Page 3609 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 27 October 2015
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UnitingCare means that we can work with families early, intensively tailoring to their circumstances. This is a great outcome for Canberra families. Clearly the best outcome for children at risk of entering care is finding a safe way for them to stay with their parents.
That is why one of the critical new areas of focus with the additional investment of $16 million under a step up for our kids is allocating more money than ever at the front end of the system through early intervention. UnitingCare will be using its significant experience in working with vulnerable families and children to deliver these services. As I mentioned earlier, their focus will be on keeping families together and providing parents with the skills needed to sustain safe loving homes.
There will be four main areas of support delivered by UnitingCare. Placement prevention services are targeted to families where children and young people are reported at risk of harm and are most likely to escalate into out of home care without this intervention. Reunification services will focus on returning children and young people to their families. This is strongly understood as a means to achieve better outcomes for children and young people, retention of important family connections and avoid children drifting into long-term care.
Supported contact services will provide for skilled para-professional staff to monitor and report on contact between a parent and child. But it goes beyond this. Staff will also coach and mentor parents in a hands-on manner during contact sessions to support the development of parenting skills. This service will complement services already in place such as parent-child interaction programs and will support those children and young people and their families where there are more complex relationships and dynamics that require a greater focus and support. Parent-child interaction programs will teach emotional communication skills to parents. Through learning these skills, we aim to strengthening the parent-child bond.
I referred earlier to the significant experience of UnitingCare in supporting children and young people in care as well as their families. One example of this that they will be introducing to Canberra is the successful newpin preservation and restoration program. Newpin is an extensive, preventative therapeutic program that works intensively with families facing potential or actual child protection issues.
The model was developed in the United Kingdom, with the first program starting in London in 1982. The first newpin model outside the UK was started by UnitingCare in Australia in April 1998. This program was created in response to the needs of new mothers experiencing issues such as isolation, mental illness, family violence, social disadvantage and low self-esteem and for those who are at risk of physically or emotionally harming their child or children. Newpin resonates with the aims of a step up for our kids and, importantly, has proven its effectiveness through UnitingCare in Australia.
There is clearly a holistic approach to addressing the needs of the individual—in this case the parent—in the strong realisation that the causes of family breakdown do not happen in isolation. Another strength that UnitingCare brings to a step up for our kids is in surrounding and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and
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