New South Wales Interagency Plan to Tackle Child Sexual Assault

This 36-page document is a plan written by the government of New South Wales, Australia, to put in place strategic programming initiatives for community, police, legal system, and agency-based work on child sexual assault. The prevention aspects of the document are summarised in the article "Plan to Tackle Sexual Assault in Aboriginal Communities, New South Wales" from the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime's (ICPC's) An International Bulletin: Community Safety and Indigenous Peoples, Edition #3, March 2007 as follows:


"In January 2007, the New South Wales Government released an Interagency Plan To Tackle Child Sexual Assault in Aboriginal Communities (2006 - 2011). The plan includes three high level goals, including:

1. To reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse in Aboriginal
   communities.
2. To reduce disadvantage and dysfunction in Aboriginal
   communities.
3. To build up Aboriginal leadership and increase family and
   community safety and wellbeing.

The plan includes many proposals centred around four strategic directions to achieve these goals: law enforcement, child protection, early intervention and prevention and community leadership and support. In particular, the strategic outcomes expected for the prevention area includes:

• Coordinated delivery of prevention and early intervention services.
• Effective intervention and support for families at risk to promote
  positive and stable families, parental skills and competence, and
  resilience and coping.
• Effective treatment to prevent escalation and recidivism of sexual
  assault crimes by young sex offenders.
• Aboriginal children and youth attend school and develop in positive,
  safe learning environments.
• Aboriginal children and youth at risk are identified quickly and
  referred to appropriate support and services through their health and
  education providers.
• Effective sex education and youth support are provided to Aboriginal
  youth to promote positive relationships, self-awareness and protective
  behaviours. (NSW 2007, p.23)"

Additional strategies based on communication include the following, among a number of actions and outcomes proposed in the document.

• Inform aboriginal communities about and encourage the reporting of child sexual assault through a re-education and
  awareness-raising campaign with involvement of elders and community leaders as important carriers of
  knowledge, to ‘ground’ the programmes and key messages within a
  culturally/socially meaningful context for aboriginal people.
• Roll out cultural competency training across the state for officers assisting witnesses, as well as social service and health professionals working with children and families; expand the provision of cultural awareness advice and
  training to police and judicial officers statewide.
• Ensure that the statewide roll-out of technologies used in aspects of the child sexual assault detection and prosecution system occurs first in priority locations.
• Develop programmes to engage men, as a long-term approach to address family
  violence perpetration, and programmes to empower women. Programmes should be community ‘owned’ and based to ensure that they are
  sustained and supported.
• Foster collaborative partnerships and networks between
  Indigenous community-based groups and mainstream agencies.

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