Page 1336 - Week 04 - Thursday, 12 April 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
people from entering care, and to exit children from the system as early and as safely as possible through reunification services. The baseline report reflects point-in-time data as at June last year. From January 2016 to December 2017, programs under the strengthening high risk families domain, for families who have children at risk of entering or who have entered care, engaged with 194 families and 423 children.
It is expected that the reunification numbers will continue to rise as services are now fully operational, resulting in appropriate referrals, assertively engaging with high risk families, client uptake and engagement, and reunification success. Future snapshot reports will be able to track the efficacy of this vital investment in family preservation.
Another area highlighted by the baseline report was the completion rate for trauma-informed training. The Community Services Directorate continues to explore a range of strategies with our partner agencies, through the A step up for our kids joint governance framework, to review training requirements, increase the completion rates of joint training opportunities and ensure a consistent approach to trauma-informed practice.
The step up reform program does not occur in isolation, and over the first two years of implementation there have been a number of system improvements to the child protection system, including in response to the Glanfield review.
While there has been progress across the ACT government in response to the family safety package, I would like to take the opportunity today of informing the Assembly of recent progress by CYPS to improve the capability to respond to family violence. This includes the implementation of a comprehensive training initiative to ensure that front-line workers can respond skilfully and effectively to the complex needs of clients affected by family violence. The development of training by experienced CYPS practice leaders aims to improve responses to children, young people and their families who are experiencing violence. The training was developed by and is presented in partnership with key agencies, including the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, ACT Policing, Corrective Services and the Office of the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions.
This training package assists CYPS staff to identify the presence of domestic violence in the lives of children, young people and their families, as well as assisting them to support early intervention and inter-service collaboration, analyse risk and identify protective factors, engage with those affected by family violence and work with perpetrators of family violence to take responsibility for their own behaviour.
To complement the face-to-face training, an e-learning program has been developed and launched by the CYPS training and workforce development team. The e-learning program consolidates the learning achieved through the face-to-face five-day training program and concludes with a short assessment. To date, 103 front-line staff have completed this program since its launch in April 2016.
In addition to the working with families affected by family violence training, from January 2016 to February 2018 there have been 32 training programs delivered to CYPS staff, including working with families affected by sexual abuse, cumulative
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video