Keeping kids safe
Children's early years are vital to their long-term development; they are also the time children are most at risk.
All families want to do their best by raising their children in a healthy, safe and nurturing environment, but some families are more vulnerable and need additional support. From experience we know that the earlier families get support, the better off their children are in the long term. Our focus will be on getting this help to all families who need support but with a particular emphasis on families with children aged under two years.
Never Ever Shake a Baby
The Government recently announced a set of initiatives to further protect vulnerable infants, including a new campaign reminding people to Never Ever Shake a Baby. The initiatives are designed to help protect our children aged under two years and feature advertising, new-parent education, community-worker support for abused children and for families, and protection of abuse victims. It focuses on new parents (especially young men) and it is expected to reach up to 5,000 new parents a year.
In 2009/2010, we will:
- put Child, Youth andFamily social workers in six hospitals around the
country - develop multiagency plans to protect hospitalised children on their release
- run a multimedia awareness campaign.
Responding when we're needed
Differential Response means we can respond more creatively to families' needs when they come to the attention of Child, Youth and Family and we can work more closely with social service providers in the community. In Canterbury, we work with organisations to support families who don't need our help but who would benefit from community-based social services.
Early Years Service Hubs
Early Years Service Hubs provide families with easy access to a range of integrated services focused on children's needs from pre-birth until school-entry age. The hubs are a central point where families can get education, health and other social services for their children. Canterbury's Early Years Service Hub is in Shirley, and is one of 13 national sites.
Some of the services offered include cooking and nutritional programmes, classes for expecting parents and for parents preparing to send their children to primary school, as well as a Well Kids training programme.
Teen Parent Service Co-ordinators
Teen parents can face more obstacles than other parents. In particular they can be reluctant to ask for the services they need. We have a Teen Parent Service Co-ordinator in Christchurch who works directly with teenage parents to connect them with health, education, housing and other social services. The co-ordinator helps to remove some of the barriers teen parents face. This initiative is part of the Early Years early intervention programme delivered by the Waipuna Community Trust. The initiative helps to improve the long-term outcomes of both the children and the parents within these families.
We are committed to raising the awareness of family violence and to ensuring people know how to access services and support to help them build violence-free relationships. We are committed to stopping family violence and to keeping families in our region safe.
Violence-free relationships
Our Family Violence Response Co-ordinators continue to work with our frontline staff so they have the skills needed to support individuals who are in situations where family violence is an issue for them. This ensures individuals experiencing family violence get information or support that will help them to achieve a safe and violence free future. We are also working with local community organisations to identify and support children and young people who witness family violence.
