In 2024, carers, young people, the Australian Childhood Foundation (The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care) and OzChild developed an online training resource for carers about consent. Funded by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing in Victoria this course is aimed at building community-wide dialogues about consent, providing clarity that consent is more about ongoing agreement, than a simple yes, or no. The laws have been reformed to ensure greater protections to keep people safe.  

Having meaningful conversations with children and young people about sexual consent, while critically important, can be tricky. Young people are navigating how consent works in relation to social and online environments and carers play a critical role in consent conversations and supporting young people to safely explore concepts. 

Young people in Care have had early relationships marked by trauma including abuse, neglect, and loss. Interrupted access to schooling can result in missed opportunities to learn about healthy relationships, boundaries and consent.   

Consent conversations with young people in Care must be considered, trauma-informed, sensitive, and build safety and understanding. There is an opportunity to lay foundations, correct myths and build their skills in the practice of seeking and giving consent. 

Launched on 1 July 2024, the course was piloted for 4 months. The six modules were designed to enhance carer’s understanding and confidence to talk with young people about consent. The modules include creating a safe environment, relationships, boundaries, consent, grooming and online safety. The course has activities just for carers, as well as activities for carers to do with young people aged developmentally 12 to 14 years to explore topics and the issue of consent.  

Our presentation will share how the training resource was developed, an overview of the modules, lived experience carer videos, findings from the pilot and next steps.