Page 3031 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 September 2006
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being initiated, which will now align with these recommendations. ACT Health liaison officer and child protection health liaison officer positions have been created and are working to bridge communication between the two services. They have a key role in the development of improved working together practices.
The department has been working with a number of government and non-government agencies to develop an integrated family support program. This program will provide an integrated response to vulnerable families, linking them into support programs in the community. We have strengthened the legislation with amendments that came into effect on 1 August that aim to: lower the threshold for children at risk and allow the department to better respond to children at risk of abuse and neglect; change the information provisions to create the capacity for information exchange in the best interests of the child to non-defined entities; and strengthen the focus on the best interests of the child.
The office helped establish and has contracted the Institute for Child Protection Studies to undertake a range of work to inform our practice and new policies and procedures. The policy manual is being revised and training developed to embed practice improvements. The review is of all phases of practice, starting from the initial recording of a child protection report in the centralised intake service through to the transition planning of children and young people leaving care.
Care and Protection is strengthening the supervision training provided to team leaders and is developing a new supervision arrangement. The Care and Protection health liaison officers have also been working in conjunction with the staff training and development unit towards developing ongoing opportunities for regular training in health matters, including safe sleeping, for Care and Protection services staff and joint training with ACT Health staff. Gwen Murray has been consulted in the development of new policy and procedure and is providing a step-by-step critique as the policy is developed.
Since the study has been received a great deal of progress has been made on its implementation. In the near future, Gwen Murray and Craig Mackie will visit the ACT to hold meetings with Care and Protection staff and ACT Health staff to discuss the recommendations in this study and strategies for improved combined practices regarding infants and children at risk. They will also work with senior staff in both health and the office to implement recommendations relevant to both agencies. A senior officer from ACT Health has been appointed to Care and Protection to contribute to the implementation project and coordinate ACT Health’s involvement. This person is the clinical operations manager for the child, youth and women’s health program and supervises the ACT Health liaison officer.
There are also a number of joint initiatives between Care and Protection services and ACT Health to improve the outcomes of unborn children and infant children assessed to be at risk. These include:
• the peri-natal project, which will focus on earlier reporting of parents and babies at risk;
• the birth to two-year-old parental drug dependent project which focuses on improved practices for working with methadone and other drug dependent mothers;
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