Page 410 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 7 March 2006
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The recent reviews of child protection recommended strengthening the participation of children and young people in the decision making affecting them. In addition to the best interests of the child and young person principle, the government is introducing the new principle of helping families understand care and protection procedures to guide the action of decision makers regarding consultation with, and participation of, children and young people and people with parental responsibility in decision making.
Mr Speaker, contemporary scholarship, policy development and our own territory experience dictate that we need to strengthen the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Children’s Services Council. These amendments achieve that by including the requirement that at least once council member represent their interests.
In the area of care and protection, these amendments introduce the new concept of a child or a young person being at risk of abuse or neglect. This replaces the concept of likelihood of abuse or neglect and reflects contemporary child protection assessment of risk.
The amendments also clarify that public servants working with or personally providing services to children and young people and their families will be mandated to report. The current reporting regime requires all mandated reporters to report their suspicions of non-accidental physical injury and sexual abuse. That can result and has resulted in multiple identical reports being made, which has overtaxed agency resources. That frequently occurs in settings such as schools or hospitals. To avoid that, an exception to mandatory reporting will occur in circumstances where a person reasonably suspects that someone else has already made a report about the same child or young person in relation to the same incident of abuse or neglect.
Also, presently all reports on children and young people for whom the chief executive has parental responsibility, principally those in care, are required to be given to the Office of the Community Advocate. In practice, that has resulted in many reports being provided which do not involve significant care and protection concerns; for example, a young person absconding from placement for a short period. These amendments will ensure that the Office of the Community Advocate will be provided with all those reports where a report of abuse or neglect has been received which involves the carer authorised by the chief executive to care for the child or young person.
Amendments are also being made to the reporting regime, which under section 267 currently requires appraisal reports be made annually for children under care and protection orders. While the chief executive will continue to report once each year for a child or young person subject to a final care and protection order, these amendments mean that if the order is in force for less than one year the chief executive will report at least one month, but not earlier than two months, before the order expires.
An innovation of which I am particularly proud is the amendment elevating the status of family group conferencing. In particular, not only are facilitators of family group conferences empowered to undertake preconference work with children, young people and families, including mediation, resolving conflict or doing anything necessary to
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