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Protecting Australia’s Children in the 21 st Century

Protecting Australia’s Children in the 21 st Century. Georgina Jepsen & Tim Beard AIHW. Overview. Children needing protection Some recent data Trends over time National developments in child protection National framework Data developments. 2010 media headlines.

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Protecting Australia’s Children in the 21 st Century

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  1. Protecting Australia’s Children in the 21st Century Georgina Jepsen & Tim Beard AIHW

  2. Overview • Children needing protection • Some recent data • Trends over time • National developments in child protection • National framework • Data developments

  3. 2010 media headlines ‘Number of children removed from parents soars’ ‘Child neglect 'lasted two years'’ ‘Missing the point over state care child abuse’ ‘Case worker shortage’ ‘Child protection swamps services’ ‘Child neglect and abuse soaring: report’ ‘Child protection reports hit 30%’

  4. Children with notifications In 2008-09: • Over 207,000 children with notifications • Police most common source of notifications (22-34%)

  5. Children in substantiated cases • Almost 33,000 children in substantiated cases (6.9 per 1,000 children) • 1 in 143 children • 1 in 72 infants (<1 year old) • 1 in 27 Indigenous children

  6. Children in substantiations

  7. Children in substantiations, by age

  8. Children in substantiations: Indigenous status

  9. Most common types of abuse & neglect

  10. Out-of-home care • 34,000 children in OOHC (6.7 per 1,000) • Most in foster care (47%) or relative/ kinship care (45%) • Length of continuous time in OOHC • 23% less than 1 year • 44% 1 to <5 years • 33% 5 years or more

  11. Trends in substantiations, care and protection orders and OOHC

  12. AIHW child protection data collections • Data are provided to AIHW from state & territory departments responsible for child protection • Four national collections: • Notifications, investigations & substantiations • Care and protection orders • Out-of-home care • Intensive family support services

  13. Current data limitations • Administrative collection • Comparability across jurisdictions • different legislations, policies and information systems • Comparability over time • data sensitive to changes over time • does not support longitudinal analyses

  14. National developments in child protection

  15. National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 Protecting Children is Everyone’s Business • Aim: Australia’s children and young people are safe and well • Target: A substantial and sustained reduction in child abuse and neglect

  16. A system for protecting children

  17. National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 • Measuring progress • Indicators of change • National priorities • Enhancing the evidence base

  18. Measuring progress • Indicators used to measure achievement of six supporting outcomes • 29 indicators of change • 18 indicators have some available data • 11 indicators require development

  19. Examples of measures under the National Framework

  20. “Children live in safe and supportive families and communities” • Hospitalisations for injury and poisoning • Community attitudes towards children • Children’s perception of their value within the community

  21. “Children and families access adequate support to promote safety and intervene early” Babies born with low birth weight (Australia’s Mothers and Babies 2007)

  22. “Risk factors for child abuse and neglect are addressed” Children living in jobless families (Australia’s Welfare, AIHW 2009)

  23. “Children who have been abused or neglected receive the support and care they need for their safety and wellbeing” Proportion of investigations finalised by time taken to complete investigation (AIHW Child Protection Collections 2009)

  24. “Indigenous children are supported & safe in their families & communities” Proportion of Indigenous children placed in accordance with the Indigenous child placement principles (Child Protection Australia 2008-09, AIHW 2010)

  25. “Child sexual abuse & exploitation is prevented and survivors receive adequate support” Children in substantiations, by abuse type (Child Protection Australia 2008-09, AIHW 2010)

  26. National priorities • National standards for OOHC • Enhancing the evidence base • Development of unit record child protection data collection • Filling the research gaps • National research agenda

  27. Enhancing the evidence-base • Development of a unit-record (child-level) national child protection data collection • Benefits: • Significant expansion of potential analyses • Tracking children through the child protection system (& other systems) • Data linkage

  28. Enhancing data and outcomes • Improving data enhances knowledge of CP systems • Can inform policy, practice and… • Improve outcomes for children

  29. For further information… www.aihw.gov.au

  30. Protecting Australia’s Children in the 21st Century Georgina Jepsen & Tim Beard AIHW

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