In partnership with Project Paradigm and Queensland Family and Child Commission, PeakCare is proud to introduce Safe & Sound in Queensland: Enhancing safety for young people missing from care, a first-of-its-kind toolkit aimed at supporting frontline workers to provide best practice responses for children who go missing from their home or place of care.

In late 2023, the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services undertook a major review of Queensland’s residential care system. A key outcome of the review is A Roadmap for Residential Care in Queensland, which outlines critical actions across five domains for change, that will deliver a flexible and sustainable care system that meets the needs of children, young people, families and communities.

In late 2023, the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services released the Motor Vehicle Safety – Guidelines for Child Protection Placement Services. These guidelines cover a range of vehicle safety requirements and aim to assist non‑government organisations to develop and refine their own motor vehicle safety processes.

Following release of the guidelines, several questions were raised with PeakCare by child and family sector organisations relating to the interpretation and operationalisation of these guidelines. In response, PeakCare has facilitated a series of review and clarification activities with the department which has resulted in amendments to the guidelines and the development of the Frequently Asked Questions and clarifications

Safe and Supported: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021 – 2031 sets out how we can work together to ensure that children and young people in Australia reach their full potential by growing up safe and supported, free from harm and neglect.

Safe and Supported sets out how all governments, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and the non government sector will work together to help children, young people and families in need of support.

The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 is a long-term approach to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Australia’s children and aims to deliver a substantial and sustained reduction in levels of child abuse and neglect over time.

The National Framework is for commonwealth, state and territory governments, non-government organisations, service providers and individuals with an interest in ensuring Australia’s children are safe and well.

The Fourth Action Plan is the final Action Plan of the National Framework and will continue to build the foundations and evidence base that will enable us to continue to improve outcomes for Australia’s children and young people beyond 2020.

The four key priorities of the Fourth Action Plan are:

• Improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children at risk of entering, or in contact with child protection systems.
• Improving prevention and early intervention through joint service planning and investment.
• Improving outcomes for children in out-of-home care by enhancing placement stability through reunification and other permanent care options. Improving organisations’ ability to keep children and young people safe from abuse.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights -civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not. The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognised that children have human rights too.

The Convention sets out these rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Every right spelled out in the Convention is inherent to the human dignity and harmonious development of every child. The Convention protects children’s rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services.

“Rights” are things every child should have or be able to do. All children have the same rights. These rights are listed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Almost every country has agreed to these rights. All the rights are connected to each other, and all are equally important. Sometimes, we have to think about rights in terms of what is the best for children in a situation, and what is critical to life and protection from harm. As you grow, you have more responsibility to make choices and exercise your rights.

The legal requirement to report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect is known as mandatory reporting. All jurisdictions possess mandatory reporting requirements of some description. However, the people mandated to report and the abuse types for which it is mandatory to report vary across Australian states and territories. This document outlines these things.