Implementation of the National Child Protection Accountability Framework would correct the bias towards ‘early intervention and prevention’ — in isolation from other important policies and outcomes, especially permanency — evident in the existing National Framework introduced under the Rudd Government in 2009.

The new national framework would supplement a family preservation-based focus on prevention and restoration by encompassing a genuinely system-wide approach that gave appropriate importance to ensuring children in care achieve permanency in a timely manner.

The national framework would also address the longstanding problem of the lack of meaningful and nationally consistent child protection data, which currently makes comparisons between jurisdictions problematic, and limits the usefulness of the copious amount of child protection data that is available in terms of shaping policy throughout the nation.