a new operating model and project and reporting governance
• strategic risk and performance related activities and projects such as measuring and reporting on the department's conduct and integrity performance
• reporting obligations to oversight bodies and senior stakeholders and the development of operational and strategic data that is used to drive continuous improvement
• the maintenance and improvement of core case and information management processes and systems
• efficient records management and historical records retrieval, including to support FOI and legal proceedings
• employee screening and advice and referral of matters to VIT

This role establish a positive work culture by leading, motivating, and mentoring the team, monitoring performance, and fostering continuous professional development by:

• driving and evaluating operational performance to advance divisional strategy and encouraging innovation
• cultivating a culture promoting high performance, collaboration, agility, and accountability.

About You

This role will suit an accomplished, professional, executive leader, who is driven to develop and empower the team and division.  You will be responsive, open to change and eager to foster flexibility and adaptability, leveraging your conceptual and analytical abilities to drive strategic initiatives. 

As our ideal candidate for this senior leadership position, you will possess:

• executive level leadership experience, managing high functioning teams
• senior level stakeholder engagement and relationship building skills, working within a complex, multi-stakeholder environment
• proven, specialist expertise in one of the following domains:
  
  • Child safety and the Reportable Conduct Scheme
  • Navigating regulatory and policy challenges, providing technically outstanding advice and practical evidence-based solutions
  • Leveraging data to monitor and improve performance, drive decision making and improve processes