Every Child Counts welcomes the establishment of Family Safety teams.

Every Child Counts welcomes the establishment of the first Family Safety teams today which provide the opportunity for early intervention and prevention of family violence.

“This is a significant step in implementing a strategy to reduce family violence and its impact upon children,” said Murray Edridge, spokesperson for Every Child Counts.

“Children have been one of the primary victim groups affected by our high rates of family violence. Our shameful rates of child abuse notifications continue to climb while in the international community our rate of child deaths by maltreatment is among the worst in the OECD.”

“Apart from the immediate impact upon children, we need also to be concerned about the long term consequence of our high levels of family violence. Research has established that children witnessing family violence and living in an insecure and unstable home are among the most significant risk factors for future youth offending and adult criminality,” continued Murray Edridge.

“It is yet another example, of the need to place children at the centre of policy if we are to have a sustainable social and economic future.”

Every Child Counts is a coalition including Barnardos, Plunket, Save the Children, Unicef NZ and AUT’s Institute of Public Policy, supported by more than 290 other organisations and thousands of individual supporters. The public are invited to demonstrate their support for the nation’s children by adding their names to the Every Child Counts campaign at: www.everychildcounts.org.nz .

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