The inaugural Tasmanian Child Safety Network forum was held today, bringing together practitioners who work with vulnerable children and young people across the state.
I was delighted to open the two-day forum, which gives participants an opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge through the internationally regarded Protective Behaviours Program.
The program has been used internationally as a basis for child protection curricula and is used in schools across Australia.
Presenting the program is Holly-Ann Martin, founder and Managing Director of Safe4Kids. Holly-Ann Martin has over 25 years’ experience working in schools to ensure the safety of children and young people and travels around Australia delivering training.
It is very satisfying as a Minister to hear about professionals working together to share information about best practice in the field of working with vulnerable children and young people and building the capacity of the community and support services.
My congratulations go to all the practitioners involved in establishing the Tasmanian Child Safety Network. Their vision, to facilitate change in the community to prevent child abuse and neglect in Tasmania, is one that I share.
With Children and Youth Services now part of the Human Services portfolio there are significant synergies with housing, disability, community, children and youth services, as well as significant opportunities, with many of those programs sharing the same concerns and clients.
I want to make the most of these opportunities in Children and Youth Services, particularly for children in state care who require some of the most specialised and targeted support to help them overcome their trauma and hurt.
We have already started that process through:
• The development of a Vulnerable Babies and Infants Strategy;
• Providing access to housing for families so that children are not removed from parents, and into the care of Child Protection, for reasons of homelessness;
• Investing $300,000 over three years into short-term, preventative support care, to help keep families together and investing $360,000 over three years into a pre-placement assessment process – both funded in the recent State Budget;
• Establishing an independent process to review child death and serious injury, which is well underway;
• Introducing a new model of child protection that will provide greater back-up and support to workers, by creating small child protection teams that work together for a group of families or children;
• Developing a more transparent and robust process for complaints in care investigation; and
• Investigating measures that will allow for earlier consideration of long-term permanent placements for children.
We have an exciting opportunity to take a new approach to providing quality, protective care to children and young people across this state and to ensure that services provided are the most appropriate for their needs.
Jacquie Petrusma, Minister for Human Services
