September update 2022

Thu, 2022-09-01 12:00

This newsletter provides an update on the National Redress Scheme (the Scheme). It includes details on the Scheme’s new Service Charter, application processing and participating institutions.

The update contains material that could be confronting or distressing. Sometimes words or images can cause sadness or distress or trigger traumatic memories, particularly for people who have experienced past abuse or childhood trauma.

Support is available to help you if you need it. To find out more, go to
www.nationalredress.gov.au/help-support/get-free-help-apply/redress-support-services.

If you need immediate support, 24-hour telephone assistance is available through:

Your National Redress Scheme Service Charter

The Scheme is committed to improving how we serve survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. That is why we are introducing the National Redress Scheme Service Charter (the Charter). The Charter will explain what you can expect from the Scheme and the redress process.

The Charter was launched on 1 September 2022 in response to Recommendation 2.1 of the Second Anniversary Review.

The Charter sets out our commitments to survivors to support each stage of the redress journey. It has:

principles that everyone who provides services as part of the Scheme should follow
commitments about what we will do to support each stage of the redress journey
service standards to create consistency and accountability for the way we support you through the redress process
information about how we will show that we are meeting our commitments
ways you can contact us.

Download the Service Charter here.

Application processing and recent institutions to join:

Application progress

As of 26 August 2022, the Scheme:

had received 18,516 applications.
made 10,477 decisions (through the Scheme’s Independent Decision Makers (IDMs)) — including 9,184 payments, totalling approximately $801 million (m), with an average of $87,240.
Of the 10,273 outcomes issued, 9,995 applicants (representing 97.3% of all outcomes issued) are eligible for redress and 278 (representing 2.7% of all outcomes issued) are ineligible.
is currently progressing 8,443 applications.
had 1,778 applications that are on hold or paused, including 122 applications due to an institution not participating (representing 1.4% of applications on hand).
had finalised 9,566 applications.
had 45 IDMs actively making decisions.

Participating institutions update

All institutions where child sexual abuse has occurred are encouraged to sign up to the Scheme as soon as possible.

As at Declaration 4, signed by the Minister on 21 July 2022:

all Commonwealth and State and Territory government institutions and 598 non government institutions are now participating in the Scheme.
approximately 70,400 sites across Australia are now covered by the Scheme.
73 unique institutions have been declared under the Funder of Last Resort (FOLR) arrangements.
- These institutions are defunct and the Commonwealth and/or relevant state governments are the FOLR.

A number of institutions were recently added to the Scheme legislation. This declaration is available via the Federal Register of Legislation:
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2022C00727.(Opens in a new tab/window)

For the latest information about institutions, visit our website:
www.nationalredress.gov.au/institutions.

Find out more

For further information about the Scheme, go to www.nationalredress.gov.au or call 1800 737 377 Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm AET from Australia or +61 2 6222 3455 from overseas.

For regular updates about the Department of Social Services and the Scheme, you can ‘like’ or ‘follow’ the Australian Families Facebook page: facebook.com/FamiliesInAustralia(Opens in a new tab/window).