7 November 2019
MEDIA RELEASE
The national child protection interagency, Children in Care Collective, has welcomed the Federal Government's announcement of a legal platform to allow states and territories to share child protection information.
The Children in Care Collective represents a number of out-of-home care service providers, including Life Without Barriers, and leading experts in working with children with complex needs and is focused on improving the out-of-home care system.
Deputy Chair of the Children in Care Collective and Director of Children, Youth and Families at Life Without Barriers Roderick Best said that allowing child protection authorities, which are run by states and territories, to share information on vulnerable children is something that was recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“This new platform will allow us as child protection agencies to be able to support children by allowing access to information on children, parents, families and foster carers when they travel or move interstate – all in the interests of keeping children safe,” Mr Best said.
“For example, at the moment, if a family moves from one state to another, the child protection agency in the state they have moved to will only get the barest of information to say that this child is at risk.
“With this system, we will be able to access much richer information around what the risks are, what action has been taken by the previous state’s child protection agency and any other relevant information.
“This will ultimately allow us to ensure that children who are at risk of harm don’t fall through the cracks when they cross state borders. It also means children and families are spared having to retell their experiences and history to agencies which can further impact on people experiencing high levels of trauma.
“Not only is this platform a critical first step in allowing availability of this information to child protection agencies, the platform itself is designed to do so in the most effective way.
“We congratulate the Federal Government for funding this platform and for their commitment to keeping children safe.”
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