Children in Care

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. What has the minister done to address the ongoing risk of sexual exploitation of children and young people in care? With your leave and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms HILDYARD: The Guardian for Children and Young People's annual report, tabled last year, notes that she is concerned about 'the ongoing targeted sexual exploitation of children and young people in care by adults in the community'.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:32): This is a very serious matter, and it's not a new matter. This has been an ongoing issue that I am sure is experienced in every state that has child protection, which is every state. What we are doing—and I did explain some of this yesterday—is that we have a very strong eSafety policy with all our children. We have online safety agreements that must be signed by the child prior to the use of a mobile device.

We have the Family Link app, which is also installed to restrict use, to track and monitor a child's movements and who they are with. This is also being rolled out in future to all the non-government organisation homes to ensure consistency of the eSafety. My department is continuing to consult with the commissioner for eSafety, Julie Inman Grant, and I have also been in discussions with the Minister for Education, who has shown me the full list of all of the online safety training and education that starts from a very young age through schools so that children and young people are aware.

I also mentioned yesterday about our trial with Telstra. Our department recently approved a project, a proof of concept mobility solution for children and young people in care, both for mobile data and voice. This project was developed in consultation with Telstra to roll out on all devices and software, aimed at providing effective cybersecurity safeguards through the use of mobile device management technology, mobile application management and content filtering.

I realise that there are more than just online ways that you need to keep our young people safe. We have also engaged MacKillop Family Services, who will be delivering a Respecting Sexual Safety program to all our residential care staff. As I announced in the house last year, we are investing $600,000 to roll out the Sanctuary model of therapeutic residential care, which is about building that relationship between staff and young people so they can have these important conversations.

We are taking active measures to protect our children. One of the important things that we are doing is filling the long-held vacancies of frontline staff that were held under the former government. There were 279 vacancies when we came into government. We have reduced that to 52. We have more staff than we have ever had before, which means better case management, fewer cases for the staff and more interaction with our children and young people.

As a result of going to Leeds in 2019, it must have been, to see their programs and the good work there, we have also established a preventative program through Yarrow Place. Yarrow Place has specialised services for teenagers who are at risk of sexual exploitation, and we have expanded that with a course called My Place (unfortunately the same name as another program we have). Breathing Space, which is run by Centacare, is very similar.

That is aimed at empowering young people, giving them information, medical help and self-esteem help so that they aren't at risk of sexual exploitation, so that they know what to do, how to behave and where to get help if something like that happens. There is a lot of work to be done. This is a very serious area of concern for my department and me, and we will continue to make improvements.