Early intervention and family support tops the options in our child protection survey

Of the 358 respondents to our survey that asked ‘How would you spend extra money on child protection’, early intervention and family support proved the most popular option by a great margin.

Nine out of ten selected More on early intervention and family support as one of their options while two-thirds of the extra funds on offer would have been allocated that way if our respondents had their preference.

The online survey from December 1 to 4 canvassed the views of 944 subscribers to the Guardian’s Information Service.

More therapeutic placements for Children in care was the second most popular choice, nominated by 61% of respondents and allocated 11% of the funds.

Many respondents provided their own ideas and explanations in the free text section of the survey, so many that we will take a few weeks to work out how best to analyse and present them. In the meantime, the statistical part of the survey is on our website.

The Guardian’s report Expenditure on child protection, out-of-home care and intensive family services, 2004-05 to 2013-14 shows that South Australia spends among the lowest of the states and territories per child on child protection services and on intensive family support services.