CHILD PROTECTION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:59): My question is for the Minister for Education and Child Development. Did the education department implement any of the recommendations from the KPMG report prepared when the Premier was the education minister into the Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:59): I thank the member for Unley for asking this question, and giving me the opportunity to actually talk about the Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum. It was an initiative of this government developed between 2003 and 2007. During that time something like 18,000 teachers were trained to deliver this particular program. It teaches students about personal safety, it teaches them about wellbeing and it teaches them about their right to be safe and how to seek help and protect themselves. An extensive statewide professional learning program to support staff was delivered, and an additional program was put in place to engage with teachers who were returning to teaching and new teachers after that point in time. The KPSC report, as I understand it—

Mr Pisoni: KPMG.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: KPMG, sorry—that was conducted, demonstrated that it was a well-regarded program and seen as best practice by educators. It was seen as having a positive impact and as being flexible and capable of being used in a range of different contexts. It is so highly regarded that we have had agreements with other jurisdictions, including the Northern Territory, Catholic Education and Queensland.

As part of the review, a new agreement has been developed for the provision of training for staff. The Principals Australia Institute has been contracted as the service provider, and a summary of the service provisions includes the development and implementation of a child protection teacher training course; organise and administer at least four child protection teacher trainer sessions per school year; organise and administer additional child protection teacher training sessions in both metropolitan and regional areas; develop a communications strategy for the promotion and publishing of the child protection teacher training course; create and maintain a registration database of participants; and develop an agreed evaluation measure and evaluation report.

During this current year there will be work with HR & Workforce Development to explore applying a requirement that all teachers complete the Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum training as a condition of employment, publishing the refresher training course and reviewed curriculum online, providing access to teacher training status data on the employee kiosk (the online kiosk) and clarifying accountability structures with regional directors and assistant directors for verifying child protection curriculum implementation. It is my very strong expectation that children in our schools will be taught this curriculum. We need to ensure that our schools are safe places for children and that our children feel safe and have the skills they need.