The Malinauskas Government has committed an additional $16.6 million to South Australia’s child protection system with a focus on best practice approaches to keep children safe within their family unit and Aboriginal led initiatives that will provide the foundations for transformational change.
Recognising the unacceptable over representation of Aboriginal children in care and the commitment of all jurisdictions to do better, the investment will include targeted efforts to support Aboriginal children and their families to stay together, through Aboriginal led decision-making for Aboriginal children, young people, families and communities.
Across the forward estimates, $13.4 million will significantly expand and deepen the successful Family Group Conferencing (FGC) program, where a child’s extended family is brought together to find solutions to keep children safely at home.
This voluntary process is led by families and provides an opportunity for family and community members to come together, with resources support, and make decisions that support the safety and best interests of the child or young person.
The State Government is also leading the nation in committing $3.2 million to establish an independent Aboriginal community controlled peak body designed to empower the Aboriginal community to ensure measures are in place to improve care and protection outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people.
This investment follows the long-standing advocacy by the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People and Aboriginal community leaders, which culminated in the State Government engaging SNAICC – the national Peak Body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people – to undertake a community-led process to identify a preferred model for the peak body in South Australia.
The peak body will partner with government to try to reduce the over representation of Aboriginal children and young people across the child protection system, including those in care.
It will also have a role in strengthening the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, recognising that Aboriginal people and organisations are best placed to provide culturally safe and effective services for Aboriginal children and families.
The new funding adds to the more than $155 million committed to the State’s child protection system since last year’s State Election.
Quotes
Attributable to Katrine Hildyard
It is incredibly concerning that the rate of Aboriginal children entering care is growing. I am steadfastly committed to doing what we can to help ensure this trend does not persist.
This additional funding is a crucial and nation leading step forward in tackling the complex issues in child protection and the difficult and complex circumstances that children and young people, and their families, face.
Better resourcing for Family Group Conferencing recognises and enables the strengths in extended families, creates opportunities to achieve better outcomes for children by involving more family and community members and creates avenues for support mechanisms, where possible, so that children have better opportunities to safely stay with their families.
Resourcing a peak body for Aboriginal children and young people is a step that Aboriginal leaders have wanted for some time. This commitment to the establishment of a peak will support Aboriginal-led solutions and build the capacity of the Aboriginal controlled sector to deliver services, which we know will lead to better outcomes for Aboriginal children.
We will continue to work to bring together the whole of government, whole of community and whole of sector to ensure children and young people have the best opportunity to mentally, physically and emotionally thrive and be safe, loved and nurtured.
Attributable to the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, April Lawrie
This peak body is well overdue and absolutely necessary to bring in the community voice and leadership which for a long time has been marginalised; the voice and advocacy will transform the way in which policy and service development will look like for Aboriginal children and young people.
The family group conferencing expansion will therefore not only need to be informed by what I have heard, what I know works and what I speak of but also what is raised by the peak.
