A new partnership has been created between Victoria Police and the Department of Health and Human Services in a bid to protect children and young people at risk of sexual exploitation.
This will see each child identified as being at a serious risk, for the first time allocated a Victoria Police Sexual Offence and Child Abuse investigator.
Together with child protection staff, the investigator will seek to build a relationship of trust with their subject to help bring perpetrators to justice.
The approach is part of the Labor government’s ‘Keeping them safe from sexual exploitation’ strategy, which has so far seen the employment of four specialist sexual exploitation child protection practitioners and the allocation of $8 million to provide minimum qualification training for residential care workers looking after children who are unable to live with their families.
To further help children at risk, Child Protection will also be introducing improved ways to respond when children and young people go missing.
“The sad fact is that any child or young person can find themselves targeted by people who want to exploit them – and as a community, we have to do all in our power to prevent that,” said Minister for Families and Children, Jenny Mikakos.
“Child Protection workers, community agencies and Victoria Police work very closely to keep children safe. I welcome this additional assistance from the Victoria Police child sexual exploitation experts.”
The model will initially be introduced in Epping, Dandenong, Brimbank, Ballarat and Shepparton.