Director, Child Safety And Fraud Investigations

Director, Child Safety and Fraud Investigations

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.

There are four branches within the Division:

• 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 Fraud Investigations is a critical leadership role in the division and is responsible for leading a high quality and professional investigations unit.

The role leads teams that conduct investigations in relation to complaints, allegations of misconduct, reportable conduct, fraud and corruption and uses data and investigation outcomes to drive detection and prevention activities.

The Director will set the strategic direction of the Child Safety and Fraud Investigations function by overseeing:

• investigations into complaints and allegations of misconduct by department employees and allegations of child abuse falling within the Reportable Conduct Scheme
• fraud and corruption investigations and liaison with IBAC and the Victorian Ombudsman including in relation to Protected Disclosure matters
• the management of the Department's Speak Up service
• reporting obligations to oversight bodies and senior stakeholders

This role will lead a high performing team and establis