Protecting children is everyone's business

The investment by governments and the non-government sector in family support and child protection services is significant, yet these separate efforts can still fail many children and young people.

Not only are Australians committed to achieving better care for children, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRoC), Australia has a responsibility to protect children, provide the services necessary for them to develop and achieve positive outcomes, and enable them to participate in the wider community.

The National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children is an approach that recognises that the protection of children is not simply a matter for the statutory child protection systems. Protecting children is everyone's business.

At the government level it is not only child protection and community services portfolios that have a role to play in improved outcomes for children in out-of-home care but also other portfolio areas such as health, education, justice, housing and employment. Families, communities, business and services all have a role. Everyone needs to work together.

Research suggests that promoting the safety and wellbeing of children and young people by applying a public health model to care and protection will deliver better outcomes for our children, young people, and their families. The components of such a system are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. A system for protecting children
 

Figure 1. A system for protecting children