The Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER): Has it been successful in protecting Indigenous children through support for families? Debbie Scott and Daryl Higgins

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The Northern Territory Emergency Response
(NTER)Has it been successful in protecting
Indigenous children through support for
families?Debbie Scott and Daryl Higgins
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Disclaimer

• The Australian Institute of Family Studies
  (AIFS) is committed to the creation and
  dissemination of research-based information on
  family functioning and wellbeing.
• Views expressed here are those of individual
  authors and may not reflect those of the
  Australian Institute of Family Studies or the
  Australian Government.

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Background

• Release of Little Children Are Sacred Report
  (2007)
• initial emphasis on sexual abuse
• focus changed to issues of neglect
• Context important
• decades of disadvantage
• structural difficulties in funding
• cost differential in remote areas

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Overview of NTER

• Announced 21 July 2007
• Aim
• protect children
• make communities safe
• build better future for people living in the 73
  prescribed Indigenous communities town camps
• covers population of 42,229 of which approx.
  16,000 are children (in 2006)
• Part II of Racial Discrimination Act (1975)
  suspended (reinstated June 2010)

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Context of Review

• NTER Review Board reported 2008
• Desktop review commissioned by FaHCSIA in 2011
• based on existing surveys and data
• Northern Territory Emergency Response Evaluation
  Report 2011http//www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenou
  s/pubs/nter_reports/Documents/nter_evaluation_repo
  rt_2011.PDF

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Aim of presentation

• To describe the findings from our review of NTER
  data as they relate to
• key risk factors for child maltreatment
• measures to protect and improve outcomes for
  Indigenous children in the prescribed NTER
  communities
• the context of the National Framework for
  Protecting Australias Children

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Ecological model for risk factors associated with
maltreatment
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Limitations

• Documents available
• Limited data
• baseline measurements
• denominator
• child protection data
• Not all impact is measureable
• perception of safety
• unintended effects

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Welfare Reform and EmploymentColmar Brunton

• Some positive effects
• stronger, safer, sustainable communities with
  less humbugging, money better spent healthier
  children
• licensed stores better quantity with wider range
• improved sense of well being due to increased
  employment opportunity
• more than 2000 ongoing jobs created
• Blanket implementation loss of freedom and
  empowerment
• Requires sustainable development

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Improving child and family healthAustralian
Institute of Health and Welfare

• Implemented child health checks, expanded service
  delivery, coordinated drug and alcohol responses
  and a sexual assault mobile outreach team
• 65 received a health check and follow-up
• decline in rates of anaemia, wasting and stunting
• Still issues of hearing impairment and follow-up

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Enhancing educationAustralian Council for
Educational Research

• Improvement in Yr. 3 literacy and numeracy
• Increased resourcing
• infrastructure housing, classrooms
• pre-school programs
• teacher professional support
• student wellbeing nutrition
• No observable improvement in attendance 2006-2010

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Promoting law and order Australian Institute of
Criminology

• Increased policing resources
• Recorded crime has increased
• more resources more crime reported and detected
• Survey results suggest that people feel safer
• suggestion that alcohol bans have only moved the
  problem

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Housing and land reformKPMG

• 5 yr leases enabled repairs and upgrading to
  community housing
• Few applications for long-term leases
• Permit system may have reduced some red tape but
  also opened access to undesirable persons
• Only qualitative data to say this has resulted in
  improvements

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Coordination and EngagementAllen Consulting Group

• Challenge to tailor services
• Need for coordination and control but increase
  community engagement and decision making
• Some anecdotal signs of improvement
• Strong community support for Indigenous
  Engagement Officers
• Level of uncertainty around ongoing funding

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Supporting FamiliesAIFS

• Child Protection
• no national incidence or prevalence
• system has finite capacity
• statistics measure activity also include those
  at risk, maybe not abused
• better to intervene and support prior to needing
  tertiary intervention
• need to deal with underlying issues first

Scott Higgins (2011)
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Supporting FamiliesAIFS

• Community, family, child safety
• ongoing issues but community survey suggests
  people feel safer
• Family Violence
• Aboriginal women over-represented in statistics
• 34 report family violence as a concern (25 rest
  of Australia)

Scott Higgins (2011)
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Supporting FamiliesAIFS

• Safe places to escape violence
• Safe Houses
• Mens Places
• not just for escaping but also for program
  delivery parenting program, anger management,
  etc.
• Night Patrols
• not police but community members
• minimise harm non-coercive, culturally
  appropriate

Scott Higgins (2011)
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Supporting FamiliesAIFS

• Alcohol and substance abuse
• Included blanket ban on alcohol
• Youth alcohol diversion programs
• Community survey
• almost 50 said alcohol is a problem for their
  family
• restrictions had little effect
• Drinkers travelling outside the community to
  access alcohol raises issues for child safety
  (supervision)

Scott Higgins (2011)
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Supporting FamiliesAIFS

• Remote Aboriginal and Family Community Workers
• not perceived as child protection workers
• support for families to access services
• liaise with child protection to support families
• lack of definitive data but anecdotally helpful
  families trust them child protection workers
  acknowledge their importance
• need resourcing (professional and funding) to be
  sustainable

Scott Higgins (2011)
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Key messages from NTER review, cont.

• Child protection data
• pre-NTER, rates of notifications and
  substantiations for Indigenous children
  significantly lower than other states
• substantiations doubled between 2006-07 and
  2009-10
• ¾ of this increase related to child neglect
  concerns
• this increase brought NT in line with other
  states/territories

Scott Higgins (2011)
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Substantiation rates for Indigenous and
non-Indigenous children in the Northern Territory
and Australia
Source Steering Committee for the Review of
Government Service Provision
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Data context

• No reliable child maltreatment prevalence data
  anywhere in Australia
• More Indigenous children live in NSW (71,194)
  than the NT (27,458) (March 2011)
• The number of Indigenous children with
  substantiated child protection concerns in
  2010-11
• NSW 3,303
• NT 1,186

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Supporting FamiliesAIFS

• Additional Child-at-risk workers
• 70 increase in FTE workers
• issues of use of statutory data
• Mobile Child Protection Teams
• provide support and services to remote areas
• have helped to clear backlog

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Contextual issues

• Community perceptions of NTER showed that people
  felt the following aspects of the NTER made the
  biggest difference
• policing
• night patrols
• Safe Houses/Mens Places

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Summary

• Legitimate concerns for child safety
• data cant tell us how big the problem is
• system overwhelmed remoteness, disadvantaged,
  lack of services
• poor consultation/engagement concerns about
  implementation
• highlighted unacceptably high levels of
  disadvantage social dislocation
• Need to work together to make changes

NTER Review Board (2008)
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Conclusion

• Outcomes for health, education, employment,
  housing and safety showed some improvement but
  were still well below those for non-Indigenous
  people.
• (Roediger, 2011, p. 8)