Page 1595 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017
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reduce the likelihood that something will go wrong. For the sake of the territory’s children and young people and their families and for the peace and security of the good women and men who are tasked every day with making difficult and complicated assessments, I call upon this Assembly to recognise the importance of ensuring that decisions regarding a child or young person’s placement and care plans be subjected to external review, both to ensure the quality of such decisions and to engender confidence in the system.
I likewise call upon the ACT government to report to this Assembly with some haste regarding the review that they promised on this matter last year and the steps that they will take to guarantee that the territory’s care and protection system provides similar safeguards to those that families and children enjoy everywhere else in Australia.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Community Services and Social Inclusion, Minister for Disability, Children and Youth, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations) (4.47): I move the following amendment that has been circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes:
(a) that the 2004 Vardon Report (‘The Territory as Parent’) discussed the importance of internal and external scrutiny of child protection services;
(b) that a number of parents, carers and agencies have called for processes to be established for external review of Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS) decisions;
(c) the 2016 Glanfield Inquiry (‘Report of the Inquiry’) made six recommendations in relation to the Decision Making, Quality Assurance and Oversight of CYPS in the ACT;
(d) the Glanfield Inquiry specifically recommended that ‘a review should be undertaken of what decisions made by CYPS should be subject to either internal or external merits review’ and that ‘The review should have regard to the position in other jurisdictions and be chaired by the Justice and Community Safety’; and
(e) that the ACT Government in its 2016 ‘Response to Family Violence’ accepted the Glanfield Inquiry recommendations; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) recognise that transparency and accountability enhance community confidence in public administration, especially in complex areas such as statutory child protection services;
(b) ensure that processes are focused at all times on the best interests of children and young people; and
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