Page 1730 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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many families cannot advocate for themselves; thus it leads to poor outcomes for the children and young people who are meant to be helped, and often very poor outcomes for their families as well.
Clearly, CYP system decisions are very difficult and complex, and the information that guides them is deeply personal. Of course, there are often very real reasons for not sharing information. However, it appears that the act has been constructed with a default prohibition on the sharing of sensitive information. If we add to this the lack of appeal and review of decisions, it creates an environment which does not support transparent and accountable decision-making.
This lack of transparency, plus the massive power imbalance, leads to a lack of trust in the CYPS system, and in the government as a whole, by the people affected by it. Particularly in situations such as the one we looked at in part 1 of our inquiry, where the state has taken a child away, it is vital that families and young people know why it happened and that they can trust that it really is in the best interests of the child. They need to be able to trust that the decisions are just. Trust requires information and transparency that should lead to accountability to the young person and their family in how they are being treated. Mr Chris Donohue, the President of the ACT Law Society, said:
We … request for the Assembly to make laws that give the person, the carer, some degree of confidence and feeling that there is justice in the rule of law. You can have a law, and we all comply with the rule of law, but if there is no justice in it you cannot feel comfortable with the rule of law. It is most important that people who are using this system feel that there is justice—not just there somewhere but there as a first step.
The committee made numerous recommendations about specific information-related improvements that are needed, starting with recommendation 9, which states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government amend the Children and Young People Act 2008 to allow the sharing of sensitive information that would be in the best interests of the child or young person—from a child concern report, a care and protection report, a pre-natal report, provided interstate care and protection information, a contravention report or family group conference information—where respective notifiers consent to the information being shared.
The committee made more recommendations covering requirements that there should be times when information is provided to young people’s parents or lawyers, guidelines about information provision and a specific right to review a decision to refuse information. I admit to being surprised that these recommendations were even needed, because I thought that information was available to those who needed it. However, as we heard from numerous witnesses, including Ms Claudia Maclean, the principal solicitor of the Women’s Legal Centre:
Many women come to our service distressed and confused. They do not know the care and protection system and they are unable to get information from care and protection to clarify the situation.
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