{"id":690,"date":"2018-11-19T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=690"},"modified":"2018-11-19T13:00:24","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:00:24","slug":"childrens-champions-future-secured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2018\/11\/19\/childrens-champions-future-secured\/","title":{"rendered":"CHILDREN\u2019S CHAMPIONS\u2019 FUTURE SECURED"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Children and young people involved in sexual abuse cases will receive ongoing support through difficult court proceedings thanks to a major new investment from the NSW Government that will enable a highly-successful pilot program to become permanent.
\nPremier Gladys Berejiklian, Attorney General Mark Speakman and Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward announced today that the NSW Government will invest more than $28 million in the Child Sexual Offence Evidence Program, which includes \u2018Children\u2019s Champions\u2019 to help support young people through the courts process.
\nThe pilot program is being made permanent after a glowing independent assessment by the University of NSW, which showed that it received very strong support from participants, reduced stress for children and resulted in a better quality of evidence from child witnesses.
\n\u201cNSW is leading the country with this important initiative which delivers support to young victims of sexual abuse and child witnesses,\u201d Ms Berejiklian said.
\n\u201cWe know that going to court to give evidence can be a tough experience for children and young people, so I am extremely proud that the NSW Government is investing this funding to make the experience easier.\u201d
\nMr Speakman said the program is proving vital to ensuring children understand and are understood during the court process.
\n\u201cGoing to court can be stressful and traumatic for anyone, let alone young people. This program ensures that some of the most vulnerable people who come in contact with the justice system get the support they need,\u201d Mr Speakman said.
\nThe Child Sexual Offence Evidence Pilot began in Sydney and Newcastle District Courts in March 2016. It provides victims and child witnesses for the prosecution with specialist intermediaries, sometimes known as \u2018Children\u2019s Champions\u2019. It also enables them to have their evidence pre-recorded in advance of a trial.
\n\u201cAlmost 70 matters in the pilot have been finalised and a further 46 were still to be determined at the time of writing the evaluation report. Specialist witness intermediaries have assisted these young people answer questions from police and lawyers, enabling them to provide their best evidence, without affecting the defendant\u2019s right to a fair trial,\u201d Mr Speakman said.
\nThe funding announced today will ensure the program continues to be delivered in Sydney and Newcastle District Courts until June 2022.
\nMinister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward said the program is part of the $127 million package of reforms to deliver the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
\n\u201cWe are supporting government and non-government institutions to better protect children and respond to child sexual abuse,\u201d Ms Goward said.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children and young people involved in sexual abuse cases will receive ongoing support through difficult court proceedings thanks to a major new investment from the NSW Government that will enable a highly-successful pilot program to become permanent. Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Attorney General Mark Speakman and Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward announced today … Continue reading “CHILDREN\u2019S CHAMPIONS\u2019 FUTURE SECURED”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}