Page 2377 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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Finally, what really disappointed me was the tone of the narrative from Ms Lawder on Care and Protection. She then made reference to the child death review committee. She almost took delight in saying that the most recent child death review showed that 20 per cent of deaths were related to Care and Protection. The inference was disturbing and disappointing. If you had read the report carefully and if you had ever had a chance to have a conversation with Penny Gregory, you would know that she has cautioned significantly within this report not to join the dots that you have salaciously joined, Ms Lawder.
The report that is in front of me states that from July 2008 to 2015 there were 22 deaths. Any death of a child is tragic and intolerable. We as a society should be doing absolutely everything we can to ensure that our children are protected. So 22 children and young people who died were known to Care and Protection or had a sibling that was known to them. This represents 0.3 per cent of children. Of these 22 children and young people, 12 were known together with a sibling and less than five were known only because a sibling was known to them.
The report also refers to those that were the subject of intervention by Care and Protection at the time. The type of intervention was in the form of voluntary casework, a residential order, a voluntary care arrangement, and an appraisal. It also makes reference to child concern reports. There are 14,000-plus child concern reports in each and every year. The fabulous staff in Care and Protection do their best to make sure that the 14,000-plus contacts by people raising concerns about children in our community are considered and assessed and appropriate action is put in place.
As I say, for someone of the calibre of Ms Lawder, from the community sector, to say this, I have to ponder and consider whether it was unwitting, ill informed or a deliberate narrative that completely misrepresented the processes and the efforts of Care and Protection.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (8.14): Just to close off on my overarching portfolio responsibilities for Community Services, the ACT government’s 2014-15 budget sets out a new direction in our support for vulnerable Canberrans and investing in our community. The budget supports new initiatives that provide high quality services to support vulnerable Canberrans and build a stronger community sector.
The better services $2.1 million trio of initiatives will simplify the way people access and obtain support by services across the ACT such as housing, family support and disability as part of the whole-of-government human services blueprint. The government-community sector task force steering implementation of these reforms met for the first time on 4 August.
The first initiative is a two-year $1.335 million towards the local services network launch in west Belconnen, which will roll out new ways of working that will better integrate local services including local governance, enhanced service coordination and data sharing.
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