Parmar Parmjeet: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 12 March 2015. Volume:703;Page:2213. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National) to the Minister for Social Development: What recent announcements has she made on steps to protect children?Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development): On Tuesday I launched two new guidelines for people and organisations who are working with children as part of the Government’s Children’s Action Plan. These guidelines are the first step to help organisations meet their obligations under the Vulnerable Children Act 2014. The guidelines Safer Recruitment Safer Children and Safer Organisations Safer Children advise on how employers of the children’s workforce can consistently recruit safe people to work with children and develop good child protection policies. Regulations are being developed as part of the next step of this process which will cover the mandatory requirements that Government agencies must comply with.Dr Parmjeet Parmar: How will children benefit from these new guidelines?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: The guidelines provide organisations with a standard quality child protection policy to better identify and respond to the needs of vulnerable children. The recruitment guidelines ensure that people recruited to work with children are assessed in a consistent way. The guidelines give a good cross-sector approach to good practice and safety checking from sports clubs to voluntary homework clubs and cultural groups. Although the vast majority of our children’s workers are safe and conscientious we do know that predators will seek to work with and be around children and we must have robust safeguards in our workforce.Darroch Ball: Does the Minister have confidence in the recent Better Public Services result showing a sharp decline in the number of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: It is true that this year we have seen the first decrease in the number of substantiated cases of abuse of children but I would say that although we might celebrate that it is too early at this stage to be sure that that is a trend.Darroch Ball: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked the Minister quite specifically whether she had confidence in the recent result and she did not mention any confidence or no confidence in that.Mr SPEAKER: Does the Minister want to just add to the answer in order to satisfy the member? I cannot assist.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: The latest child abuse statistics show that the number of children abused in the year ended June 2014 fell by 2306 or 12 percent on the previous year. I would say that the numbers are actually still appallingly high—Tracey Martin: Do you have confidence?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Do I have confidence in the work of Child Youth and Family? Yes of course but I think what I am saying to you is that it is too soon to know whether this is a continuing trend. We will have to watch and wait and see and continue the work we are doing over the next year or so before we can tell whether that decrease is going to be continued.Darroch Ball: How can the Minister be confident now or even in the future in the Better Public Services results without a public independent audit on how her ministry is achieving them or is she going to continue to allow the ministry to act like a self-licking ice cream and manipulate its own results?Mr SPEAKER: Either of those supplementary questions.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: It is very easy to stand in this House and make stupid comments about some very hard-working public servants who are out there doing their very best. I have to say that this Government in introducing a green paper a white paper and a Children’s Action Plan and passing the Vulnerable Children Act has done more to protect vulnerable children in this country than that Labour Partyover there did in Government or than any Government that that member’s party has supported.