Page 1845 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
In addition, the Children and Young People Commissioner can take complaints about a service for a child or young person if the service did not comply with guidelines, did not meet appropriate standards of care, impacted badly on a child or young person or did not comply with the law. Initially, the Children and Young People Commissioner requires that complaints about child protection services are first referred to the office for children, youth and family support’s complaints unit within CSD. If they cannot be satisfactorily addressed through that process, complaints can be made to the Children and Young People Commissioner and the commissioner will take complaints seriously, will listen to people’s views and will deal with the complaint as quickly as possible and, as I mentioned earlier, has the capacity to access information in doing that—a wide range of information that is held by child and youth protection services.
I also make the point that since 2013, and indeed since the initial appeal in this case was heard in April 2015, the ACT government has undertaken significant out of home care reforms under A step up for our kids. This includes funding the birth parent advocacy service I mentioned earlier and establishing intensive parenting supports under the strengthening high risk families domain. This has been part of a deliberate focus on preventing children and young people entering care by ensuring that they can live safely with their family and restoring children home to their parents where this is a safe and sustainable outcome.
The latest snapshot report, which I tabled in the Assembly in April, showed that 25 per cent fewer children entered out of home care in 2018 than in 2017. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, there was a 45 per cent reduction over the same period. While these are early numbers and they still reflect significant over-representation compared with population shares, they are moving in the right direction. I understand that the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the system is a source of incredible heartbreak and trauma for the local community. The government is committed to addressing the continued over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in care, and that is why I established a review into the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families in the ACT child protection system.
Our Booris, Our Way is run by a wholly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander steering committee, with an Aboriginal-led team reviewing the cases of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child or young person in touch with the child protection system at the point of the review commencing. This is self-determination in action, and the directorate has already started addressing the review’s early recommendations. Alongside this important work, the government has also implemented family group conferencing and a functional family therapy program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
There is no doubt we have more to do. We are committed to a therapeutic, trauma-informed system for children and young people and these principles are becoming more embedded. We are committed to shifting practice towards restorative models, working with families, rather than doing to or for them, and recognising that parents, extended family members and carers will often have their own trauma experience that must be understood. It is, of course, frustrating but inevitable that
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video