Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Land on which we gather today.

The Gadigal people, of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders, past and present.

Out of Home Care – Preventing Placement Breakdowns and Improving Quality of Care Through

Family Support Services

Jo Smart - OzChildJamone Maynard – Victorian Aboriginal Child Care

Agency (VACCA)

ACWA Conference, Sydney 18th - 20th August 2014.

Outline of Presentation

• Brief overview of Programs• Data• Case Study• Interventions• Outcomes

Brief Overview of ProgramsOzChild deliver a number of programs across the Southern suburbs of Melbourne. These programs encompass:

• Child FIRST

• Intensive Therapeutic Program

• Parenting Capacity Assessment

• Family preservation

• Kinship Care and

• Foster Care

Context of Out of Home Care in Victoria Out of Home Care – 5 Year Plan

This plan has been developed out from the last decade of reviews and Inquiries.

Family Support

• Child FIRST, an integrated intake system for Family Services.

• Intensive Therapeutic Program, a family support program for vulnerable families.

• Families First, a family preservation and reunification program for statutory Child Protection clients.

Issues in Out of Home Care

• High number of placement breakdowns,

• Poor Quality of Care and

• Over representation of Aboriginal children in Out of Home Care due to higher vulnerabilities and disadvantage.

Current Solutions

Current solutions used to address placement breakdown and poor quality of care include:

• A traditional method used in Foster Care is Therapeutic Foster Care and therapeutic support

• Aboriginal placement services also have access to Therapeutic Foster Care and

• There is no evidence based models identified for Kinship Care

Overview of Presentation• We are going to be giving an overview of the support we have been

providing to Foster Care and Kinship Care to prevent placement breakdown.

• Demonstrate a range of Family Services utilized to prevent placement breakdown

• Demonstrate how we work with Aboriginal families in our Family Services programs and where we work collaboratively with Aboriginal Service providers.

• Victorian Shell Agreement, CYFA 2005 and Strategic Framework for Family Services

• In Victoria VACCA works with Aboriginal families and we work collaboratively alongside VACCA . We will provide a case example of how we do this in a culturally sensitive manner with a family.

Cultural Data of Programs

A data snapshot undertaken in June 2014, our number of Indigenous kinship carers is consistent with the Indigenous population at 1%. Our number of Indigenous kinship children (4.2%) is higher than the Indigenous population in the south (less than 1%). However this figure is not representative of children in Out of Home Care.

• In Victoria Indigenous children are considered to be significantly over-represented in Out of Home Care. In June 2012, 1,028 Indigenous children were in OHC in Victoria. This was a rate of 66.4 per 1,000 children; compared to a rate of 4.2 per 1,000 of non Aboriginal children.

• As most Indigenous children are supported through Indigenous agencies - Our figures are very small.

• Although these children are placed in a kinship placement, they are not all with Indigenous carers.

• This highlights the importance of linking with Indigenous agencies for cultural plans to be developed.

Cultural Data of ProgramsFamily Support - Indigenous clients

• At a data snapshot of our family services clients in June 2014 showed 13% were Indigenous children and 6% were Indigenous parents .

• These numbers are higher than the Indigenous population from Mornington and Frankston of .8 and .7% of the population; which indicates that we are appropriately engaging with indigenous families.

• In addition, our Family Support programs engage with VACCA workers to ensure we work in culturally sensitive ways with our Indigenous clients.

Data – preventing placement breakdown

• A 4 year snapshot of data about family support intervention to prevent placement breakdown

• The Intensive Therapeutic Program worked with 10 families and Families First worked with 10 families.

• 17 families were in the OzChild Kinship Care Program

• 1 family was in the VACCA Kinship Care Program

• 2 families were in the OzChild Foster Care Program

Presenting Issues

• 55% of placements were Grandparents, 20% were Aunts/Uncles, 15% were Kith and10% of the placements were Foster Carers.

• 45% of the Carers were in the age range of 60-70 years old with the oldest Carer being 69 and the youngest 33 years old.

• 40 children were in the placements.• 58% of children were in the age range on 6 years to 11 years, 25%

were over 12 years and 16% were aged between 0 and 5 years.• 55% of placements were sibling groups of 2 or more children.• 50% of carers had their own children living with them• In 40% of placements children had been placed less than 12 months

and 30% had been placed for approximately 3 years.• The 2 Foster Care families had been established for 13 years and 6

years respectively.

Presenting Issues• 50% of cases were in the formal Quality of Care process.

• The majority of Carers had presenting issues including unable to manage child behaviour, poor household management, lack of knowledge of issues for child, inappropriate discipline and in a few cases there were mental health, medical, drug and alcohol and environmental concerns.

• The main presenting issues for children were unable to manage emotions/Self Regulation, resistance to routines, relationship with birth parents, disability not assessed, school non attendance/under achieving, mental health and sexualised behaviours.

Interventions• Carer/Parent education:- Trauma and attachment, age appropriate child

development, parenting styles.

• Skill development Carers:- Use of Dan Hughes PLACE Model of intervention, role modelling parenting strategies, rewards charts, house rules, routines.

• Skill development of children:- Strengths cards, feelings, self esteem, self regulation, linking with services, extra curricular activities/Mentors.

• Carer/child interaction:- Role modelling, strength cards, Mindfulness, Linking to services, transporting, Family Therapy.

• Counselling – adult, child and family.

• Co working of cases:- VACCA, Lakidjeka, OzChild Kinship, OzChild Foster Care, DHS Child Protection and external services

Case Study• Initial protective concerns in parents care included neglect, physical abuse,

parental drug and alcohol, parental mental health, family violence, transience and criminal behaviour.

• 5 children living in 2 separate placements in Queensland.

• Relocated to Melbourne to reside in Kinship Care with their Paternal Grandmother.

• VACCA involved to support Paternal Grandmother with Kinship Support, parenting, routines, boundaries, legal system from 2009 to 2011.

• Assessed that children should be reunified with Father, shared care arrangement put in place.

VACCA Involvement• Wilka Kwe, in Wurundjuri language means ‘turn around friend’.

• 12 week support program.

• Focus on empowering families.

• Prevents children from entering into the Out Of Home Care system, or assists with reunifications of families when children return from the OOHC system

VACCA Involvement

• The family were referred from DHS into the Wilka Kwe program. As part of a reunification plan.

• Child Protection concerns included mental health, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

• Most of the concerns Child Protection referred into the program, appeared to be historical.

• Goals were based around: parenting, routines, boundaries, chores etc.

• Extensive hours spent in the family home.

Families First Involvement• OzChild completed a Families First 6 week placement prevention

intervention in 2012.

• Referral was in relation to challenges in maintaining the placement of the children with their Paternal Grandmother.

• We identified during assessment that we would also need to work with the children’s father to maintain placement stability.

Families First Involvement• Parenting strategies with Grandmother and Father.

• Connecting Father to culture.

• Trauma and attachment with Carer and Father

• Regular Care Team meetings with VACCA, Lakidjeka, DHS Child Protection and other services or Community involved.

Outcomes and Learnings• Identified outcomes for Carers included, improved boundaries,

improved routines, reduced family conflict, better management of children, increased knowledge of impact of trauma & abuse & appropriate responses and use of appropriate consequences.

• Identified outcomes for children included better able to manage emotions, linked to services, following a routine, improved relationship with parents, mental health issues are being addressed, linked to services, improved school attendance/achievement and Disability assessment.

Outcomes and LearningsThe Aboriginal Family described in the case study worked towards reunification with the Father with the children having ongoing respite with their Grandmother. The family are still connected to VACCA, by attending VACCA’S events and youth camps.

Of the 20 placements, 12 Kinship placements continued to care for children with the support of the OzChild Kinship Program.

One Kinship placement broke down due to the challenging behaviours of the young person and subsequently the young person was reunited with family members in New Zealand

The 2 OzChild Foster Care Placements ended after DHS Child Protection assessed that the children were at risk. One sibling group were placed in Therapeutic Disability Residential Units and the other sibling group were placed in Therapeutic Foster Care.

Outcomes and Learnings• 4 Kinship placements continued, however there were new Quality of Care

Concerns.

• When working with families to reduce placement breakdown it is generally at a time of crisis when the needs of the family are high. Initially we need to focus on the crisis and when this has settled we are more effectively able to work in a therapeutic manner to better support the carer’s.

• For non Aboriginal staff, ensuring they have a well developed understanding of Aboriginal culture and the history associated with removal, to ensure that collaboration is undertaken and that workers are supported to undertake trauma informed work.

Contacts

Jo Smart

Child and Family Services

jsmart@ozchild.org.au

Jamone Maynard

Family Services

jamonem@vacca.org