It's National Child Protection Week and child abuse allegations in NSW are on the rise.
The Hunter has alarmingly been titled with the third highest rate of child abuse reports in the state
The Child Abuse Protection Service's 'Safe Children Safe Families' program is training child care staff and parents to talk with children in NSW child care centres to help build skills which reduce the risk of child abuse.
The program aims to combat the issue of child abuse which is preventable if adults and children are educated in identifying unsafe behaviours, learning protective behaviours and simply by starting a conversation about the issue.
The Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation has helped to introduce the program in the Hunter.
The program has trained 213 child care staff and 77 parents and delivered protective behaviour sessions to over 315 children across 19 child care centres in the region.
Program facilitator and psychologist Hilary Milton says "in the past, we have not got a great history of keeping children safe, so I think it's a great reminder that we need to keep on our toes and be vigilant."
