6.3 Need for child-focused responses Australian Human Rights Commission Report title October 2022 122. Children and young people are victim/survivors of domestic and family violence in their own right, and their voices should be heard in the design of policy and service systems. The historical ‘invisibility’ of children has led to a lack of data and lack of prevention, support, response and recovery services to address the unique needs of children. 123. The Australian Child Maltreatment Study findings will be launched in March 2023 and will for the first time provide a clear picture of the prevalence of child maltreatment. Research is also showing that experience of violence in childhood has serious negative outcomes throughout life. 173 The work of the National Children’s Commissioner in 2015 highlighted the damaging effects of family and domestic violence on children.174 The 2016 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence also shed light on how children are affected in their own right.175 The Commission emphasises the importance of increasing prevention measures and responses to family violence that address the distinct impacts on children, including through resourcing specialist children’s services. 124. Child abuse is a serious problem in Australia. Child protection data indicates that the rate of substantiations of child abuse and neglect was at 9 per 1,000 children in 2020–21, up from 8 per 1,000 in 2015–16. 176 125. Safe and Supported: National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031 is Australia’s ten-year strategy for improving the lives of children at risk of child abuse and neglect. Two five-year Action Plans will deliver the Framework, and for the first time there will be an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan developed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and communities. In 2021, the National Children’s Commissioner heard from children, young people and families across Australia, about what they need to keep safe, in order to inform the Action Plans. The Commissioner’s report, Keeping Kids Safe and Well: Your Voices, makes recommendations for child safety, including the need for redesign of the basic systems that are meant to support children and their families, especially those living with poverty and disadvantage.177 126. There is a strong need for Australian jurisdictions to improve the quality of child protection systems. While there have been numerous inquiries in Australia which have included out-of-home care in their terms of reference178 there has been little systemic change to address the increasing rates of children living in out-of-home care and the reasons why children are being placed in out-of-home care.179 Early intervention policies and practices 29