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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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