Restoration Initiatives

1. ACWA Reunification Forum 6 December 2007 By Linda Mallett Executive Director Child and Family Welfare Restoration Initiatives

2. DoCS commitment • DoCS is committed to improving the range and quality of services for children and young people in OOHC with a focus on • Permanency planning • Improvements in foster, relative and kinship care • Building a robust service system

3. DoCS Corporate plan 2004/5- 2008/9 • Objectives and results for OOHC • Children and young people in permanent placements • Children and young people restored to their family • Supporting children and young people with high needs • Improving the OOHC System

4. OOHC Major Project • Established in June 2006 • Involves cross departmental projects involving: • Research and analysis • Planning and evaluation • Funding and Performance Monitoring • Policy and service model development • Implementation in Regions

5. Funding and Performance Monitoring • $617 million in OOHC funding • EOI to be concluded early 2008 • Capacity in Aboriginal organisations is being enhanced • Costing manual produced • Service provision guidelines being developed • Performance Monitoring Framework developed • OOHC Program Guidelines published

6. Research Agenda • Provides the evidence base to inform policy, practice and program development and improvement • Guided by DoCS Research Advisory Council • Overarching focus: • “ what interventions and practice approaches lead to the desired results for clients of DoCS and in what context or circumstances?”

7. Research Initiatives • Research to Practice Seminars eg Life pathways and decision making for very young children in care : Professor Harriet Ward • Literature Reviews eg Contact between children in OOHC and their birth families • Research to Practice Updates • Benefit Estimation Database launched • www.community.nsw.gov.au

8. Policy Initiatives • Permanency Planning Policy • Contact Policy • Restoration Decision-Making Guidelines • Parenting Capacity Assessment • Our Carers for Our Kids: updated training and assessment package for Aboriginal carers

9. Practice changes: Permanency Planning Project • Project goals: • Increase capacity of practitioners to make earlier and better decisions about a child’s future • Decisions about restoration made within 6 months for children under 2 years, within 12 months for older children • Link to evidence about attachment and placement stability • Range of permanency options considered, including restoration & adoption • Four stage rollout of the Project is underway with a focus on children 0-2 years • Expansion to include older children and Aboriginal children being planned

10. Family Preservation Model: service elements • Intensive support to family member/s • Assistance managing challenging behaviours • Coordination of specialist assessments • Development of practical skills (e.g. budgeting) • Access to targeted brokerage funds • Provide or coordinate access to group work and other activities promoting personal development • Referral to less intensive intervention services

11. Family Preservation Model: service elements for 12 – 15 year olds • Assist in developing living skills • Assist with developing interpersonal skills • Assist with access to suitable educational, training and/or pre-employment opportunities • Provide information, referrals and advocacy • Assist in developing a family reconnection plan to support positive re-integration over time

12. Evaluation • Ernst and Young have been engaged to conduct the OOHC program evaluation • A performance measure that will be tracked is • ‘%of children in OOHC with a case plan goal of restoration who: • are restored to their parents within 12 months of entering care • do not return to OOHC during the subsequent 12 months’

13. Other initiatives • Recruitment of additional 300 DoCS OOHC caseworkers to fill new positions • Participation in Children’s Guardian Accreditation and Quality improvement program • Centralised foster carer recruitment and marketing campaign: 2,000 expressions of interest received

14. Restoration is an important strategy in the achievement of OOHC policy goals: • To help parents regain care of their children • To provide care in a family-like environment for children who cannot live at home • To maintain the existing ties that children and young people have with their families and communities.