Child and Family Sector Policy and Advocacy Network

M I N U T E S

Child and Family Sector Policy and Advocacy Network

Tuesday 25thJuly 2017; 9:00am – 11:00am

Attendees:

Janet Wight (Youth Advocacy Centre Inc) / Michelle Hodges (Mercy)
Nina MacKenzie (UnitingCare Queensland) / Siobhan Delgado (QFCA)
Elisabeth Kobierski (Yourtown) / Helen Fogarty (NAPCAN)
Susie Edwards (The Family Inclusion Network SEQ - Micah Projects Ltd) / Sarah Crouch (Foundations Care)
Anne Curson (Churches of Christ in Queensland) / David O'Toole (Kyabra Community Assoc)
Tracey Smith (PeakCare Qld Inc) / Jenny Whitworth (C&K)
Jane Carter (hurches of Christ in Qld) / Mark Kavanagh (Healthcare Australia)
Yvonne Ries (Goodstart Early Learning) / Peter Walsh (The Benevolent Society – Brisbane)
Jessica Burke (Community Living Association Inc) / Laura Barnes (QCOSS)

Apologies:

Louise Dwyer (Beaucare) / Kaye Pickering
Glenda Coxeter (Department of Communities) / Leanne Wood (Anglicaresq)
ITEM / DISCUSSION / ACTION / AGREEMENT
Proposed purposes, as per invitation /

1. engage in regular dialogue about emerging issues
2. identify common policy issues and opportunities for complementary positions
3. strengthen policy advocacy in the sector
4. consult and engage on key policy changes and reform directions

Check in: Past, present and future areas of social policy interest / C&K: input to legislative changes; cost and access to early childhood education and care, particularly kindergarten; inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
QFCA: legal processes in the family law system, impacts on children, hearing the voices of children and challenges with being inclusive of 14+ year olds; lack of youth services in rural and remote areas
Mercy Community Services: responding to young people in Out of Home Care (OOHC) who have complex and extreme needs, looking at Australian and international responses; NDIS roll out: identifying the gaps; cultural engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
Family Inclusion Network: working with Kyabra around OOHC reforms and parents’ involvement; more engagement with services: services not asking what families need, telling what they have, which adversely impacts on parents asking for help; foster and kinship carers experience some of the same issues as parents
QCOSS: How are we performing, outcomes, measuring this, and finding gaps, at the level of ‘place’; focus on ‘child and family wellbeing’; hearing the voice of communities
The Benevolent Society: wanting to reduce the number of children in OOHC, family support and early intervention that supports parent and child wellbeing
UnitingCare: Re children and young people in OOHC - increasing complexity, transition into independent living, support to foster and kinship carers; cultural capability; differences between Kinship Care and Foster Care; changing workforce needs relating to consumer directed care, mandatory qualifications; developing opportunities for government AND private investment in services
YAC: legal issues for children and young people in the child protection and youth justice systems are social issues; criminalisation of young people in OOHC; 17 year olds moving into the youth justice system; hearing young people’s voices; government silos family support into child protection, when the same families are in a range of service systems
Goodstart early learning: national legislation reducing aspects in childcare: very much aimed at work rather than early education; changes in reporting mean the focus is on workforce participation, a diversion from the benefits of ECEC; working with children checks
Health Care Australia: inconsistency of jurisdictional working with children checks and Licensing of Care Service (LCS) checks adversely impact on workforce, need to speed up the processes
Churches of Christ: social benefit bond around youth homelessness; what needs to be measured; needs to be achieved; Advocate: are we child-safe; are we listening to children and young people’s voices; supporting staff to have conversations with child and also with other staff; nationally consistent screening of workers; position paper about a long term advocacy plan for education; challenging behaviours of children and young people in OOHC
Kyabra: housing and homelessness, including 500 homes, 500 lives and next steps around integrated responses and a supply of affordable housing; NDIS: concerns for who can't access (‘hard to reach’ groups) and advocacy and policy around this; properly operationalising the DCCSDS practice framework to hear the voice of family: how do we build safe care that acknowledges poverty and disadvantage; differences between foster care and kinship care, where the latter is more akin to family support; reduced siloed practice and more integration
NAPCAN: campaigns and lobbying at the far end of a continuum; national Child Protection Week; professional development, mandatory reporting by ECEC workers; training around a child safe organisation package
Foundations Care: silos are a barrier; over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in care, and children and a significant gap linking these children to family, community and culture
PeakCare: in the context of feedback from workshops and the survey of residential care workers for the Hope and Healing Framework professional development strategy, developing guidelines for residential care workers around engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people and ways to make links within community (student placement project); intersection of child protection and family support with, for example, domestic and family violence, ECEC; NDIS; children and young people realising their educational entitlements; incorporate commentary and strategies around the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families in the child protection system; exploring evidence-based / informed practice: what does this mean for NGO services and programs; many submissions to state and commonwealth child and family inquiries and reform agendas
Community Living Association – ARROS: NDIS for people with cognitive disabilities, who will / won’t receive NDIS; early parents, eg. young women exiting state care and having a child, a cycle of child protection intervention; access to mainstream support services
Yourtown: work with eSafety Commissioner around, for example, safety in virtual spaces; child access to pornography; Child Protection Week; online platform: bullying; youth suicide; advocating for young people’s access to one point for mental health; long term unemployed: real paid employment: real skills; working with children checks; stigma of young parents; domestic violence and housing issues, for example, recent issues about refuges funded through business models
Group identification of priority areas for network activity / The network under a group activitry to prioritise areas for action – the following represents the final priority list. A full list of activities and priority areas is provided as Attachment 1
1)Integrated service system – across all areas
i.Localised service response
ii.For families in need – destigmatise
iii.Disentangling Kinship and Foster Care
2)Voices of children & young people
i.Embed in policy and program development
ii.Lawyers who represent children without talking to them
iii.People who walk with children
iv.How do we engage with children and young people?
3)Outcomes framework
i.National Working with Children Check to change the system
4)Voices of adults/communities/families
5)Ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander lens across everything
6)How do we as leader’s work (and articulate it to others)
7)Communication – across agencies/orgs/sectors
Future structure and organisational arrangements / The network will operate through a dedicated Community Door Network Space. The network space can be found at - If you aren’t already a member of community door, you can join at:
Others organisations to be included in the network are: Queensland Shelter, NDS, QATSICPP
Date of next Meeting / 2 – 4pm, Thursday 14 September 2017, at QCOSS

Attachment 1

Individual / Pairs / Groups of 4 / 2 large groups
Access to NDIS, eg. young people exiting care, detention, complex needs, complex behaviours / Improving outcomes for children and young people in out of home care / Listening to children and families to identify needs / Voices of children and young people
Tackling intergenerational responses to issues, eg. young people exiting care and early parenting / Improved family support for vulnerable families especially for housing and DV / Listening to the voices of children and young people in decisions that impact them, eg. program design and development / Outcomes framework
Specific needs and experiences of young people, including those who live in out of home care, criminalisation in OOHC / Integrating early years into family support / Listening to community / Integrative service system that meets the needs of the child wherever they are on the continuum (eg. child care, OOHC, youth justice, mental health)
Family Court System / Connectivity across govt and non-govt sectors / Incorporating the voices and experiences of families to build an effective family support system / National working with children check
Local responses, local spaces, less ‘red tape’ / Systemic Change / What does the system look like to prevent entry to out of home care? / Reducing silos
Challenging / eliminating govt siloing so whole-of-system focus, responses are child / youth / family focused, integrated practice, improved outcomes, responses across life course (0 to 25 yo) / Local responses around out of home care, DFV, early childhood education and care, affordable housing / Reducing silos, integrated, local responses across sectors, along the continuum and child centred
Out of home care – improving outcomes and wellbeing, reunification, children’s rights, early learning / kindy, connection to culture for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people / Intergenerational work with families to lift people out of the cycle of disadvantage / How do we define and improve the outcomes for families?
Disentangling Kinship Care from Foster care and statutory system / Criminalisation of young people / Support for families experiencing vulnerabilities -intergenerational support, building parental capacity, adolescents and families
Housing - for families escaping DV, affordable for vulnerable families / Child wellbeing (infant mental health, family / child, family support) / National working with children check
Hearing and reflecting the voices of: consumers, children and young people, parents / family in policy making, design and delivery of services and programs, in decision making / Incorporating the voices of children, young people, parents, families and communities in service / program design and development / Model a system change with working with children checks
E-delivery - cyber / Culturally safe practice
Suitability and working with children checks – automated online processes, national consistency / National working with children checks to model a systems change
Addressing poverty and exclusion
Focus on ‘child wellbeing’ across child protection, FV, family support, infant mental health
Creating more family inclusive policy
Access to early quality childhood education for non-working families, 2 years of kindy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
Culturally safe practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander OOHC workers re qualification requirements
Public awareness of children's rights
Resilience and communication training for families
Early intervention of vulnerabilities / family support – taking ‘family support’ out of the tertiary space, even access, support across housing, health, education, parenting

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