NSW agencies are revamping how they communicate with concerned parents when a child sex abuse case is revealed within an institution.
Detective Superintendent Maria Rustja, commander of the NSW Police child abuse squad, told a national hearing into child sex abuse the investigative and response system across agencies was focused on protecting children so it might not work for all parents.
She was being questioned by the chair of Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan on how the NSW police handled the case of 26-year-old pedophile Jonathan Lord, the YMCA child care worker who is now serving 10 years in jail.
Supt Rustja said there is a tri-agency response to cases of child sex abuse, the police, the NSW family and community services agency and the health department.
She said it worked efficiently and quickly and had child welfare at its core because the "child is telling you the most traumatic event in its life."
The Lord case, she said, was unusual in that the joint-investigation response team dealt more frequently with single and inter-family cases. Judgments had to be made around legal and child support demands as well as involvement of parents.
This week at the commission public hearing in Sydney, parents of children who were in Lord's care spoke of the panic and widespread concern when news circulated that he had been abusing children.
"It is clear that while we had the hotline set up, there was confusion in the community about who to ring and how to get information," Supt Rustja said.
She told Justice McClellan there was probably a gap - and police and the other agencies were now drafting proposals that would help the commission.
An overnight non-publication order was applied to detailed information on how the agencies worked together.
Outside the commission on Thursday, AW, the mother of a girl who was at a creche run by Lord called for child protection training for childcare workers.
"Child protection training should be age appropriate and delivered regularly to both children and parents by teachers with specialist training.
"I believe that all childcare workers should annually obtain a child protection certificate based on an examination much like a first-aid certificate and delivered by an external accredited provider," AW said.
Earlier she told the commission of her panic and distress when she learned her daughter had been in the after-school centre where Lord had worked, and of her difficulty in getting any information or help from the YMCA, the school, police or agencies.
The hearing was also told on Thursday that the NSW Police had advised the YMCA that there were concerns about holding public information meetings with parents affected by the Jonathan Lord allegations.
The YMCA wanted to communicate with worried parents and it did hold two forums at other schools.
The YMCA told staff and parents that they had been advised by police they could not talk about the case.
Detective Senior Sergeant Glyn Baker of the child abuse squad said they never told the YMCA to withhold Lord's name but gave the association advice and guidance.
Supt Rustja confirmed this and said it was early days in the investigation but she thought it fine that the YMCA should contact families but they were advised they could not identify victims or name the suspect.
There was no suppression order on identifying Lord at the time but one was later put in place.
The commission, which is ongoing, is also examining that.
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