Change for Children Strategy Release (28 Jun 2024)

Hello everyone,

Yesterday marked a significant milestone in the Tasmanian Government’s Response to the Commission of Inquiry.

The Government has yesterday released a consultation draft of our strategy and action plan, Change for Children – Tasmania’s 10-year strategy for upholding the rights of children by preventing, identifying and responding to child sexual abuse. Development of a child sexual abuse reform strategy and action plan was one of the key recommendations of the commission and yesterday’s release meets the commission’s proposed timeframe for delivery of this action by 1 July 2024.

Change for Children reflects the voices of over 400 Tasmanians who participated in targeted consultation sessions to tell us how we can improve our systems and culture to better protect Tasmania’s children and young people. It has been informed and enriched by the voices of victim-survivors, children and young people, Tasmanian Aboriginal people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people from LGBTIQA+ communities as well as service providers, researchers and subject matter experts. From today, all interested Tasmanians will have their chance to have a say on Change for Children, with an extended period of public consultation open until 30 September 2024.

Change for Children also sets out the first two-year action plan for delivering the next phases of reform across the Tasmanian State Service, and together with our community. The action plan is titled Collaborating for Change, reflecting our agencies’ focus and commitment to work together in a focused and collaborative way across priority work areas to progress complex and large-scale reforms and achieve lasting change. The action plan is the culmination of many months of work, led by the Child and Youth Safety and Wellbeing Secretaries subcommittee and reflecting innovative and collaborative work from staff across agencies. I want to extend my thanks to everyone who has contributed their time and expertise to this process to date.

The government has also released a progress report, Immediate Change, to mark the end of the first phase of the government’s response. These were the recommendations that the commission identified as the most immediate steps to prevent, identify and respond to child sexual abuse and set the foundations for longer‑term reforms. The report outlines the significant outcomes that have been delivered in phase one, building on the government’s interim response to keep Tasmanian children and young people safe.

Recommendation 19.1 also required the strategy to be published on a dedicated website. We have taken this opportunity to refresh the Keeping Children Safe website with new functionality and to improve how we communicate with the community about the actions we are taking to keep children safe.

The new website, including links to Change for Children and the Immediate Change Progress Report can be accessed at keepingchildrensafe.tas.gov.au

Join us to make lasting change for Tasmanian children.

Kind regards,

Kath

Kathrine Morgan-Wicks
Head of the State Service
Secretary, Department of Premier and Cabinet
28 Jun 2024