ACT govt releases new strategy to address out-of-home care issues

Almost one in three of those living in out-of-home care in Canberra are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children or young people.

The territory government has launched a new eight-year families and children's strategy to address issues facing those in the out-of-home care system.

The government will develop Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, with a plan to transition responsibility of case management of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to these organisations.

The strategy will also focus on ensuring all child and youth protection is culturally safe and leads with self-determination. It will be in line with recommendations set out in the Our Booris, Our Way review.

Families and Community Services Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people was "absolutely unacceptable".

"That is not OK and we have a lot of work to do to turn that around," she said.

Ms Stephen-Smith said reducing the number would be one of the most important priorities in the strategy.

"So many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are affected by intergenerational trauma as a result of the stolen generations and a result of their parents being taken into care,"

"We know that we need to disrupt that and change that trajectory to address that intergenerational trauma."

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The Next Steps for our Kids strategy is an extension of the government's out-of-home care strategy, which it first launched in 2015 in response to increasing demand in the sector.

The number of children who have entered out-of-home care over the past seven years has declined but the number of people receiving family support services has increased.

The age profile of children in out-of-home care in the ACT has changed. There have been fewer children under the age of five entering care but more children over 10 have entered care.

The number of children who have higher levels of behavioural complexity has also increased.

The strategy has outlined initiatives to establish best practice processes for reviewing child protection decisions, improving early referrals for families to community-based supports and to increase access to prenatal and early parenting support for parents at risk of engagement with the child protection system.

The government has also planned to invest in restorative and trauma responsive approaches for child and youth protection workers and to establish an intensive trauma recovery service for adolescents and young adults.

Ms Stephen-Smith described the release of the strategy as a huge milestone in the reform of child and family services in the territory.

She said the strategy would better engage child youth protection services with non-government services, birth families and carers. She said it would aim to deliver a more trauma-informed and restorative child protection and out-of-home care system.

"Our vision is that all children and young people in the ACT are safe, strong and connected and able to live their best lives," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"We know that that can only happen when the whole system works together."

"This strategy is very much focused on ensuring that we can work with families earlier that we can provide more support earlier to avoid families reaching crisis and to avoid the point where children and young people need to come into statutory care."

The reforms were welcomed by the ACT Council of Social Service. Head of the organisation's Aboriginal cultural awareness education Gulanga Program Rachelle Kelly-Church said the ACT community had long called for more investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

ACTCOSS chief executive Emma Campbell said some of the reforms were long overdue, including a commitment to establish internal and external review mechanisms.

Dr Campbell also called for the government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. Legislation on this reform has stalled in recent months.

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