Deloitte to investigate Department of Education IT failures

Published Sunday, 02 August, 2015 at 03:43 PM

Minister for Education and Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
The Honourable Kate Jones

Deloitte Australia will undertake an independent investigation of the Department of Education’s failed implementation of a OneSchool update that resulted in suspected cases of child abuse not being reported to police. 

Education Minister Kate Jones said Deloitte will examine the decisions, procedures and accountability systems in place which led to the IT failure in January.

“The January 2015 OneSchool update was developed as part of the Department’s implementation of the former Government’s response to the 2013 Carmody Report,” Ms Jones said.

“The update was designed to allow principals to report suspected child abuse directly to Child Safety and Queensland Police.

“Since the update was rolled out, reports sent singularly to Child Safety and simultaneously to Child Safety and QPS were received by the agencies however, where reports were intended to be delivered to QPS only, an IT error has occurred and the reports were never received by the agency.

“Since the error was discovered, Departmental officers have been working with QPS to assess the 644 cases.

“Action was immediately taken to fix OneSchool and the technical problem has been resolved.

“An investigation by the Department has found that the OneSchool system update was never tested properly when it was implemented. This is a serious error that has resulted in 644 cases not being reported to QPS.

“I immediately directed the Department to undertake an internal review of their policies and procedures and two Departmental officers have been stood aside as a result of this unacceptable failure.

“I also ordered an external investigation which will be undertaken by Deloitte Australia and will look into the decisions that led up to the failed implementation of the OneSchool update in January,” Ms Jones said.

The Terms of Reference for the investigation are:

  • Review the Department’s response to the recommendations resulting from the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry (1 July 2013) including recent legislative requirements (mandatory reporting under the Child Protection Act 1999 (CPA), from 19 January 2015)
  • Provide recommendations to strengthen the notification and reporting to external agencies (QPS, Child Safety) and options for improving the confirmation / reporting from external agencies back to School Principals / Department.
  • Audit the current incident and provide a report on the factors that led to the failure of the Student Protection Reporting module in OneSchool
  • Review the department’s application testing and quality assurance framework for all software releases
  • Review the process for business requirements gathering and the creation of software code to ensure alignment with industry best practice
  • Review the department’s approvals for IT system upgrades including change management and software release management
  • Provide recommendations for strengthening procedures and practices for IT system development

Ms Jones said Deloitte’s investigation will commence on 3 August and is expected to be completed within eight weeks.

 

Media contact:          Minister Jones’ Office            3719 7530