As a part of Child Protection Week, we believe it’s crucial to create a space for leaders, experts, government agencies as well as those with lived experience to have an informed conversation about child protection. While many agencies, across many jurisdictions, have begun vital work in this space, an issue this important requires a national conversation.

When it comes to the safety and wellbeing of Australian children, we must get this right. A national summit will create a shared space for old strategies to be examined and for new ideas to be explored. Together we can create meaningful change. By coming together as a sector and stakeholders, we can discuss ways to restructure and align systems, processes and resourcing across our country to form safe and supportive communities for children and their families.

We believe a national summit to prevent child maltreatment can and should:

➡ Bring decision and policy makers from across governments and portfolios into the same room.

➡ Learn from experts, academics, people working with children and families, individuals with lived experiences from across the community.

➡ Build a common understanding of what we already know about child abuse and neglect.

➡ Talk openly and honestly about what is working and not working.

➡ Explore the evidence on the root causes of maltreatment and find smarter solutions to prevent abuse.

➡ Establish prevention of abuse as a national and whole-of-community priority.