Professor Leah Bromfield, Director and Chair of Child Protection at the Australian Centre for Child Protection, UniSA, recognised nationally and internationally as a leader in child protection reform, will chair the South Australian Child Protection Expert Group.

The establishment of the group responds to key observations of Kate Alexander in her 2022 report on SA’s child protection system ‘Trust in Culture’.

The group will consist of government and non-government members from across Australia with specialised expertise in child protection research, policy and/or practice. Appointments are expected to be made in coming weeks.

Key focuses of the child protection expert group will include:

* Working with the Minister on the further development of the long term vision for improvements in child protection
* Improving child protection response models and quality of practice within our existing systems
* Enhancing therapeutic responses and out of home care support for children and young people.

The South Australian Government allocated an additional $128.9 million to child protection in the most recent State Budget and a further $26.1m in the Mid Year Budget Review.

Immediate measures undertaken in child protection have included recruiting for an additional 42 social workers and 10 Principal Aboriginal Consultants, intensive consultation on the review of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017, funding the Children and Young Person’s Visitor for Residential Care, funding post-care support to enable young people to engage in employment, education and housing pathways on exiting care and improving advocacy for carers.

Safety checks for 526 vulnerable children identified in Mal Hyde’s review have been completed. All 31 of the Hyde report’s recommendations have been accepted in principle by the State Government.

Work has also already been undertaken to progress the establishment of a lived experience group and to immediately respond to the recommendations of the report of the Foster and Kinship Carer Inquiry.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Child Protection Katrine Hildyard

We are steadfastly determined to make improvements in child protection to help keep children safer and enable them to have the best opportunity to mentally, physically and emotionally thrive, and to tackle the issues that they and their families confront.

An important step in better supporting children and young people and helping families address the interconnected issues that create entrenched and often intergenerational trauma, is the establishment of the Child Protection Expert Group and finding the right person to lead this expert group.

I am absolutely delighted that child protection reform expert, Professor Leah Bromfield, has accepted the role of chairing this group. She is one of Australia’s foremost child protection experts who has worked with state and national governments here and in in other parts of the world, establishing and implementing child protection reforms.

Her leading work in support of government reform and contributions to Inquiries and Royal Commissions has directly changed laws, policies and practices in the field of child protection. I very much look forward to working with her to progress meaningful and positive change that makes a real difference in the lives of children and young people, and their families.

Quotes attributable to Child Protection Expert Group Chair Professor Leah Bromfield

It’s a privilege to be appointed as the Chair of the SA Child Protection Expert Group.

We need a long-term vision for how we transform the way we protect children in this state, which includes addressing the overwhelming demand on child protection services.

I’m optimistic that the expert group will be able to support South Australia to drive change and support much needed system transformation in the way we protect children.

This includes short-term changes to continuously improve current practice. Critically, it includes a long-term vision for transforming our approach to child protection across the whole of government.