Body Safety Australia
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (20:08:44):
My adjournment matter tonight is directed to the Minister for Education and concerns the group Body Safety Australia.
The action I seek is for the minister to increase funding to the program so it can be extended to regional areas. Body Safety Australia is a social enterprise that protects children from sexual abuse.
The group uses evidence-based strategies to provide age-appropriate sexual abuse prevention education to students, parents and teachers.
It is worth noting some facts about child sexual abuse. One in five children will experience childhood sexual abuse. On average children need to disclose five times before they are believed. Twenty-four per cent of female survivors were first abused by six years of age. Eighty-nine per cent of those cases will be perpetrated by a known offender. The internet is increasingly being used by predators to groom children.
The programs Body Safety Australia deliver complement the current Respectful Relationships curriculum and Child Safe Standards, and are provided to communities regardless of socio-economic status, religion, abilities, sexuality and/or family structure.
They have specialised knowledge and experience in orthodox and faith-based schools, special schools, LGBTIQ communities and people with different abilities, as well as people with different languages I understand that CEO Deanne Carson has been unsuccessful in seeking meetings with the education minister to discuss extending their funding to ensure that they can deliver their important programs to rural and regional areas.
I ask the education minister to provide ongoing funding to Body Safety, so that communities in regional areas can benefit from these vitally important programs.
Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Adjournment debate 18/10/19
Answer
Mr MERLINO (Monbulk—Minister for Education):
I am informed as follows:
The Andrews Labor Government takes child safety very seriously. Victorian schools and early childhood services are required to comply with the Child Safe Standards, which are compulsory minimum standards to ensure that schools are well prepared to protect children from abuse. The Child Safe Standards are designed to ensure organisations have effective practices in place to prevent, respond to and report child abuse.
The Department of Education and Training has also developed the PROTECT website, which supports schools and early childhood services to embed the Victorian Child Safe Standards in their institutions. The PROTECT website includes detailed guidance on identifying and responding to child sexual abuse in schools and early childhood services. The Department also provides an interactive training module for school and early childhood services staff on recognising child abuse and their obligations to report abuse. These resources are available across Victoria.
Further, all government and Catholic schools teach respectful relationships education through the Victorian Curriculum to build students’ social and emotional skills including help seeking, resilience and problem solving. The Department supports schools to deliver this curriculum through the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships teaching and learning materials, developed by education experts.
Schools are best placed to choose, in consultation with their community, how they use these and any other resources. While the Department does not fund Body Safety Australia, individual schools can make choices locally regarding whether they use Body Safety Australia resources or programs.