Latest news with #therapeuticsupport
SBS Australia
04-07-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
As ACT lifts the age of criminal responsibility to 14, where does the rest of Australia stand?
Children in the ACT can no longer be arrested, charged or sentenced under territory laws until they turn 14. Rather than facing charges, children will now be referred to therapeutic support services that will seek to address the root causes of their behaviour. Youths who commit serious crimes such as murder, serious violence and sexual offences will be exempt from the reforms, which took effect on 1 July and raised the age of criminal responsibility from its previous place of 10 years old. Other Australian jurisdictions have some of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility globally, falling well below international standards set by the United Nations. 'The ACT has looked at the evidence' Jonathan Hunyor of the Justice and Equity Centre said locking up 10-year-old children only worsens social problems. "The ACT has looked at the evidence, and the ACT is obviously serious about making their community safer because we know that locking up kids makes the community less safe," he said. "What locking up kids does is it cruels their chances, it takes them away from positive influences." Rather than helping kids build social capital, "what we do is place kids in a situation where they build criminal capital," Hunyor added. "They go to the university of crime, they get taught that they're criminals." 'Programs need to run inside communities, not prisons' Dr Faith Gordon, an Australian National University youth-justice researcher, said the ACT is now in line with "what international evidence has been telling us for years". Pointing to countries such as Norway, she notes that "big jumps in funding for programs that are run inside communities, not prisons" had led to "big drops in the number of children locked up". Here's where the rest of Australia stands when it comes to the age of criminal responsibility. Victoria Victoria raised its minimum age from 10 to 12 under the Youth Justice Bill passed in 2024 and has promised a formal review of a further rise to 14 in 2027. Tasmania The Tasmanian government will raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years and will increase the minimum age of detention to 16 years by developing alternatives to detention for children aged 14 and 15 years. Implementation is expected be completed by July 2029. Northern Territory The Northern Territory briefly led the nation when it raised the age of criminal responsibility to 12 in 2023. A change of government reversed that decision in August 2024 and the minimum age is back to 10. NSW Australia's most-populous state has held the line at 10, despite medical and legal bodies urging change. A joint statement from Mental Health Carers NSW and BEING NSW this year renewed calls to match the ACT's standard. Queensland Queensland's Adult Crime, Adult Time laws, introduced at the end of 2024, kept the age at 10 and allow some serious offences by children to be dealt with in the adult system. South Australia Adelaide is consulting on whether to raise the age to 12 but has not drafted a bill. Western Australia Western Australia has also kept it at 10. Legal Aid WA confirms the age in its current guidance and the government has given no timetable for reform. The federal position The national minimum age is 10, but balanced by the safeguard principle of doli incapax, which requires prosecutors to prove a child aged 10 to 13 understood their actions were seriously wrong. In July 2024, then attorney-general Mark Dreyfus was asked about a national change at the National Press Club. He said the issue remained "under consideration" and argued it was less urgent for Canberra because "we have no children presently convicted of Commonwealth offences". Gordon said the "patchwork of legislation across the country is impractical and unfair". "A child in Canberra now gets health and family support. A child an hour away in NSW can still be taken to a police cell. We need a single national rule so every child, no matter where they live, has the same chance."
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Stoke-on-Trent 'peace pod' to help child mental health patients
A "peace pod" designed to reduce the number of hospital stays for children and young people with complex mental health issues has opened in suite, at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust's Darwin Centre, in Stoke-on-Trent, offers therapeutic support and interventions, staff is designed to provide an alternative to a ward for patients with eating disorders, acute emotional dysregulation or learning to be the first of its kind in the country, it is hoped the new space will avoid patients requiring admission to the trust's psychiatric intensive care unit and specialist eating disorder unit. The development of the pod and training for staff was funded by Toucan, a West Midlands Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Mellor, chief strategy officer at Combined Healthcare, said it would enable the trust to deliver "the best quality care for young people when they need it the most".Service manager Glynis Harford, explained the young patients at the Darwin Centre, who are aged between 12 and 18, sometimes needed "high-intensity, short-term" care or support to move through "distressing emotions"."The suite will form a core part of the ward, acting as a flexible space that we can quickly and easily reconfigure as a safe space to deliver more intensive support where required," she improvements recently made at the Darwin Centre included the addition of a dietician, an art therapist and upgraded sensory equipment, the trust added. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Child sexual abuse support services face closure or cuts in funding shortfall'
Many support services for survivors of child sexual abuse are 'on the verge of breaking point', according to experts working in the sector. The centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) said a research survey of providers had found more than three-quarters facing uncertainty about future funding and a fifth considering closure or cuts to their services. The centre warned that, despite a recommendation from the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) almost three years ago that specialist therapeutic support should be guaranteed for child victims of sexual abuse, 'thousands' have been left waiting months or years to access support. The CSA Centre said its findings were based on 124 support services in England and Wales responding to its survey. The centre said 23 support services closed in the 18 months since their last national survey in 2023, leaving 363 such services across the whole of England and Wales. The organisation estimated that this equates to each remaining service having an average of 16,500 victims and survivors to support. The survey results found more than three-quarters of respondents said they were facing uncertainty about future funding for their services, with some indicating there was less money available and others citing the short-term and insecure nature of funding. One in five respondents said they were facing full or partial closure or could have to cut support without 'sufficient' funding being confirmed within the next few months. Centre director Ian Dean said: 'This report starkly illustrates the huge shortfall in support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, with many services reporting that they are now on the verge of breaking point.' He said the current situation is that 'thousands of children and adults are still left waiting months or even years to access support, with services struggling to meet rising demand on increasingly overstretched budgets'. He described as 'essential that the Government honours its commitment to victims and survivors of abuse by ensuring the consistent, widespread funding of support services that is so desperately needed across the country'. Fay Maxted, from The Survivors Trust, said the research 'powerfully sets out the impact that the current funding crisis is having on specialist services and the challenges victims and survivors are facing in accessing the support and help they need and are entitled to'. The CSA Centre is mainly funded by the Home Office and hosted by Barnardo's. The charity's chief executive Lynn Perry said the research 'shines a light on the concerning reduction in support available for children who have been sexually abused' and said the Chancellor must make a commitment to investment in her spending review next month. Ms Perry said: 'The need for specialist services has never been greater, yet funding for these very services continues to decline. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse rightly called for a guarantee of specialist therapeutic support for child victims of sexual abuse. 'We urge the government to use the upcoming spending review to invest in these vital services and to seize this opportunity to make sure no child misses out on the support they need to work towards a positive future.'
