This week is National Child Protection Week, an opportunity for everyone in the community to think about how we can all work together to keep children safe, as we all have our part to play.
There is no more important task for us as a community than protecting our children, which is why the Government is actively redesigning a child protection system that had failed under the previous Labor-Green Government.
In the 17-18 Budget alone, we are investing an additional $51 million into child protection and launched a new Youth at Risk Strategy.
An additional 31 positions have been funded under Child Protection redesign. As well, outside of these 31 positions, Child Safety Services is also recruiting six additional Child Safety Officers, four Court Coordinators and two Team Leaders to operate our new Intensive Family Engagement Service – with these 12 new positions working on, or directly supporting, the frontline.
But we can never truly reduce child abuse unless we target the causes.
We know that providing children with a safe and caring environment is critical to breaking the cycle of neglect and abuse, which is why we have a target to halve the cases of serious child abuse by 2022.
Sadly, one of the key contributors to child abuse is illicit drugs.
In fact, more than 60 per cent of the cases that cross my desk as Minister involve neglect or harm of children because of their parent’s drug use.
This is an appalling figure that simply cannot be ignored or wished away.
That’s why as part of our continued commitment to achieving our target of reducing serious child abuse by 50 per cent, we will soon be announcing a panel of non-government organisations who will provide our new Intensive Family Engagement Services program – $1.5 million in funding to deliver intensive, assertive, specialised family support services to families at risk of entering the statutory child protection system.
Intensive Family Engagement Services will also provide an after-hours service to support families at key stress times. The services will be flexible, tailored toward resolving the specific needs of the family, and will be complemented by referrals to external specialised providers where required.
Families will be involved in designing and reviewing the package, so they will have a clear, shared understanding of what issues or behaviours need to be addressed, what services they need to engage with and how they will be supported to do so, so as to prevent the removal of their child or children.
For the families, it means we are plugging a significant service gap, providing really intensive support for families with complex needs (up to 20 hours a week of in home support), and keeping more children safely in their family homes and out of, out of home care.
A strong child protection system is vitally important to protect our children, but equally so are measures to prevent children being abused in the first place – and the Hodgman Liberal Government is focussed firmly on both.