Survivors of abuse at Auckland's Dilworth School have a month to share feedback on the school's plans to address historical offending.
"Those who had no voice then will have the opportunity to be heard now", said school trust board chair Aaron Snodgrass.
The boys' boarding school has been in the spotlight over the past 18 months, with 12 men charged with sex crimes linked to the school.
More than 130 former Dilworth students have joined a class action which alleges Dilworth School failed to protect students from systemic sexual abuse over four decades.
Last year the Dilworth Trust Board announced an independent inquiry into the abuse and a redress programme. Designing the two programmes has taken much of the past year.
On Tuesday the school released draft terms. It's now seeking direct input from "those affected by abuse, parents and families of old boy survivors, and the wider Dilworth community".
READ MORE: More charges laid over alleged sexual offending at Dilworth School
In a video, Snodgrass said: "Dilworth let you down, and we are sorry. We want to get on with providing old boys survivors an opportunity to access redress, including financial redress.
"This means our old boys won't have to wait for the Government's puretumu torowhānui redress scheme, which is expected to be available from the end of 2023.
He said establishing the independent programme is the "right thing to do."
Both the inquiry and redress programme are set to function independently of, and with no control or oversight by, Dilworth School or the trust board.
"Redress will be tailored to each old boy survivor, and may include providing access to counselling and psychological services; a direct personal response from Dilworth, including an apology; redress payment," Snodgrass said in a statement.
It's proposed the programme will have a panel of three people, including a retired High Court judge or senior lawyer, an independent senior clinical psychologist and an independent layperson of standing in the community.
It will be for those who suffered sexual and/or "profound physical abuse" at the hands of a Dilworth representative.
The board says the standard of proof of these matters will be "lower than that of a New Zealand Court process".
In the draft terms it says the starting position would be that survivors should be believed unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary.
READ MORE: Victims of Dilworth sex offender share impact of his abuse
Of the proposed independent Inquiry, the board said it will seek to provide an understanding of the nature and extent of abuse at Dilworth, the factors that caused or contributed to the abuse occurring and the school's response to complaints.
The draft terms state this will include "whether there were any actions to suppress the reporting of abuse".
The school has previously admitted, historically, systems and procedures for dealing with complaints weren’t good enough.
"While Dilworth have acknowledged that they failed to prevent the abuse from happening, it is disappointing that they still fail to acknowledge the active role Dilworth played in covering up the abuse and how they allowed further abuse of boys to occur, often by the same abusers and for Dilworth's culture of sexual abuse to continue for decades," said former student and class action lawsuit representative Neil Harding.
The inquiry will look at the abuse of students by staff, volunteers, visitors as well as other students. A final report will be made public, subject to redactions of survivor details.
"Listening to feedback is paramount to the development of these programmes and we are grateful for the feedback we have received from some old boy survivor groups over the last six months," Snodgrass said.
"The survivors who are part of the Dilworth class action group have already provided substantive feedback and we are pleased Dilworth has taken this into account, we encourage other survivors and their families to also provide feedback into these draft schemes," said Harding.
"It is critical both this inquiry and redress programme are independent, best practice and importantly survivor-focused."
A website's been set up with details of the school's proposed response and feedback forms. Feedback can also be provided anonymously, and by email or by freepost.
The deadline for feedback to be received is April 13.
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