Page 1136 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 April 2019
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an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, with a strong focus on collaboration and the establishment of positive working relationships.
The 2018-19 budget review included $308,000 in 2018-19 to commence work on addressing the Our Booris, Our Way recommendations. Five further recommendations were received from the steering committee in December. I have provided an initial response to the committee regarding these recommendations, and work has already commenced on a number of them.
Alongside this important work being undertaken through the Our Booris, Our Way review, I also take the opportunity today to provide an update on the family group conferencing program and the functional family therapy program being progressed by child and youth protection services in order to support the investment of A step up for our kids in intensive parenting and family preservation supports for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
As members are aware, the family group conferencing model for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families is being delivered in partnership with the majority Aboriginal owned and managed organisation Curijo. Where children are not able to stay safely at home, the team works with and supports families to identify the most appropriate kinship options to ensure the children remain connected to family and community.
Family group conferencing ensures all members of a child’s extended family are contacted and encouraged to be involved in the decision-making process about the child’s situation. This process is considered to be in line with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural values of family and community responsibility and has been supported by the Our Booris, Our Way steering committee.
From the commencement of the family group conferencing program in November 2017 to the end of March 2019, 22 families have been involved in a family group conference, involving 50 children—that is 22 families making decisions about how to keep their children safe. Thirty-one Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have not subsequently entered care following a family group conference. For the remaining 19 children, decisions about the best care arrangements other than with birth families have been made by the extended family.
In the last progress report presented to the Legislative Assembly, I spoke to fact that work would commence in early 2019 on the new functional family therapy program. I am pleased to advise that the partnership between Gugan Gulwan and OzChild for the delivery of functional family therapy is now taking referrals. The program specifically targets Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families with children and young people aged from birth to 17 at risk of entering the out of home care system, to support the reunification of a child or young person from care.
In closing, I acknowledge the importance of A step up for our kids to the Canberra community. I look forward to sharing the results of the mid-strategy evaluation and the ongoing transformation of the out of home care system with the Assembly in the next progress report. I present the following papers:
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