Children come first as we tackle Australia's family violence crisis

A dogged, unrelenting focus on the rights and needs of children and young people is the only way to keep them safe. Everything we do in responding to and preventing Family Violence must prioritise the welfare, rights and voices of children first.???

How can we make sure that when we talk about family violence, that children don’t get lost. As we move away from the terminology of “domestic violence” toward “family violence”, it’s easy to wrap child maltreatment up in a family violence blanket. I am concerned that we lose sight of the particular needs and voices of children and young people if we don’t make a concerted effort to define them separately as victim survivors in their own right.?

These are really challenging times, and not just in Victoria, or Australia, but across the world. Children are suffering and are affected by conflict and poverty; the impact of welfare conditionality polices and despair on families and sometimes presents in violent and destructive responses in homes.??

We know that the pandemic changed children and young people. Their formative years were disrupted. Our children and young people faced challenges like remote learning, a lack of social connection, and the demanding juggle of work, home, and school commitments, all within a confined space. We’re only beginning to understand the impacts this time has had for a generation of children and young people.?

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) was a call to action for specialist service responses for children who aren’t passive witnesses of family violence but experience it directly or indirectly in the moment and then must live with the effects to their mental health and wellbeing for life.?

Many children and young people are vocal about the future they want. They are advocating for climate action, social justice, and equality, and they’re telling us they don’t feel heard. Many are losing patience with the adults charged with protecting their rights, wellbeing, and futures.??

But many children and young people are silent and are the invisible victim survivors of the social and emotional turmoil within their families.??

Victoria’s Family Violence Minister Vicki Ward launched Strong Foundations last year, and one of its five strategic priorities – I think the most important priority – is a focus on children and young people. It commits to engage children and young people to create generational change and forge and expand existing family violence services designed with the needs of children in mind. This is an exciting vision, which is now open for feedback.?

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We know what family violence is?

There's been an incredible shift in community understanding about the prevalence of the impact of family violence on children and young people, with mainstream acknowledgment that it deserves serious attention and resources.??

The Royal Commission into family violence shed light on the fact that children are often invisible and overlooked in public discourse about family violence; we need more resources and better support for children and young people who have experienced family violence, and that current policies do not pay sufficient attention to the impact of violence on children.?

Naming the problem is one thing. Getting to work is another. There is so much to be done to make sure children are supported in their recovery, have agency in the decisions that affect them, and get early access to the specialist family violence support services they need.???

Family Violence and child maltreatment are uncomfortable topics. The data from the ACMS showed that child maltreatment, including exposure to family violence, is shockingly widespread and has been for generations.??

The ACMS researchers measured five types of child maltreatment – physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, exposure to violence, and neglect.??

Over 8500 randomly selected Australians, including 3500 young people –told us that 62 percent of children and young people have experienced one or more types of maltreatment and that 40 percent of Australians have experienced multiple types of child maltreatment.??

Exposure to violence was present in the group of Australians who experienced all five forms of abuse and neglect in their childhood. It was rare that exposure to violence was experienced alone.??

This tells us that children who witness family violence are also more likely to experience other forms of abuse, such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.???

The ACMS also shows that maltreatment, including family violence, is strongly associated with mental health disorders in Australia. Almost half of all people who experienced child maltreatment have a mental disorder. Australians who experience maltreatment as children are 2.8 times more likely to have a mental disorder and 3.9 times more likely to have self-harmed in last 12 months.??

This evidence is consistent with the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People’s (CCYP) Child Death Inquiries. In examining 35 cases where children known to Child Protection died by suicide between April 2007 and April 2019, CCYP found that 94 percent of the children had experienced family violence.?

How can we know this information and not act???

Some things really stand out in the Australian Childhood Maltreatment Study research.??

We see for the first time in this data the devastating outcomes of emotional abuse for children – these are non-physical interactions with a parent or caregiver that convey to children that they are worthless, flawed, unloved, or unwanted.??

Exposure to domestic violence was the most prevalent individual maltreatment type - and has significant adverse effects for children and young people.??

We know that children don’t just witness violence, they experience it. Living in a climate of fear and experiencing the aftermath of violence is profoundly damaging.?

We see that young girls are far more vulnerable to child maltreatment. Far larger proportions of women than of men reported childhood sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.??

The study proves we need additional supports and understanding of family violence in all its forms - and the effect it has on our children. It tells us that children and young people need to be front and centre in the minds of practitioners, policymakers, and leaders.?

Seeing children as victim-survivors in their own right?

Despite the number of children and young people exposed to family violence and the evidence highlighting the short- and long-term impacts of family violence on children and young people - children have been seen and continue to be seen as an ‘add on’. Our family violence system has traditionally treated children and young people as extensions of their parents, rather than as victims in their own right.??

The Royal Commission into family violence was established following the murder of a child - Luke Batty in 2014. However – in the 10 years I have led the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare – I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve asked – “what about children?” -? in conversations about family violence policy and service design.??

Children who have experienced emotional, physical, and sexual violence in their home have a right to treatment. We know that there is a lack of specialist responses and therapeutic support options for children who have experienced family violence and long waitlists for the few services that do exist. A child’s safety and needs are undoubtedly connected to their parents, but children and young people also have their own unique experiences and needs that require their own distinct service responses.??

This is especially the case for First Nations children – who should be connected to family, culture, and community. In 2015, the Taskforce 1000 inquiry undertaken by the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People , found that family violence was a key factor leading to Aboriginal children being placed in out-of-home care in Victoria. Among the 980 children whose cases were reviewed, 88 percent were impacted by family violence.??

We need increased investment in awareness raising, capability building and evidence building, and support to strengthen and expand responses for children and young people Victoria.?

Build on the positive work already being done?

The Strong Foundations work provides a strong vision for how we can strengthen supports for children and young people with experience of family violence.??

The Centre is working with Family Safety Victoria on the Child and Young Person Victim Survivor-focused MARAM practice guidance project to make sure that practitioners across the broader service sector are well equipped to use a child rights lens and identify and prioritise what is in the child’s best interests.??

The Victim Survivors' Advisory Council are doing some terrific work to advocate on behalf of those who have experienced or are experiencing family violence.??

We’re also starting to see some exciting research - conducted directly with children and young people who have experienced family violence. I want to commend Kate Fitz-Gibbon and the team at Family Safety Victoria for the I Believe You report, released last year. It is so important that we hear to the voices of children and young people with a lived experience of family violence and involve them as we develop better service responses for children and young people – as one young person said in this research:??

We didn’t really feel as if we were heard. We weren’t even identified, really, as victims in our own right, which I think is an important thing for us, because oftentimes we felt unseen.??

The Centre is working with a group of philanthropists to deliver the These Are Our Kids – a public awareness campaign informed by the Australian Childhood Maltreatment study that is focused on centring children in public conversations about family violence. This campaign will put children front and centre in the conversation about family violence - advocating for the best possible support for children who have experienced, or are experiencing, family violence.?

Child first policy and services??

We have the data. We have evidence on what works. We have a blueprint for action. These are things policymakers, and the family violence sector has never had before.??

So, it’s time to do more integrated work with children and young people – overcoming sector barriers and differences.???

It’s time to focus our energy on supporting children and young people in their recovery and ensuring they receive access to specialist services in their time of need – which may be lifelong.??

It’s time to consult with children and young people with experience of family violence, ensuring they’re sitting at policy, service development, and decision-making tables.??

It’s time to act to keep kids safe.?

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