Page 4303 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2019
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The Community Services Directorate provides a quarterly progress report on the commencement and progress of work in response to the steering committee interim recommendations. Copies of the progress reports are available on the strong families website.
As part of this ongoing commitment to reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, I am pleased to advise that the Community Services Directorate has: engaged a designated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practice leader within child and youth protection services, who has a key role in embedding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child placement principle within the directorate and ensuring that culturally responsive practice remains at the forefront of decision-making; engaged an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander senior policy officer, who is responsible for the development of a strategy to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child placement principle into child and youth protection services policies and procedures; engaged SNAICC to undertake training for child and youth protection services staff on the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child placement principle in practice—a total of nine workshops have been delivered since March 2019—and continued to support staff to undertake the child and youth protection services cultural development program. The program is designed to provide staff with an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, with a strong focus on collaboration and the establishment of positive working relationships.
Madam Speaker, in addition to the work currently being progressed alongside the response to the Our Booris, Our Way review, I would like to provide an update on the family group conferencing and functional family therapy programs. As members are aware, both of these programs support A step up for our kids and the investment in intensive parenting and family preservation support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
From the commencement of the family group conferencing program in November 2017 up to 30 June 2019, 29 families have been involved in a family group conference, involving 69 children. That is 29 families making decisions about how to keep their children safe. Forty-six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have not subsequently entered care following a family group conference. For the remaining 23 children, decisions about the best care arrangements, other than with birth families, have been made by the extended family.
The partnership between Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation and OzChild continues to deliver the functional family therapy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families at risk of ongoing involvement with the child protection system. As at 30 August 2019, the program is working with 26 families, involving approximately 64 children. More families will be accepted as capacity becomes available. OzChild and Gugan Gulwan are having great success engaging with families. At this stage, they have engaged 100 per cent of families who have been referred to the program.
Madam Speaker, the Community Services Directorate remains committed to the monitoring and measurement of long-term outcomes. In August this year, I tabled the
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