Mandatory Reporting and Working with Children and Families.

Intended for social workers in Australia, this brief reviews the legal obligations of social workers to report suspected child abuse. Information is presented on the legal and ethical obligations of social workers to report suspected child abuse, general ethical guidelines when responding to the needs of vulnerable children and/or families, mandatory reporting of domestic and family violence in the Northern Territory, and legislative changes in Victoria that have added “Failure to Disclose” as an offense against adults who fail to disclose child sexual abuse to the policy and “Failure to Protect” as an offense against people within organizations who knew of a risk of child sexual abuse by someone in the organization and had the authority to reduce or remove the risk, but negligently failed to do so.