Teachers are in a prime position to notice signs of child abuse or have a child confide in them, but in New Zealand, it is not mandatory for them to know how to respond or report it.
Advocates saycompulsory child protection training for teachers would help reduce New Zealand’s “appallingly high rates of child abuse”, but despite increasingly desperate pleas, there are no plans to review legislation.
Safeguarding Children chief executive Willow Duffy called the Children’s Act 2014 weak, and said the Government needed to act now to save present and future generations of children from abuse and neglect.
“We know worldwide through research that training our frontline workers will make a difference to the lives of children.
“And it can’t go on any longer. It needs to be changed now and members of the public expect these frontline workers to have had that regular child protection training.”
New Zealand ranks No 35 out of 41 countries for child wellbeing outcomes.
Advocates say compulsory child protection training for teachers would help reduce New Zealand's "appallingly high rates of child abuse". Photo / RNZ
An Oranga Tamariki report last year showed 69,500 reports of concern were made relating to children and young people, with 37,800 requiring assessments or investigations.
On average, one child dies every five weeks at the hands of those responsible for or involved with their care. The forgotten statistic is the number of children who survive the abuse, and are left with lifelong trauma or disabilities.
Duffy said parents would be horrified to know that child protection training of teachers, including in early childhood, was not mandatory, unlike in the UK and now in Queensland.
“For us to make a difference and actually prevent child abuse and neglect and make sure the children’s family get the help they need early, there needs to be training across everybody who works with children and families.”
She said mandatory training would prompt better reporting of abuse, and those professions who worked with children should be required to provide proof of updated training at every reregistration of their practising certificate.
Hamilton-based Child Matters chief executive Jane Searle said training would help teachers know what signs to look out for to identify abuse and neglect, how to respond to a child if a disclosure was made and how to respond appropriately to any allegations, or any suspicions or concerns they had.
Jane Searle of Child Matters. Photo / Barker Photography
“There are a lot of schools that do access training but that is up to individual schools or boards of trustees or principals if they actually do that, when actually we should be catching up with the rest of the world and we should be mandating it, because that’s a basic protection factor that we don’t have.”
Barriers to training included cost, while barriers to a teacher acting on a concern included not wanting to ruin relationships with whānau, fear of getting it wrong and fear of getting in trouble at work.
Medical Sexual Assault Clinicals Aotearoa (Medsac) board chairperson Dr Kate Taylor said teachers were in key positions to see things the rest of the community weren’t able to.
“Any person that has regular interactions with children other than their own should have training around identifying child abuse, whether it’s through neglect or physical or sexual, or even the psychological – the grooming – behaviours, and I think it’s really important that New Zealand steps up to do this.”
She said there were signs to watch out for in children who had been through trauma or stress. These included withdrawing and underperforming, but could also be overperforming, diligence and pleasing the teacher.
“Basically what you’re looking for is a marked change in behaviours. As soon as you get children not willing to speak about things or they are telling you there’s a secret, that’s something to be really concerned about.
Children tend not to lie about abuse - Dr Kate Taylor
“One of the great rules of parenting is always to ensure that your children understand there’s no such thing as a secret – that they can always tell you anything and that they will be believed.”
Taylor said children tended not to lie about abuse, particularly sexual abuse.
“They don’t have the comprehension of consequences really to have an ulterior motive towards a lie around that kind of thing, so particularly if a younger child tells you, that is something to be believed and taken seriously.”
When it came to recognising abuse, Taylor said often people “don’t see what they don’t want to see”.
“And one of the reasons people don’t want to see something is because they don’t know what to do about it.”
Children's Minister Karen Chhour. Photo / Jamie Ensor
Minister for Children Karen Chhour said government agencies had been working on issues of mandatory reporting and child protection training.
“Before making any decisions, my Cabinet colleagues and I need to be sure there will not be unintended consequences from those choices. For example, initial advice noted the limitations of mandatory reporting in Victoria and New South Wales, with staff ‘drowning’ because of reporting volumes.”
Chief Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad said given the significant child neglect in New Zealand and the proximity of teachers to tamariki, child protection training needed to be well incorporated into teacher training and she would look into this.
However, she was more focused on building a strong culture around the importance and understanding of child protection.
“Whether or not it needs to be mandatory I am less clear on. I would urge a cautious approach when it comes to making anything mandatory simply because I don’t want to see something become a box-ticking exercise.”
A Teaching Council spokesperson said it did not have a position on whether training should be mandatory beyond what was already covered through Initial Teacher Education programmes, and its expectations were detailed throughout its code of professional standards.
“Being familiar with the indicators of, and risk factors for, abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action where there is reason to believe a learner may have been, or may be at risk of being, harmed (including self-harm), abused or neglected.”
A Ministry of Education spokesperson said teachers must follow their code, including protecting students from harm, and the ministry offered child protection training in its professional development.
“The code requires all teachers to promote the wellbeing of learners and protect them from harm.”
Like schools, the ministry also had a child protection policy as required under the Children’s Act.
- RNZ
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