Protecting Children Directions for Reform

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Protecting ChildrenDirections for Reform

• Mary Ann OLoughlinDecember 2003

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Outline

• Context for change
• Directions for reform
• a community partnership for the welfare and
  protection of children

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Child protection does well what it was set up to
do

• Intent of the Children and Young Persons Act
• for protection of children who have suffered
  significant harm
• not to be confused with long-term social welfare
  programs
• emergency service short-term intervention
• Trigger for intervention
• notification of suspected child abuse
• Service response
• investigation
• referral to services
• protective intervention
• protection orders
• out-of-home care placement

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Effectiveness of approach

• A clear advantage
• effective in identifying and responding to
  critical episodes of allegations of child abuse
  and neglect
• with the emphasis on determining the substance of
  a notified episode and acting decisively.
• This is consistent with its intended role.

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Problems with this approach

• Statutory basis of child protection drives the
  process
• limiting the responses available and their
  flexibility
• Increasingly, cases are of a more chronic nature
• addressing the problems, enabling the families to
  better cope with the problems, requires more
  flexible responses and sustained support
• Children who are at lower risk often fall outside
  the mandate of the legislation
• opportunities are missed early on to provide
  positive assistance that can help the families
  avoid major problems in the future.

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Key characteristics of cases first investigated
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A revolving client population

• 62 of children notified have been notified
  before
• 50 of children investigated have been
  investigated before
• 40 of children in cases substantiated for child
  abuse or neglect have been substantiated before

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Projections

• Based on current experience
• 19.3 of the cohort born in 2003 who grow up in
  Victoria will be notified at some time during
  their childhood or adolescence
• 9 will be the subject of an investigation for
  alleged abuse or neglect
• 4.5 will be the subject of a substantiated case
  of child abuse during childhood or adolescence

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Causes of child abuse

• There is no single, sufficient or necessary cause
  of child abuse
• the problems that lead to child abuse are usually
  entrenched and intractable.
• But whether child abuse will take place in the
  face of these problems is the balance of stresses
  and supports.
• Need for more sustained and broad-ranging
  approaches to families that go beyond immediate
  safety issues.

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Directions for reform

• If government aims to solve (or at least
  minimise) the problem of child abuse, to do so
  effectively requires it to become involved in
  broader issues, earlier, and with greater
  flexibility.

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Community partnership for the welfare and
protection of children

• Based on a unifying framework for the welfare and
  protection of children.
• Four key elements
• partnership supported by new infrastructure,
  processes and governance arrangements
• a new model for intake, assessment and referral
• a broader range of service responses and
• a different approach to out-of-home care.

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A unifying framework

• The UKs Children Act 1989 embraces the idea of
  simultaneously safeguarding and promoting
  childrens welfare
• sets out the obligations of Government to assist
  families who need help in bringing up their
  children
• provides for protection of children where they
  are suffering from harm
• A defining characteristic of the UK framework is
  the acknowledgment that child protection cannot
  be separated from policies to improve childrens
  lives as a whole.

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Minister Garbutts 4 June Statement

• The government's emphasis is on prevention. We
  will
• provide support for the development of all
  children
• identify vulnerable children and families before
  they encounter difficulties and provide special
  support
• divert children and families at risk into
  appropriate community based support and offer
  flexible alternatives to them when they need
  help.

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Aims of the centres

• To identify earlier families who are in need by
  encouraging families to approach services for
  support.
• To better integrate child protection services
  into the fabric of community life.
• To broaden responsibility for child protection by
  increasing community service providers
  understanding of and responsibility for at-risk
  children.
• To foster greater service collaboration and
  coordination.

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Community support networks

• Builds upon the work being undertaken by the
  Innovation Projects set up by DHS
• Key point
• responding effectively to the complex and diverse
  needs of vulnerable families requires a network
  of locally coordinated, community-based services,
  delivering an integrated service response.
• Networks include child protection, family
  support, health, housing, police and education.

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Governance issues

• Challenges for building an effective partnership
  among government and non-government agencies
• separate governance and management structures
• separate priorities, planning requirements and
  funding streams
• separate review and accountability arrangements
• lack of shared responsibility for service
  provision
• poor mechanisms for interagency consultation and
  support.

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Integrated governance

• Integrated governance permits, supports and
  facilitates cooperation and collaboration among
  different agencies
• shared vision and goals
• key tasks to achieve them
• agreed respective roles and responsibilities
• indicators to judge effectiveness
• facilitative structures and processes such as
  common assessment frameworks, the pooling of
  funding and resources, and co-located services.
• Legislative support would be required
• consistent with a unifying framework for the
  protection and welfare of children.

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Intake

• Currently, access to child protection is via a
  single access and entry point notification.
• Appropriately, a high threshold is applied
• only 35 of notifications are investigated
• of which only 60 are substantiated.
• Possibility of voluntary referral, but no follow
  up.
• Access to intensive family support services is
  also through the protective gateway.

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New model for intake

• Threshold issue who would be responsible for
  intake and initial assessment?
• Consistent with a broader partnership for the
  protection and welfare of children,
  responsibility would belong to an integrated
  child protection and family support service
• The Child and Adolescent Assessment Team, located
  at the Community Child and Family Support Centre
• people with expertise and experience with
  vulnerable families and children
• including, but not restricted to, child
  protection officers.

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Initial assessment two possible decisions

• A notification that a child has suffered, or is
  likely to suffer, significant harm
• an immediate child protection investigation.
• A child concern, indicating that a family is
  facing severe stresses and problems that are
  impacting on the childs welfare, and there are
  concerns about the parents capacity to deal with
  them
• a family assessment by the Child and Adolescent
  Assessment Team over a longer period, leading to
  more tailored responses
• parental involvement would be voluntary.

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Broader range of service responses

• Community Child and Family Support Centre
• Community Support Network
• Intermediate level responses
• Other services not part of the Centre or the
  Network, such as Centrelink.

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Intermediate level responses in child protection

• The role is to seek agreement with the family on
  a plan, including support measures, to keep the
  child safe.
• They allow for dialogue, negotiation and
  deliberation with families outside of formal
  legal processes
• emphasis on flexible responses for families,
  building on capacities
• Cases would be referred directly following a
  child protection assessment or a family
  assessment, or from the Community Support
  Network.
• Participation would be voluntary for families.
• But child protection officers would retain
  existing statutory powers to issue a Protection
  Application if they considered the child was not
  being adequately protected.

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Available and effective services

• Two very important conditions
• the services must be adequately resourced and
  available and
• the services must be effective.

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Effectiveness of services

• Research into effective services highlights the
  necessity for the early provision of
• intensive, comprehensive services
• that are flexible to the changing needs and
  circumstances of families and children.

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Approach to out-of-home care

• Objective to reduce time spent in out-of-home
  care
• Two general ways
• by reducing time in care through preventative and
  diversionary strategies
• for children who spend long periods of time in
  care with no or little chance of reunification
  with their parents, through a move to more stable
  and permanent care arrangements, such as
  permanent care or adoption.

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Experience of children in out-of-home care

• During 2001-02, 8,628 children in out-of-home
  care
• At 30 June 2002, 34 of children in care for 2
  years or more
• Cohort of 1997-98 at end of 5-year period, 46
  remained in care
• for 27 of cohort, no attempt at reunification
• for 19, unsuccessful reunification attempts

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Reducing time in out-of-home care

• One of the clear intentions of the community
  partnership for the welfare and protection of
  children is to reduce the need for out-of-home
  care
• the development of strategies requires all
  relevant services to work collaboratively to help
  keep children at risk out of care.
• Investment in additional support services to
  divert children from care and reduce time spent
  in care.
• Specific proposals put forward in Public
  Parenting
• e.g., greater use of family group conferencing,
  particularly effective with Indigenous families.

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Focus on permanency

• Not all out-of-home should be avoided
• The defining characteristic for children for whom
  permanent care or adoption should be considered
  is that their parents lack the capacity to
  protect them and ensure their well-being, even
  with the provision of intensive services and
  support
• for these children, more should be done, and done
  earlier, to provide them with the opportunity to
  live in and be part of a family.

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Appropriateness of directions for Indigenous
families

• The strategies of the community partnership
  emphasise
• working respectfully with parents and children
  within their communities
• helping families earlier
• broadening responsibility for child protection
• focusing on child welfare and family services and
  support
• working with parents, and the communitys, own
  capacity and desire to self-regulate.

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But appropriateness cannot be assumed

• There are serious and entrenched child protection
  concerns in Indigenous communities.
• The issues are so important and challenging that
  it is not possible to adequately address them as
  part of report
• they demand further examination, led by
  consultation with Indigenous communities and
  organisations.

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Achieving change

• A reconceptualisation of child protection as the
  basis for reform
• with the possibility of incremental strategies
  towards its accomplishment.
• Incremental strategies are important for two
  reasons
• significant implications for practice
• need for significant additional resources and
  funding.

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Concluding hope

• Reform will be based upon advances in our
  knowledge about child development and welfare,
  and the experiences that hinder or enhance it.