Page 2890 - Week 08 - Thursday, 17 August 2017
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a significant refresh of the supervision framework and delivered extensive training about the framework to staff, established an internal audit team that is undertaking a range of quality assurance and practice audits, and established an internal training and workforce development team to respond to the specific training needs of child protection workers. I think we all understand that staff can only make good decisions if they are provided with the right training, information, tools and resources. These quality assurance enabling systems are now in place and provide opportunity for child and youth protection services to continue to develop a learning organisation culture.
Finally, the Glanfield inquiry identified oversight as an issue for further consideration. Oversight of statutory systems like the child protection service is critical. The ACT government, in the 2017-18 budget, provides funding for an additional senior advocate to increase the capacity of the Public Advocate’s office to meet its statutory obligations, not only by responding to increased demand but also by analysing emerging themes and promoting system improvements in a more proactive way. This budget initiative also provides funding to undertake the further work set out in recommendation 15 of Glanfield to assess whether resources directed towards the Public Advocate adequately support its oversight role. It will consider the resources of the Children and Young People Commissioner to perform oversight functions and the Community Services Directorate’s resources to respond to oversight bodies.
I mentioned earlier the other established independent mechanisms already in place that perform oversight and external scrutiny functions of the child protection system. Just to remind members, these include the Children’s Court and other courts, the Human Rights Commission, which incorporates the Office of the Public Advocate and the Children and Young People Commissioner, and the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for some administrative decisions.
In addition, as part of the A step up for our kids reforms and to improve accountability and oversight, all places of residential care were made visitable places under the Children and Young People Act 2008, ensuring that each residential place receives a visit from an official visitor at least once a month. Official visitors are appointed by the ACT Attorney-General to provide external oversight and monitoring and complaints systems for young people who are in residential care. During 2016-17 the official visitors visited residential places of care 157 times. Advocating for improvements to services and facilities for children and young people has the potential to alleviate pressure on the child protection system while also providing benefits for the children and young people of the ACT more generally.
The ACT has taken very seriously the recommendations made in the Glanfield inquiry, and significant progress has been made against the recommendations. The ACT government remains focused on ensuring the most vulnerable people in our community—children and young people—are protected from those who place them at risk of harm, and on working with families to improve their ability to keep their children safely at home. Our ongoing support was most recently demonstrated with the 2017-18 budget allocating $10 million each year for vulnerable children and young people. This funding provides the opportunity to employ additional child protection workers and respond to increases in demand for out of home care services.
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