Take notice, believe us and act! Exploring the safety of children and young people in government run organisations : A report for the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's responses to child sexual abuse in institutional settings

[Extract] In 2021, the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry was established to consider the Tasmanian Government’s responses to allegations and incidents of child sexual abuse in government institutions and those funded to provide services on its behalf. The Commission was established as a response to serious allegations of child sexual abuse in Tasmanian schools, Ashley Youth Detention and Launceston General Hospital.

The Commission aimed to understand Tasmanian children and young people’s contemporary experiences of government-run and government-funded services and to use those findings to inform recommendations about how institutions and systems might better prevent and respond to harm. The Commission engaged researchers from the Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University to conduct a study which aimed to work with Tasmanian children and young people to explore:
• how safe they feel in key government institutions
• features of an organisation that increase or decrease their feelings of safety • the extent to which they feel confident raising safety concerns
• how they would raise these concerns (if inclined), to whom and what influences these decisions
• their level of awareness and understanding of high-risk, harmful or potentially grooming behaviours by adults in an institutional setting (including through online mechanisms)
• their level of awareness and understanding of harmful sexual behaviours that other children and young people may exhibit.

This report provides an overview of the major themes emerging from interviews and focus groups with 59 Tasmanian children and young people who attended primary and secondary school and college, had spent time at Ashley Youth Detention Centre, had lived in out of home care and/or had spent time in hospital.