Category 3: Urgent reforms to the child protection system

7. The Victorian Government must amend the Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012 (Vic) to:
   1. specifically establish the role of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People in the same way that the Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People’s role is provided for in the legislation
   2. provide the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People with the same statutory functions and powers as the Principal Commissioner insofar as these powers relate to Aboriginal children and young people in Victoria
   3. expressly provide the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People the function to receive and determine individual complaints from or relating to First Peoples children and young people concerning their treatment in child protection, including out of home care, and
   4. give the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People and the Principal Commissioner rights of intervention in legal proceedings relating to a child or young person’s rights under the Charter to be exercised at their discretion.

These roles and powers must be appropriately resourced.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS, DPC and Victoria Police

8. The Victorian Government must:
   1. work with Aboriginal organisations to develop a consistent definition of early help, early intervention and prevention that aligns with the perspectives of First Peoples. This definition should be adopted across the Victorian Government
   2. enshrine prevention and early help/intervention as a guiding principle in the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) and take all necessary steps to implement this principle in the administration of the Act
   3. as an immediate action, substantially increase investment in Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation prevention and early help/intervention services to keep First Peoples children out of the child protection system and to prevent their involvement from escalating when it does occur, and
   4. review the governance model for implementing target 12 of the Closing the Gap Agreement, with a view to broadening the responsibility to achieve this target beyond the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: All departments

9. The Victorian Government must publicly report annually on the amount and proportion:
   1. of total child protection and family services funding allocated to early intervention (family and parenting services) compared to secondary and tertiary services (community delivered child protection services, care services, transition from care services and other activities), and
   2. of funding allocated to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations compared to mainstream services for early intervention (family and parenting services), secondary and tertiary services.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC

10. The Victorian Government must immediately give a direction to health services (including perinatal, maternal and child health services) that:
    1. clinical and allied health staff working with pregnant women must undertake appropriate training to address bias and build expertise in working safely and effectively with First Peoples women and families to address their social and emotional needs, and
    2. this training must be designed and delivered by a Victorian First Peoples business or consultants on a paid basis, and completion rates of this training must be publicly reported.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Health

Lead agency: DH

Liaison agency: DFFH and DPC

11. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing must ensure that:
    1. when a child protection worker is considering making a pre-birth report, that prior to birth, and with the consent of the pregnant Aboriginal women, organisations (including Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations or Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations) are informed of the rationale for and intention to make a pre-birth report so that they can:
       1. provide input into that decision
       2. ensure people with appropriate training and expertise are involved, and
       3. offer culturally safe supports to the mother, father and/or significant others in the family network
    2. when DFFH receives a pre-birth report from any source, that pregnant Aboriginal women are informed of the report by a person(s) with the appropriate expertise to hold such a sensitive discussion and who has the skills to respond appropriately and offer a range of culturally safe support options, including a referral to a supporting organisation (including an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation or Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation), and
    3. pre-birth reports that are assessed as not requiring further action are to be excluded from this scheme.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC

12. Whenever:
    1. the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing receives a pre-birth report regarding a pregnant Aboriginal woman, or
    2. a child protection report is substantiated regarding an Aboriginal child, then:
    3. subject to the consent of the person to whom the report relates, the Department must automatically notify a Victorian Aboriginal legal service provider to be funded by the Victorian Government so that the child’s parents and/or primary care giver are offered legal help and, where appropriate, non-legal advocacy.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS and DPC

13. The Victorian Government must ensure that an impact evaluation of the Child Protection Risk Assessment Framework (SAFER) is commenced within 12 months, and in the case of First Peoples children:
    1. is First Peoples led and overseen by a First Peoples governance group
    2. has methodology that includes a review of individual cases by the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, and
    3. makes recommendations that include actions to reduce child protection practitioner racial bias when applying the Framework.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC

14. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing must ensure that:
    1. all incoming child protection staff, as part of their pre-service education, complete cultural awareness and human and cultural rights training covering issues including:
       1. the history of colonisation and in particular the impact of ‘protection’ and assimilation policies
       2. the continuing systemic racism and paternalism inherent in child protection work today that must be identified, acknowledged and resisted
       3. the value of First Peoples family and child-rearing practice
       4. upholding human rights including Aboriginal cultural rights, and
       5. the strength of First Peoples families and culture and culturally appropriate practices
    2. all child protection staff and Department executives undertake regular, mandatory cultural safety training, to be designed and delivered by a Victorian First Peoples business or consultants on a paid basis, and
    3. completion rates for training are published by the Department annually.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC

15. In relation to determining the identity of First Peoples children:
    1. the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, in consultation with the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People and relevant Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, must improve how they identify and deidentify First Peoples children in the Victorian children protection system, and
    2. the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young people must undertake regular audits and publish the results to ensure child protection practitioners are correctly identifying and deidentifying First Peoples children and doing so in a timely way.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children and Minister for Treaty and First Peoples

Lead agency: DFFH and DPC

Liaison agency: All departments

16. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing must urgently take steps to ensure full compliance with its obligations to:
    1. convene an Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making meeting before making any significant decision about an Aboriginal child, and record the outcome, and
    2. consult with the Aboriginal Child Specialist Advice and Support Service on all significant decisions affecting an Aboriginal child and record the outcome.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC

17. The Victorian Government must amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) to:
    1. specify that priority be given to keeping siblings together in placement decisions (both in out of home care and permanent placements)
    2. include in the decision-making principles a presumption that removal of a First Peoples child from their family or community causes harm
    3. provide that a child protection practitioner must record how they have considered the presumption of harm caused by removal in their decision to remove a First Peoples child, and
    4. provide that the Children’s Court is required to include in its reasons for a removal decision how the presumption of harm caused by removal has been considered.

These amendments must be made urgently while a new First Peoples led child protection system and accompanying Act is designed and implemented in accordance with recommendation 1.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS and DPC

18. The Victorian Government must:
    1. ensure Children’s Court of Victoria judicial officers determine child protection matters state-wide, and
    2. abolish the current practice of having non-specialist magistrates determining child protection matters in some rural and regional court locations.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Attorney-General

Lead agency: DJCS

Liaison agency: DFFH and DPC

19. The Victorian Government must as soon as possible expand and sufficiently resource the Marram-Ngala Ganbu (Koori Family Hearing Day) state-wide.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Attorney-General

Lead agency: DJCS

Liaison agency: DFFH and DPC

20. The Victorian Government must address barriers to First Peoples becoming carers for First Peoples children in the child protection system by:
    1. simplifying application and vetting processes and improving support for people navigating the process
    2. ending the substantive inequality between kinship carers and foster carers by removing the automatic commencement of kinship payments at level one such that payments are made at a rate that reflects the complexity of kinship care, and
    3. ensuring kinship carers have appropriate access to training, support, and services at a level that is at least equivalent to the training, support and services offered to foster carers.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC

21. The Victorian Government must amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) to require the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to ensure that all children who are placed in out of home care receive a developmental disability assessment and health assessment consistent with the National Out of Home Care Standards and in a timely way.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DH, DJCS, DPC and NDIA

22. The Victorian Government must amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) to provide the Children’s Court with greater powers to ensure that cultural plans are developed, implemented and monitored, particularly when out of home care orders are being extended and children’s separation from their families is prolonged.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS and DPC

23. The Victorian Government must urgently:
    1. ensure that the Framework to Reduce Criminalisation of Young People in Residential Care is applied in all cases
    2. establish a mechanism within the Commission for Children and Young People through which young people can report that a residential care provider or Victoria Police has failed to apply the Framework, so that the Commissioner can advocate for that young person, including (in the case of police) by referring the matter to an independent police oversight body
    3. ensure that, when the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People is placed on a statutory footing, these functions are performed by that Commissioner with respect to those children and young people, and
    4. fund the development and delivery of training to residential care providers and Victoria Police on implementing the Framework in practice.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS, DPC and Victoria Police

24. The Commission for Children and Young People and Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People must:
    1. monitor compliance with the Framework to Reduce Criminalisation of young people in residential care current 18-month action plan
    2. review individual cases
    3. specify targets for reduced police contact, and
    4. publicly report on outcomes.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS, DPC and Victoria Police

25. The Victorian Government must amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) to allow the Children’s Court of Victoria to extend the timeframe of a Family Reunification Order where it is in the child’s best interest to do so.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DJCS and DPC

26. The Victorian Government must:
    1. recognise that the human and cultural rights of First Peoples children in permanent care to have, express, develop and maintain their culture, and to maintain contact with their Aboriginal family, kin and community, are not presently adequately respected and ensured in practice, and
    2. urgently work with the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and relevant Aboriginal organisations to formulate and implement all necessary legislative, administrative and other means for respecting and ensuring those rights, including by authorising Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to monitor the cultural care plans of Aboriginal children who are the subject of permanent care orders.

Lead Minister/agency

Lead Minister: Minister for Children

Lead agency: DFFH

Liaison agency: DPC