Jessica Cocks
Year of Award: 2016 Award State: New South Wales Community > Social ChangeSocial Welfare > Children Care And Protection
Keywords: child protection, child welfare, family inclusion, family engagement, foster care, out of home care, parent leadership, parent partners, parent peer workers, parent allies, child and family social work.
Recommendations
For family inclusion to be a characteristic of the Australian child welfare system, we need parent and family voice and inclusion at the individual level, in the child welfare sector and in broader society. We need both parents and agencies to lead change, although we particularly need parent led change to continue to emerge and strengthen. I have explored possibilities for change in three areas – peer work, carer and parent relationships and in parent leadership.
Integration of peer work into child welfare agencies, courts and through parent organisations
The integration of peer work, in the ways described in this report, into child welfare teams and agencies is realistic in Australia. It is suggested that peer work expertise be developed by parent led organisations in partnership with child welfare agencies.
Carer and parent relationships
There is compelling evidence from this project and in the literature that carers and parents working together contributes positively to restoration and relational permanence generally. More research in Australia is urgently needed into all aspects of child welfare especially family preservation, restoration and family inclusion.
Parent leadership
Parent leadership in Australia is emerging and there is little or no funding to support it. This project has found that parent leadership is vital for family inclusion to take hold and for positive outcomes in child welfare. Initiatives that sit within agency structures are also important and should invite involvement from parent led organisations to assist them to build family inclusion including assessing and changing agency culture. Workforce development and training organisations need to prioritise the involvement of parents.
Family inclusion heralds an approach to child welfare that is fundamentally different including integrating an ethical lens. If families are included and get more power, this means that other stakeholders may experience less power – usually NGOs and statutory child welfare agencies. Parents and their allies working to build family inclusion must be prepared to withstand this and will need support, resources and strong leadership to do so. It is vital that as many people and organisations as possible offer partnership, encouragement and support to parent leaders and organisations and are steadfast in this support. These “allies” need to take a learning approach and ensure their role is primarily one of learning about and supporting parent leadership, not of leadership itself.
Keywords: Child protection, child welfare, family inclusion, family engagement, foster care, out of home care, parent leadership, parent partners, parent peer workers, parent allies, child and family social work
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