Getting a grip on the community
While the NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS) contends with more than 216,000 reports of child abuse and neglect a year, what does the community know and understand about child protection in NSW?
This is a key question being asked as part of a ground breaking social research project being conducted by DoCS.
Early qualitative and quantitative results suggest child abuse and neglect is not well recognised in our community and that the community underestimates the true scale and nature of the problem in NSW.
“We need to build a stronger foundation for community action to prevent child abuse,” said Donna Rygate, A/Executive Director, Strategy, Communication and Governance.
“The community as a whole has to share the responsibility to protect and nurture children. Early results from our research suggest while the community values children enormously, individuals tend to underestimate the true extent of child abuse and neglect, and may not be aware of the huge impact their own actions could have in protecting children.
“We hope this research will help inform our policy development and future service delivery. It’s a unique opportunity for the general community to shape our work.
“Over time, we hope this research will provide a statistical data series to track attitudes, knowledge and skills of the community in relation to our issues.”
A telephone survey of 1,500 people from across NSW was conducted in February, with the research findings due to be published later this year.
Child protection reports increasing
The recently published Child Protection Australia report, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, has shown that child protection reports in Australia increased by 15.2 per cent between 2003/04 and 2004/05.
The increase for NSW was 15.7 per cent. Indigenous children continue to be over represented in child protection reports and out-of-home care. In NSW the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care is nine times that for other children.