BackMonday, 8 August 2016
Comprehensive Child Protection Reforms Essential
Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent – Media release
Comprehensive child protection reforms essential, says Dignity for Disability MP
Dignity for Disability MP Kelly Vincent has today welcomed the public release of Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland’s Child Protection Systems Royal Commission report into South Australia’s child protection system.
“While it will take some days and weeks to read and provide analysis on the full report, we welcome the extensive and detailed recommendations made by Royal Commissioner Nyland,” says Kelly Vincent.
“Children with disabilities are overrepresented in the percentage of children in out of home care and so we are very keen to ensure the broken elements of this system are fixed, and all children in foster, kinship or other care are well protected, and nurtured in a caring environment.
“Dignity for Disability call on the government to review the parliamentary sitting calendar; we would be happy to see additional sitting weeks included in 2016 to ensure we can implement legislative changes to child protection in a timely fashion.
“We take particular note of the Recommendation 31 that suggests we maintain the current mandatory reporting threshold set out in section 11 of the current Children’s Protections Act. This is in stark contrast to the Premier’s proposal that we abandon this threshold test and have a more lenient approach to mandatory reporting.
“We also note the eight specific recommendations (223 – 230) in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and look forward to working with the state government to ensure those specific measures are effected,” said Ms Vincent.
