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Assignment Task

Policy Briefing Paper  
Child Protection in Australia
 
The purpose of this policy brief is to draw the attention of the ministers at Federal  level towards child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC) and, the course of  action required to bring changes in the overall policies and process of  investigation, assessment, planning and ongoing for child protection in Australia.  
Summary  
Child neglect and abuse have increased over the past years at an alarming rate,  hence, making it an issue of national concern. The Australian Government is  significantly facing challenges towards the inadequate capacity to meet complex  cases of child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC) (Wise 2017). As there is  no optimal system to protect children from neglect and abuse, OOHC serves as  the extreme measure for protecting children by taking them away from their  parents and placing them at residential care significantly harming both the children  and the families (Wise 2017). The process of child removal goes through a  systematic process of notifications, investigation and substantiations. (Wise 2017).  
Policy Outline  
Child protection and out-of-home care increased to 11 percent in 2017-2018, with  national spending of $4.8 billion (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019).  In 2018, about 31,800 children stayed in OOHC for a period of 2 years and more  under the responsibility of the government (Australian Institute of Health and  Welfare 2019). The policies involved in protecting children shifted to removal of  children from dysfunctional families. Indigenous children are significantly  overrepresented and subject to child abuse and neglect than non-indigenous  children in Australia (Council of Australian Governments 2009). Emotional, neglect, physical and sexual abuse are the common types of child mistreatment  (Council of Australian Governments 2009). Children in OOHC and therapeutic  residential care significantly receive poor long-term outcomes due to unstable care  placements. The activities performed in these care facilities are not always clear  and well understood. About 73 percent of child abuse cases were repeated clients  (Council of Australian Governments 2009).  
According to the socioeconomic index of areas, the data demonstrate that the rate  of child abuse was higher in low socioeconomic suburbs than that of moderate income suburbs. Hence, all the data raises question towards the implementation  of family and social policy (Carson & Kerr 2017). The main reason for child removal  from families involved poor housing, substance use and family violence (Carson &  Kerr 2017). This holds the family responsible for the vulnerable in obtaining proper  resources for their children (Carson & Kerr 2017). Despite several changes in  policies made by the jurisdiction regarding reporting, intake, investigation, case  planning and management of child abuse, there is an inefficiency in protecting the  children from various abuse Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019).  
Discussion for Change  
There is a need for a shift from protecting children to promoting the safety and  wellbeing of children (Council of Australian Governments 2009). The report  published by the Council of Australian Governments in 2009 aims to provide a  multidisciplinary approach to reduce child abuse and promote wellbeing (Carson  & Kerr 2017). The impact of child abuse and neglect has various consequences  on the growth and development of the child such as; lack of self-development,  poor cognitive development, lower social maturity, lower life coping skills, poor  health, suicide, violence (Wise 2017).  
The statutory child protection process needs a more holistic and multidisciplinary  approach for providing the best facility and care to children (Wise 2017). On the  other hand, families often feel excluded and unsupported when their children are  removed by child protection services (Ross et al. 2017). Families do not get an opportunity to improve their parenting skills and often feel disempowered while  facing complex systems (Ross et al. 2017). According to an interview conducted  by research group, the parents stated that they did their best to keep their child  with them, bought a house, was willing to receive service from the psychologist,  involved in young parent social worker yet it was not enough to help their child to  live with them and was relocated to OOHC (Ross et al. 2017). Family-inclusion  practice should be included in the services provided for child protection (Ross et  al. 2017).  
Strategic goals for reforming the system have been approached by the jurisdictions  which include diverting children from statutory policy, reduce in re-reporting of  child abuse, exit increase from OOHC, reduce the number of children in OOHC,  improve outcomes and several other reforms (Wise 2017). A common assessment  framework to acknowledge child abuse needs to be used by the jurisdictions to  understand the situation and circumstances involved in cases and provide referral  to various service connections rather than abiding by the statutory child protection  policy and OOHC (Wise 2017). Despite all the strategies and measures taken in  the system processes for child protection, the governments fail to attain the  desired outcomes for these strategies outlined, generally due to the complex  nature of the cases where a decision taken can harm both the child and the family  (Council of Australian Governments 2009).  
Recommendation  
As discussed earlier in this paper, the child protection framework suggested by  COAG has outlined applying the public health model care to the service area for  children, to deliver best outcomes for children and their families (Council of  Australian Governments 2009). This helps the at-risk families to receive universal  support and services to prevent abuse and neglect (Hunter & Sheet 2011). The  National Framework led by the government oversees the outcomes of the public  health model (Hunter & Sheet 2011). Although there have been some important 
gains with programs involved in the National Framework regardless its efficiency  is limited (Hunter & Sheet 2011).  
There has been a recent development of therapeutic residential care in OOHC with  significant results (McLean 2018). Unlike the public health model providing three  stages of support respectively; primary, secondary and tertiary, the therapeutic  residential care model investigates the complex cases of child abuse and neglect  by actively providing healing and recovery based within the out-of-home care  sector (McLean 2018). Programs such as positive peer model, care model,  sanctuary model, stop-gap model and teaching family model are some of the  promising result-oriented programs performed by therapeutic residential care  (McLean 2018).  
Conclusion  
Considerable changes to the systems and processes of child protection are being  undertaken by the government because of the system's lack of credibility and  outcomes (Wise 2017). New systems are being, and structure is being introduced  by the government to provide a more coordinated community service for the  families and the children. Several jurisdictions are shifting from old models of  OOHC to therapeutic care and services (Wise 2017). The government is taking  initiatives to better support indigenous children and their families. The fact that  strengthening the systems is not a single event and is a matter of time (Wise 2017).  The key to a system learning approach is the developments in policymaking that  link the strategies to result-oriented and positive outcomes (Wise 2017). Hence,  collective responsibility in protecting the children is essentially required. 

 

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