Melbourne, 20 August – We welcome today’s announcement by Victoria’s Premier, Jacinta Allan to implement all 22 recommendations of the Rapid Review of early childhood education and care settings (ECEC). We are pleased that child abuse prevention training in the Working with Children Check (WWCC) will become immediately mandatory.

Mandatory training in the WWCC has been a key recommendation of Australian Childhood Foundation, informed by its Lived Experience Advisory Committee and the 350 survivors of child sexual abuse who contributed to its research. The recommendation was also put forward in the Foundation’s recent response to the Victorian Government’s Rapid Review.

“Survivors like myself have been pushing for mandatory child abuse prevention training in the WWCC for a long time, we pushed for this campaign in the Victorian Parliament early last year and now we have been heard — even if it shouldn’t have taken so many more cases of children abused in care for that to happen”, Emma Hakansson, campaign lead and survivor advocate at Australian Childhood Foundation.

Janise Mitchell, CEO Australian Childhood Foundation also welcomed the announcement: “The WWCC has not been fit for purpose for a long time. It has given the veil of confidence without affording any real protection for our children. It is critical we stop the WWCC from being used as passport for perpetrators to manipulate the system. High quality mandatory training at the point of application for a WWCC will strengthen the perimeter of protection for children and young people. We look forward to working with the government to ensure that it is not another box ticking exercise and will equip people with the knowledge they need to prevent child abuse. It is also critical that the training is co-designed with people with lived experience.