Commission for Children and Young People (Vic) 

Act: Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012 (Vic).¹

Established: The Commission began operating 1 March 2013, replacing the former Office of the Child Safety Commissioner, which the Act's own transitional provisions abolish.

Purpose: Section 7 states the Commission's objective as promoting continuous improvement and innovation in policies and practices relating to the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children and young people, and children and young people generally, and in the provision of out-of-home care services.

Powers conferred under the Act

Section 9 gives the Commission a broad, generic power to do all things necessary or convenient to perform its functions. Substantively, it conducts inquiries -- mandatory ones into deaths of children who were child-protection clients, and discretionary ones into children, young people or service provision more generally -- backed by information-gathering powers including compellable disclosure by relevant professionals. It reports to Ministers, the Secretary and Parliament, can disclose information to other authorities, and must notify IBAC of suspected corrupt conduct.

An important currency note

As of 23 February 2026, the Commission's Child Safe Standards and Reportable Conduct Scheme regulatory functions -- which it had administered since their creation -- were transferred to a new body, the Social Services Regulator, under the Social Services Regulation Amendment (Child Safety, Complaints and Worker Regulation) Act 2025 (Vic). This is directly confirmed by the amended Act's own table of provisions, which no longer contains the Part that formerly housed those functions. Any secondary source, textbook excerpt, or older exam-style problem describing the Commission as currently running the Reportable Conduct Scheme is now out of date. This is a concrete example of why a student should verify a statutory body's current functions against the Act itself or the body's own recent announcements, not rely on a secondary description that may predate a recent machinery-of-government change.

Is it a prosecuting authority?

No. The Act contains no "offences" or "power to bring proceedings" provision comparable to those found in, for example, the Racing Act 1958's Part IA or the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018. The Commission's powers are confined to inquiry, advice, monitoring and reporting -- including reporting to Parliament and referring suspected corrupt conduct to IBAC -- not prosecution. No specific leading case is cited here.

Self-check

• Have I correctly stated that the Reportable Conduct Scheme moved to the Social Services Regulator from 23 February 2026, rather than assuming the Commission still runs it?
• Have I distinguished the Commission's inquiry and reporting functions from a prosecuting power it does not have?
• Have I flagged the currency risk of relying on an older description of the Commission's functions?