Strategies to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in Australia
As part of the government’s response to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse, our agency has received funding to scope, design and pilot a National Continuous Checking Capability (NCCC).
The funding was announced by the Attorney-General last November following the Ministerial Forum on Child Safety, where states and territories met to progress national reforms to prevent child sexual abuse in Australia.
The current lack of national continuous monitoring across states and territories leaves gaps in the system that put Australia’s most vulnerable people at risk of abuse.
For the past 2 years, the Australian Government, and state and territory WWCC Screening Units have been working together under the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse. This work complements a broader worker screening reform being developed under the Commonwealth-led Care and Support Economy Taskforce. As part of this work, the ACIC was approached and asked to submit a proposal to government to implement a NCCC.
The ACIC will co-design a NCCC solution in partnership with police agencies and state and territory Working with Children and National Disability Insurance Scheme screening units.
Scoping work for the project is well underway with design and planning activities. Co-design workshops have been set up with police partner agencies and screening units to take place over the coming months.
Following the design, we will pilot the solution which involves the uplifting of functionality of national policing information systems. This includes completing a feasibility study and business case to submit to government to undertake stage 2 of the project – implementing the full national solution for the capability.
The ACIC will work closely with a number of Commonwealth departments including the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Health to deliver the NCCC.
We look forward to sharing more information with you as this project progresses.