Thursday 31 October 2024 – for immediate release
Calls for further action on issues critically impacting children and young people in child protection, out-of-home care, education and youth justice are the focus of the annual report of the Commission for Children and Young People, tabled in the Parliament of Victoria today.
‘These systems have a vital impact on children and young people, and this year our work again highlights the need to strengthen service systems so that children and young people are better protected and their rights upheld,’ said Liana Buchanan, Victoria’s Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People, today.
In particular, the Commission this year recommended the government act to improve education for children and young people in care.
The Let us learn systemic inquiry examined the education experiences of children and young people in care, identifying deeply inequitable experiences in schooling, and ongoing racism directed at Aboriginal children in the education system. Recommendations focused on ensuring all schools apply a trauma-informed approach to students, strengthening the care system, and developing explicit policies to tackle racism in schools.
‘Young people tell us that racism is an ongoing and serious problem particularly for Aboriginal children in schools, undermining their wellbeing and educational engagement. Under the Child Safe Standards, schools have an obligation to create culturally safe environments and take a zero-tolerance approach to racism,’ said Meena Singh, Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, today.
In the 45 child death inquiries completed this year, the Commission made 17 new recommendations and re-iterated 56 recommendations from past inquiries, as well as undertaking a five-year analysis of recommendations across the period to strengthen responses to children at risk.
Among three individual inquiries completed this year, the Commission examined the services provided to a vulnerable child with complex needs who came to the Commission’s attention following criminal justice contact. The 19 recommendations from this inquiry included calling for improved oversight and reduced reliance on contingency placements, and a coordinated cross-agency response to sexual exploitation of children in residential care. As previously identified in our 2021 Out of sight inquiry, this case again raised the need for urgent action to strengthen service system responses to children who go missing from care to ensure they are protected from harm.
The Commission’s five-year analysis of the recommendations of child death inquiries highlighted some improvements, including improved information-sharing between agencies providing services to vulnerable children and young people, but identified continuing shortfalls in addressing cumulative harm and responding to at-risk children and young people, especially those with disability and those impacted by family violence.
Progress on the recommendations of four past systemic inquiries is also considered in the annual report and is further detailed in analyses on the Commission’s website. This includes the Keep caring report on leaving care, the In our own words report on out-of-home care, the Lost, not forgotten report on the suicides of children known to child protection, and the Out of sight report, on children who go absent or missing from residential care.
‘This year we have seen significant effort to act on past recommendations and improve responses to children and young people at risk of harm or in contact with statutory systems. Unfortunately, what the Commission's work exposed in our various inquiries and monitoring activities this year reminds us all how much more effort is needed,’ Commissioner Buchanan concluded.
Download the Commission’s annual report.
For interview:
Liana Buchanan
Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People
Media contact:
Bree Furlong
0438 346 029