NSW: NSW Safety House program to be audited

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2006
NSW: NSW Safety House program to be audited

EDS: Takes in keyword Grabbed



By Peter Jean and Katherine Danks

SYDNEY, April 19 AAP - The NSW Safety House program will be audited after new figures
revealed a drastic fall in participation in the child protection initiative.

The NSW Opposition says it obtained figures through freedom of information showing
the number of homes participating in the scheme declined from 12,260 in 2002 to 8,547
in 2004.

Children are encouraged to go to Safety Houses, marked with distinctive yellow stickers,
if they are frightened, become lost, or are harassed on the way to or from school.

Following opposition claims that the falling numbers of safety houses showed the system
was badly underfunded, the NSW government today announced an audit of the program.

The opposition's release of the figures came after an attack on a 10-year-old girl
in Wilson Street, in inner-Sydney Newtown, just before 1.30pm (AEST) yesterday.

The attacker indecently assaulted the girl and tried to drag her away, but fled when
she screamed, police said.

He was described as being in his 30s, with dark skin and dark, greasy, ear-length hair.

NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam today said the Safety House scheme was an important
child protection program and urged the government to boost funding.

"What we need to do is make sure that the government promotes the program and gets
behind police to provide the funding for the background checks," Mr Debnam told reporters.

Police Minister Carl Scully today said he had asked police to ensure participants in
the Safety House scheme had not moved away, leaving their stickers in place at the old
address.

"We want to make sure that the people in those homes go through the appropriate approvals
and accreditation (by) police," he told reporters.

Mr Scully said the Safety House scheme was becoming less relevant, with only 10 children
using the houses in 2004.

The need for the homes had also declined because more parents were driving their children
to and from school, or placing them in before and after-school care.

"It is not as relevant as it was in the face of mums and dads taking their kids to
school, in the face of a lot of these homes being unoccupied ... ," Mr Scully said.

Another factor running against the scheme was the unknown background of many people
in the designated houses, Mr Scully said.

The government was willing to boost Safety House funding in communities that still
wanted the program, but Mr Scully said he believed the popularity of the scheme would
continue to decline.

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KEYWORD: HOUSES NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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