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 and Family 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. We work with community organisations to support families who don’t need our help but who would benefit from community-based social services.
Helping families get access to services
We are working with local community organisations to help families get access to the social services they need. We will connect families with all the agencies that can help them. This approach is designed for families with dependent children who are working with one or more agencies. We want to improve the lives of families with children through a collaborative delivery of the appropriate support services.
In the coming year we will support Strengthening Families local management groups who are responsible for ensuring the Strengthening Families process operates successfully. We will also progress how we can measure the effectiveness of the services provided.
Violence-free relationships
We are helping to raise awareness of family violence, as well as the services available to build violencefree relationships. We are committed to making sure families in our region are safe. We support our partners who deliver the appropriate services available to these families in a coordinated way. We also train our frontline staff to identify individuals who are at risk of family violence.
We have put in place child advocate positions, across the region, to provide support for children and young people who witness family violence.
Child advocates provide parents or caregivers with advice and information to make sure we deliver the best response to children who witness family violence. The advocates offer an independent voice for children to ensure decisions are made with their best interests in mind.
