VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE — GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
440. Hon
DONNA FARAGHER to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:
I refer to the report Improving
the odds: For WA's vulnerable children and young people, which was
released in 2019 by the then Commissioner
for Children and Young People. With respect to the commissioner's
recommendation within this report to establish a whole-of-government
child wellbeing strategy for Western Australia, which the Department of the
Premier and Cabinet accepted in principle in 2019, can the Premier advise what
work has been undertaken by the government to date to implement this
recommendation?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
The Commissioner for Children and
Young People's report explores issues that can lead to vulnerability in
children and young people, such as violence, abuse and neglect in the home,
challenges with mental health, disability or chronic health issues,
disengagement from education, involvement in criminal activity and alcohol and
drug use.
The WA government is committed to
addressing these matters, such as: implementing all the recommendations of the
Ministerial Taskforce into Public Mental Health Services for Infants, Children
and Adolescents Aged 0–18 Years in Western Australia, which will
transform the mental health system to meet the needs of children in WA; increasing immunisation rates for children and
improving the completion rate of one-year-old and two-year-old child
health checks; developing a program to ensure that children in out-of-home care
continue to have their health needs met; focusing on early childhood care and
development, achieving outcomes under the national agreement to ensure Aboriginal children and young people can
thrive from their early years into adulthood; introducing legislation on
a reportable conduct scheme to Parliament; and working to ensure that
organisations engaged in child-related work are required to adhere to the
National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.