The Scouting movement has a "long history" of child sex abuse allegations and a lot of work to do to effectively respond to victims, a royal commission has heard.
Scouts NSW was one of the first institutions to appear before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, with senior members of the organisation called to give evidence about improvements in child safety on Tuesday.
Commission chairman Peter McClellan acknowledged the organisation has made some progress on child protection since first appearing at the sex abuse inquiry in 2013.
"It would seem that there is still work to be done in your organisation - probably quite a lot - to bring an effective national response to these problems," Justice McClellan said.
Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald told the inquiry that Scouts "have a long history of allegations in relation to child sexual abuse".
The commission heard there have been 39 fresh allegations of child sexual abuse involving Scouts NSW, including historical and contemporary claims, since 2013.
Scouts NSW general manager Andrew Smith told the hearing there has been no "formal root cause analysis" done in relation to the allegations.
The inquiry heard there have been delays in responding to alleged victims of child sexual abuse within Scouts NSW.
Mr Smith told the hearing that anyone coming forward will be offered an apology, a meeting with a senior staff member and access to counselling but monetary compensation should come from the Federal government's recently announced redress scheme.
"We haven't offered any monetary redress payments," he said.
"We're reiterating our approach in terms of monetary redress and that is best pursued through the Commonwealth redress scheme."
The Commonwealth scheme will commence in 2018 with payments capped at $150,000.
Outside the commission, a former Scout who was allegedly abused in the 1970s and has a current civil claim against Scouts NSW accused the organisation of shifting its responsibility to the Federal government.
"They do not want to accept responsibility because their reputation and their bank balance are more important to them than the welfare of victims," he said.
Danielle De Paoli, a lawyer with Maurice Blackburn, which represents a number of Scouts sex abuse clients, said the organisation should "provide redress to survivors as soon as possible".
The inquiry was told Scouts NSW adopted a new child protection policy in 2014 and Scouts Australia has developed a national child protection policy that was approved last month.
The reforms came after the commission heard the organisation failed to take effective action against former Scout leader Steven Larkins despite a number of complaints about his behaviour with children in the 1990s.
Chief commissioner of the Scout Association of Australia NSW branch Neville Tomkins told the inquiry the loopholes that enabled Larkins to abuse boys have been closed.
"We have not only addressed those issues that allowed an individual to perpetrate hideous sins ... but also put in place a new child protection environment," he said.
The royal commission will hear evidence from the Salvation Army on Wednesday.
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