Implement Safety in Action 2022–2024

Safety in Action outlines multiagency actions guiding the first implementation phase of NSW Children First 2022-2031: Our shared framework for preventing and responding to problematic and harmful sexual behaviours by children and young people and supporting NSW prevention action strategy, Talking About It.

NSW Health, on behalf of the NSW Government, has made significant progress on Safety in Action priority 3.1, the development of the NSW Sexual Behaviour Context and Response Tool (SB-CaRT) to support understanding and responses for children and young people’s sexual behaviour. The SB-CaRT will form part of the Common Approach to Identification and Support (CAIS) resource. The SB-CaRT aims to increase workforce confidence and capability and lead to improved and timely responses to children and young people.

The SB-CaRT has been developed as a collaboration with Professor Simon Hackett, Durham University United Kingdom (UK), and NSW clinical and policy leads. It was co-designed with NSW stakeholders to ensure it aligns with NSW policy and legislative requirements and practice frameworks and with Aboriginal workforce to support culturally responsive practice for Aboriginal children and families. The SB-CaRT is in the final stages of user testing and the pilot in Hunter New England Local Health District geographical area will begin in early 2026. The SB-CaRT will also be piloted in the UK and will be improved through user feedback and a formal evaluation of both pilots, prior to state-wide rollout in NSW.

Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) and NSW Health have designed and co-commissioned the Pathways to Safety and Support Pilot (Safety in Action priority 3.2) to improve access to collaborative interagency responses that ensure safety and support for children and young people who have displayed and been impacted by PHSB. The pilot will establish a centralised intake and referral hub with locally based Family Support, Counselling and Coordination roles designed to support children and young people up to the age of 17 years who have displayed PHSB. 

The Benevolent Society will deliver pilot across the Hunter New England Local Health District until 30 June 2026. The pilot will build on existing tertiary services such as NSW Health Safe Wayz program and New Street Services by increasing capacity in the non-government sector to provide early intervention to problematic sexual behaviours by children and young people. New roles have been established by the Benevolent Society to provide early psycho-social supports and counselling for children and young people and their families. The pilot will begin in August 2025 and give special consideration to priority populations.

DCJ and NSW Health are co-commissioning a PHSB Clearinghouse and Research to Practice Alliance (Safety in Action priority 1.4) to bring together expertise on PHSB and drive the long-term ‘research to practice’ agenda on PHSB.

NSW Health established the NSW PHSB Interagency Standards and Training Committee (Safety in Action priority 1.3). The Committee has overseen the development of:

• Clinical Conversation Cards and Companion Guide for working with children and families under 10 years who have displayed PHSB, including children with cognitive disability.
• Content for a microsite on understanding children and young people's sexual development including children and young people with disability.

‘Together We Can: Strategic insights to guide shared workforce learning and capacity building for preventing and responding to PHSB’ Report has been finalised.

A refreshed NSW PHSB Interagency Committee will meet in August 2025 to develop a workforce uplift action plan for the implementation of the Together We Can Report findings in Financial Year 2025/26, including a key focus on children and young people with cognitive disability who have displayed PHSB.

LINKS Training and Support continues to deliver training to carers and professionals in child protection and out-of-home care services across NSW. Core programs such as Healing from Trauma and You’ve Got This! (launched in 2023, specifically targeting identification, prevention and responses to PHSB) are continually available via an online training calendar, which includes facilitator training to embed knowledge across the sector. The team also offers facilitator training in Healing from Trauma and You’ve Got This!, building ongoing capacity across the sector. You’ve Got This! facilitator training, comprising a comprehensive e-learn and a practical workshop, was launched in 2024.

The LINKS Training and Support website has been uplifted, providing a broad range of evidence-based resources to carers and child protection and out-of-home care services professionals. It is a recommended resource for all new DCJ foster carers, for whom Healing from Trauma training is also mandatory. The LINKS Training and Support website includes a number of webinars on PHSB, trauma informed care and other relevant topics. Cumulatively, these webinars have received approximately 14,360 views.

LINKS Training and Support has contributed to educational programs, such as an interagency workshop for provisional psychologists, to develop PHSB knowledge in early career clinicians. The team has also presented on PHSB to DCJ carers as part of the Carer Drop-In psychoeducational series.

In the last 12 months to June 2025, LINKS Training and Support has also attended a Safety Plan Round Table held by NSW Ministry of Health, contributing to cross-agency discussion of current safety planning practices across NSW; participated in the NSW Ministry of Health Safety Plan Working Group, developing a safety and support plan for NSW clinicians responding to PHSB; and participated in the NSW Sexual Behaviours - Context and Response Tool (SB-CaRT) Webinar Subject Matter Expert Working Group, supporting the development of webinars to support use of SB-CaRT.