Thank you to all of you who participated in our National Child Protection Week Survey in March 2017.

You helped to shape the 2017 campaign, with your views influencing our messages and the look and feel of our resources. So, thank you for taking the time to share your ideas with us.

In particular, through our survey we found out that 87% of you think that the National Child Protection Week campaign is valuable to your community. We’re delighted that, of the 566 respondents, 70% find it be very valuable to their community.

We were also delighted to hear that National Child Protection Week is having a real impact in your communities. 91% believe it raises awareness and 58% believe it influences behaviour change.

Of the various activities NAPCAN undertakes as part of National Child Protection Week, you told us that you found the following the most valuable to your communities:

• 82% said ‘educational resources on NAPCAN’s website’
• 80% said campaign posters
• 78% said local community events
• 65% said NAPCAN state and territory events
• 50% said the Play Your Part Awards

2016 Posters

You told us that you like the campaign posters as they help start conversations with parents and caregivers, as well as the general community.

Most people liked that the posters reflected Australia’s diverse population and that grandparents were depicted on our 2016 posters. With comments such as ‘very good, showing cultural diversity and tolerance’, ‘I thought they were a great way of promoting the importance of children to all, and encouraging parents and grandparents too’, ‘Looks great – good to see it from every angle that people can help’, ‘I really like the diversity of culture, people and situations included’ ‘I liked that the posters had a positive focus’.

Some people thought the design was too cluttered, with messages that are too soft, or that while the message is good there are too many words. With comments such as, “I think they need to be more eye catching to grab attention of the person walking by’, ‘Too wordy doesn’t have a big impact’, ‘too soft, targeting the nice fluffy people out there’, ‘need strong messages…not much writing’.

Many supporters were drawn to the poster with a child’s drawing over the poster with photos of real people. We had comments such as, ‘I particularly like the poster with the child’s drawing, is more child friendly’, ‘Informative and colourful. Great use of child’s contribution’, ‘loved the kids drawing poster’ ‘the child’s design one has more impact’.

A few people also commented that the posters are ‘good for adult engagement but not so good for child engagement’ while others said ‘both children and adults commented on them whilst in my office’.

We tried to take the diversity of opinion on board for the design of the 2017 posters, which continued to encourage participation from children through a drawing competition. Furthermore, we adapted the message on the second poster to make it much clearer and more succinct.

Ideas for new resources

We also asked for ideas for resources that you would like to see as part of National Child Protection Week. There were many ideas and surprisingly the most frequent request from those who responded was for more types of posters.

The second most popular request was for a short educational video, “short video that could be shared on social media”, “a video campaign on social media” “a video that can be shared across our social media networks. We have a fair reach within our community”.

We listened to this request in 2017 and developed two educational videos that were widely shared and distributed:

• The Continuum of Wellbeing film: this 3-minute film outlines the importance of prevention and reminds us that child abuse and neglect is not inevitable, that there are many opportunities for everyone in the community to help protect children.
• The Talk to Your Baby clip: this short clip is a tool for promoting the message that the small things we do matter to a child’s future by demonstrating the simple and practical ways we can all boost a child’s brain development in the early years.

NAPCAN received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback on these films which were shared widely on social media and are being used by many services as community education resources.

About You!

We learnt that of those responding to our survey:

• 67% of you are representatives working for an organisation related to NAPCAN’s work
• 33% of you are individuals unrelated to organisations who are interested in CAN prevention

The top 5 sectors you work in are:

• Early Childhood Education – 25%
• Family Support – 14%
• Health – 12%
• Education – 11%
• Child Protection – 11%

Thank you to all those who participated in our annual survey. We look forward to hearing from even more stakeholders each year. Together we can keep making National Child Protection Week bigger and better to help keep more children safe and well.