Protecting children

Current systems for protecting children in Australia are struggling to meet their primary objective: to protect children. The statutory child protection system is overburdened, with notifications of alleged child abuse and neglect almost tripling nationally between 1999–2000 and  2007-08 (read more). This represents huge demand on the resources within child protection agencies to assess and investigate these reports, and more broadly on government resources, and is unsustainable in the long term.

The best way to protect children is to prevent child abuse and neglect from happening in the first place. This requires moving to a system that identifies families and children in need of support and provides them with the assistance they need before harm occurs and they come into contact with the statutory child protection system.

Moving towards prevention
The evidence for change
The Common Approach to Assessment, Referral and Support (CAARS) taskforce
Support for the move towards prevention
 

Documents for viewing/download:
	Inverting the Pyramid: (3.1Mb) Enhancing Systems for Protecting Children
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