Our Director, who is a member of The Child Protection Practitioners Association of Queensland, last night attended an amazing LENEEN FORDE PUBLIC ADDRESS by Emeritus Professor Dorothy Scott. The public address was titled "Child Protection at the Crossroads - Where to from here?". Former Foundation Chair and Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection, Professor Scott is a well-known Australian authority in child welfare and protection. She has conducted numerous reviews and inquiries in Australia in the field of child protection and has served on Ministerial advisory bodies in several States and Territories. In 2011 she was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Australian National Council on Drugs and in early 2012 completed her work on the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry. Professor Scott was also a consultant to the Carmody Commission of Inquiry. The address covered the following topic: Australia is at the crossroads of child protection policy. The number of children in State care has more than doubled in the past decade, and Indigenous children are over-represented tenfold. Approximately one in three children is notified to statutory child protection services for alleged abuse or neglect or being at risk of harm. Such a situation is unprecedented and unsustainable. It is also potentially damaging to many children and unjust to many families. There is an urgent need for a fundamental change. The Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry offers this State an opportunity for transformational reform. What must be done to achieve this? It certainly got us thinking about where we are headed in the world of Child Protection. With such an unprecedented increase in the number of child abuse cases being reported we truly believe that the teaching of Child Protection to the Early Years Sector educators is more important now than ever before. Taking responsibility: A Roadmap for Queensland Child Protection, June 2013
http://www.childprotectioninquiry.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/202625/QCPCI-FINAL-REPORT-web-version.pdf
http://www.childprotectioninquiry.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/202625/QCPCI-FINAL-REPORT-web-version.pdf
