![The Liberals have committed to family conferencing being a legal right under a new election promise. Picture: Shutterstock The Liberals have committed to family conferencing being a legal right under a new election promise. Picture: Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/de024f8b-a36f-4d41-9283-3a3c476588bb.jpg/r623_666_4832_3222_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Family conferences would become a legal entitlement for all vulnerable families involved in the ACT care and protection system under a Liberal election commitment to reform the sector.
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The process would involve a family-led and legally binding process to resolve issues before the government steps in or the matter is referred to the justice system.
A trained coordinator would help the family develop a plan and develop agreements, which are monitored and approved by child welfare agents, under the Liberals' plan.
Liberals leader Alistair Coe said family conferencing had halved the number of children in care and protection in New Zealand, leading the country to have one of the developed world's lowest rates of children in care.
"Model governments around the world have proven the effectiveness of family group conferencing to keep children out of the care and protection system by building a family's capacity to care for and protect their child," Mr Coe said.
Shadow families minister Elizabeth Kikkert said decisions needed to be made with families rather than for them.
"Families are the answer to many of the issues we see in the ACT care and protection system. Too often, significant decisions are made without consulting families and result in lengthy and painful court battles," Ms Kikkert said.
She said initiatives in other countries had shown the conferencing model to be effective but appropriate steps would still be taken when the model does not work.
The ACT government launched a pilot program for family conferencing in August 2017, providing extra support to Aboriginal families at risk of having their children taken into care.
A 2017 report found more than 80 per cent of children involved in a review of the care and protection system in the territory were subject to family violence for years with minimal change or intervention.
In February, ACT Human Rights commissioner Helen Watchirs told a Legislative Assembly inquiry the present system fell "well short" of the territory's human rights standards.