We advocate for children
The advocacy program of the Australian Childhood Foundation aims to make children’s safety and welfare a priority for individuals, businesses and governments.
When we advocate for children, we aim to:
- achieve legislative, institutional and public policy reform in order to ensure that Australian children are effectively protected from abuse, family violence and neglect;
- generate public support for increased community and government commitment for the prevention of child abuse, family violence and neglect; and,
- bring about positive change which support the rights of children.
For example, we have advocated strongly for:
- reforms to legislation that would ensure greater rates of convictions of perpetrators of physical and sexual assault of children;
- national uniform child protection legislation;
- compulsory police checks for all employees and volunteers involved with children to ensure that they do not have prior convictions of sexual or physical assault against children;
- all organisations to set standards to ensure that children are not exploited by the production and dissemination of child pornography;
- greater involvement of the corporate community to tackle confronting social problems such as child abuse and family violence;
- reform to the policies of church bodies in addressing the disclosures and needs of children abused by members of the clergy;
- establishment of Children’s Commissioners by State and Commonwealth Governments;
- a commitment for more resources for specialist therapeutic services for child victims of abuse and neglect;
- establishment of a national system for reviewing all deaths of children caused by abuse, family violence and neglect;
- improvements in child protection and out of home care systems to reflect greater emphasis on stabilising children’s placements when they are removed due to abuse and giving them a greater sense of permanency in case plans which affect them;
- full introduction of mandatory reporting to all professional groups who come into contact with children and families; and,
- enhanced community awareness about the extent and costs of the problem of child abuse and neglect in Australia.