Page 3906 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 29 November 2022
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In June 2022, I launched Next Steps for Our Kids 2022-2030, the successor to A Step Up for Our Kids. Through this reform work, the government has committed to a phased transfer of approximately 30 per cent of the existing funding for intensive family support and out of home care to Aboriginal community controlled organisations to better support Aboriginal and Torrs Strait islander families. As members are aware, the government is progressing towards the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner as an independent statutory authority, who will work in collaboration with existing oversight mechanisms in the ACT. Indeed, the legislation will be debated today.
The new commissioner will have a broad mandate to promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and a number of individual and systemic advocacy functions and powers. As an interim step, Ms Barb Causon, former chair of the Our Booris, Our Way steering committee and implementation oversight committee has been appointed as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Advocate.
CYPS continues to prioritise kinship assessments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The data shows that a greater proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people entering out of home care for the first time are being placed with kin now than in previous years. CYPS has also commenced implementing the family-led decision making procedure. The procedure outlines the steps CYPS staff need to take to actively support families to keep their children safe at home.
The directorate is also engaging with SNAICC to provide cultural advice on appropriate safeguards for permanency planning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in care under the Children and Young People Act 2008. I look forward to receiving advice and sharing this in the near future.
I acknowledge that some of the recommendations are taking longer than others to progress, and I acknowledge the frustration and fatigue conveyed by the implementation oversight committee. I want to assure the committee we will continue to implement the recommendations of the review with the additional focus on early supports that we know are so important in keeping families together and safe. I also want to thank the Our Booris, Our Way Implementation Oversight Committee members for their ongoing commitment and generosity in sharing their expertise and experience, and their efforts to hold us to account in implementing the recommendations.
In particular, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing chair of the oversight committee and former chair of the steering committee Barb Causon PSM. Ms Causon has been instrumental in this work to date, and will continue to play an important role in the work to reform the child protection system for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in her new role. I would also like to acknowledge the incoming chair of the committee, Natalie Brown. Ms Brown is a longstanding member of the committee and has been deputy chair since the commencement of the Our Booris, Our Way review. Ms Brown brings significant experience and community connections to the committee. I was pleased to meet with her recently and look forward to working with her as the new chair.
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