Intensive Family Services Service Model

Acknowledgement

We in Safer Family Services acknowledge and respect Aboriginal people as the first people of this country and recognise the traditional custodians of the lands in South Australia, the lands on which we practice.

We acknowledge that the cultural, spiritual, social, economic and parenting practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people come from traditional lands, waters and skies and the cultural and heritage beliefs, languages and lore are still living and of great importance today.

We acknowledge elders past, present and those emerging, which of course is our children.  We further acknowledge Aboriginal staff, families and community working to keep children safe in the protective strengths of culture, with a strong sense of self and identity.

We are committed to voice and truth telling, ensuring that the needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are incorporated in the design, development and monitoring and evaluation of deliverable actions.

Statement of Inclusion

Safer Family Services (SFS) acknowledge and respects the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child and upholds children’s rights by placing them at the centre of our work. At all times in the delivery of the service, SFS will seek to advocate for the just and inclusive society that values and respects children’s identity and voice within the context of their family, culture, and community.

SFS staff and leaders create, model and promote a workplace culture where differences, lived experience, culture, gender identities, sexualities, faiths, ethnicities and abilities are respected and valued, and their voices elevated. We recognise the contributions these communities make and are committed to working alongside them in partnership.

SFS will address individual and systemic issues by tackling barriers or highlighting service gaps that prevent children from living safely with their families.

Back to top

Introduction

This document provides an overview of the Safer Family Services (SFS) Intensive Family Services (IFS) Program and its context within the Child and Family Support System (CFSS). It outlines the program's vision, guiding principles and frameworks, service description, service objectives and outcomes. The scope of the service, as well as the outputs and practice approaches are described, and the referral process and service flowchart are depicted.

Back to top

Child and Family Support System

During 2018-2019, the SA Government conducted an extensive research and co-design process drawing on evidence-based knowledge and practice. This was combined with lived and professional experience to design the CFSS.

In the CFSS Co-Design Process (2019) the Aboriginal System Design Criteria and the Aboriginal Co-Design Principles^[1] were adopted. The Aboriginal System Design criteria guide the work of CFSS and ensures:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are front and centre of our work.
• Services are family focused.
• Cultural strengths are reflected.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ rights to self-determination are reflected.
• The truth of our shared histories, the hurts, the strengths and the healing are acknowledged and reflected

The Aboriginal Codesign Principles outline how these criteria are to be actioned, by:

• giving status to diverse voices, knowledge, experiences, skills and perspectives
• acknowledgement of intergenerational complex trauma, and hopes and strengths.
• Aboriginal people are supported by allies

Back to top

CFSS Trauma Responsive Sustem Framework

A component of the CFSS co-design process was the creation of the Trauma Responsive System Framework^[1] which outlines principles for a trauma responsive and healing system that is sensitive and responsive to trauma, promoting healing without causing additional trauma to the children and families it aims to support^[2].  The SFS practice frameworks are in alignment with trauma responsive approaches and further articulate these and the broader principles, in practice.

The remit of the CFSS is to work with families at risk of statutory intervention, to support them to keep their children safe and well at home in family, community and culture. CFSS has a focus on four priority population groups:

• Infants at risk
• Young parents
• Adolescents with complex trauma
• Aboriginal families with multiple and complex needs

The Department of Human Services (DHS) funds government and non-government providers of intensive family services under the banner of CFSS.  Safer Family Services (SFS) is the government funded and managed family support program that provides services across the spectrum of need, as well as intensive case management support to children and their families at risk of harm, neglect, and/or domestic and family violence.

Back to top

CFSS Vision

All children are safe and well at home, in family, community and culture.

The CFSS operationalises this vision by working to ensure that children and their families are connected to supports and resources within the local community to address complexity and risk, enhance their development, and strengthen the adult-child caregiving relationship.

Back to top

Safer Family Services Intensive Family Services

SFS Intensive Family Services (IFS) are provided to families with children aged 0-18 years as well as families in the antenatal period, who are assessed as having child protection issues with high levels of risk and complexity.  The SFS Intensive Family Services (IFS) provide intensive case management support to address child safety and risk and build parental capacity and resilience in the longer term.

SFS practitioners work collaboratively with government and non-government organisations (NGOs), Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) to improve the safety and social, health, and wellbeing outcomes for vulnerable infants, children and young people in South Australia.  SFS practitioners take intentional and proactive measures to interrupt the cycle of intergenerational trauma and improve parental capacity to provide safe care for children in their homes, while maintaining their connection to culture and community.

Back to top

Guiding Principles

SFS Intensive Family Services are underpinned by principles outlined in: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child[1] . These are:

• All children have the right to grow up in an environment free from neglect and abuse. Their best interests are paramount in all decisions affecting them.
• Improving the safety and wellbeing of the children is a national priority.
• The safety and wellbeing of children is primarily the responsibility of their families who should be supported by their communities and governments.
• Australian society values, supports and works in partnership with parents, families and others in fulfilling their caring responsibilities for children.
• Children and their families have the right to participate in decisions affecting them.
• Policies and interventions are evidence informed.

Children’s rights are upheld by systems and institutions.

Back to top

Guiding Frameworks

The SFS practice frameworks provide a structured approach for addressing specific areas and functions within SFS.  They offer conceptual frameworks, principles and processes to guide decision making and implementation, as well as consistency, accountability, quality and inclusivity- in pursuit of improved outcomes for children, families and staff.

SFS Aboriginal Cultural Practice Framework

The SFS Aboriginal Cultural Practice Framework[1] outlines trauma informed and child centred approaches for practitioners who are working with Aboriginal children and families, to ensure their safety and wellbeing at home in family, community and culture. It articulates a practice approach based on understandings of the protective strength and safety of culture and of Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing.

It encourages practitioners to be aspirational and challenge themselves and the system, and take active steps to support Aboriginal children, families and communities in true self-determination.  Culturally sound practice principles offer:

• A whole and hopeful approach to working with Aboriginal families.
• Understanding intergenerational trauma and intergenerational strength, then and now
• Holding clinical and cultural practice in balance
• Supporting and growing Aboriginal knowing, being and doing
• Supporting and growing Allyship
• Understanding the self within the system.

SFS Clinical Governance Framework

The SFS Clinical Governance Framework[2] has a focus on the quality, safety and accountability of clinical services provided to families.  It helps staff in the organisation understand their role, share responsibility and be accountable for improving the quality of SFS services and safeguard high standards of service provision.  It offers guidance around the delivery of services and practitioner and family partnerships, service efficacy, leadership and culture, managing risks and organisational monitoring and improvement.

SFS Case Management Framework

The SFS Case Management Framework[3] is synonymous with the Cultural Governance Framework and the Clinical Governance Framework.  It offers a foundation for best practice and a consistent approach for SFS practitioners by outlining the key steps in the case management process.  SFS case management practice aims to improve the safety and wellbeing of children and families within the context of family preservation, while promoting empowerment, self-determination and longer-term outcomes for children, their families and communities.   SFS Case Management principles:

• locate the child and young person at the centre of the work.
• are purposeful, strengths based and proactive.
• uphold the safety of children and personal development of families.
• support self-determination and sustainable solutions.
• utilise a cultural and intersectional lens.
• incorporate partnership approaches and effective communication.
• advocate for the rights of children and families

The frameworks are supported by organisational policy, procedure and service models.  Additionally, SFS creates practice direction for practitioners, in the form of Practice Guides.

Back to top

SFS IFS Service Description

SFS Intensive Family Services offer intensive case management and support to children and familiesfrom pre-birth to 18 years across metropolitan and regional South Australia.  Families who have been identified as having complex needs and assessed as being at high risk of engagement with statutory child protection, are eligible to receive intensive case management services.

Depending on the presenting need, SFS practitioners have approximately two contacts a week with children and their families, either in the family home or in the community.  The focus of the work is on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children in the household, through supporting improvements in parenting capacity and family functioning.

Practitioners work to establish a relationship-based approach that emphasises the importance of understanding and communicating effectively with children and families, while developing honest, respectful and supportive working relationships.  Relationship building requires genuine effort and the ability to persevere when families are reluctant to engage.  The quality of the relationship between practitioners and the families they work with is central to good outcomes, as is the provision of frequent and flexible supports.

Families can receive case management for up to nine months, but if they need more support, the services can continue for a longer period.

SFS practitioners work in collaboration with government and non-government agencies such as:  schools, children’s centres, local health networks, birthing hospitals, local communities, and agency partners to achieve outcomes for families.

Back to top

Service Objectives

The service objectives detail the specific goals and provide direction and purpose.  IFS practitioners:

• Assertively engage with children and families to provide high quality and appropriately tailored family preservation services that address the safety and wellbeing of children and improve their health and developmental outcomes
• Develop an understanding of family needs through holistic assessments and manage risk through evidence based practice
• Engage with parents and carers to support the development of skills and strategies to enhance parenting abilities, reduce or mitigate risk and improve the parent/child relationship
• Deliver services with openness, honesty, and transparency, and have difficult and challenging conversations with families about child protection risks
• Engage with children and families in a culturally and trauma responsive way that reflects a partnership approach
• Implement the ASTICPP when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, including the adoption of family-led decision making and the right to self-determination [1]
• Connect children and families with responsive services at the right time and in order of priority, to address needs
• Support culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families in ways that acknowledge and recognise cultural diversity and practices
• Utilise the Information Sharing Guidelines and share information where there is a threat to the safety and wellbeing of children, their families and/or other individuals
• Act in accordance with the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017[2] , Information Sharing Guidelines and other relevant legislation
• Contribute to the epidemiological approach and ongoing service improvements by capturing data as required

Back to top

Service Outcomes

The service outcomes are reflective of the policy and strategic intent of the CFSS.  The CFSS Outcomes Hierarchy lists the detailed and measurable contributing outcomes for all services, in their efforts to ensure children are safe and well at home in family, community and culture.

They are the goals of SFS IFS intervention with children and families and reflect the changes or benefits that are expected to occur because of the organisational efforts.

Child and Family Support System Program Level Outcomes Hierarchy

** INFOGRAPHIC **

Plain text description of CFSS Program Level Outcome Hierarchy

Back to top

Service Scope

SFS Intensive Family Services support families with children (from the antenatal period up to 18 years of age) who are presenting with high level child protection risks.  The goal is to work with families to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children by addressing child protection risks and enhancing parental capacity and the overall resilience of families.

SFS Intensive Family Services provide comprehensive assessment and case management services to families and where appropriate, collaborate with other agencies to address need, resourcing and access to services. SFS Intensive Family Services will support infants, children, and young people to thrive within their families, and remain connected to culture and community.

** TABLE **

Regions

SFS Intensive Family Services operate across South Australia in metropolitan, regional and remote locations.

Back to top

Service Outputs

Service Domains

SFS Intensive Family Services delivers across the following service domains:

1. Working directly with infants, children and young people and their families through the provision of intensive case management services
2. Working directly with systems to develop and support community connections, service accessibility and access to resources for vulnerable children and their families

Service Elements

SFS Intensive Family Services offers the following service elements that incorporate assertive engagement and case management, providing:

Direct Case Work

Direct case work includes working with children and families at the individual, family or group level to bring about personal or interpersonal change.  IFS services include:

• The provision of home visiting to connect with children and their families
• Engaging with and developing professional and holistic relationships with children, young people, parents and carers, their families and communities
• Developing a comprehensive safety plan and case plan that directly addresses child safety concerns, family functioning and risk factors impacting family safety and capacity/strength
• Engaging with Aboriginal and CALD families through culturally safe and responsive practice, involving deep listening and acknowledging strengths, connections, insights and experiences
• Providing information and access to resources, role modelling and supporting functional family relationships and child rearing practices
• Ensuring practice is informed by cultural consultation and access to interpreters when working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) families
• Supporting families to engage with services and access resources to support self determination and improved opportunities for community participation

Indirect Case Work

Indirect case work focuses on systemic changes within organisations and social systems, to improve outcomes for children and their families. In the SFS IFS services it includes:

• Consulting and collaborating with service providers regarding children and their families
• Sharing information of at-risk situations to keep infants, children and families safe
• Consulting on matters of culture or issues related to specialist services (such as family and domestic violence or substance abuse, mental health)
• Collaboration with sector partners, including the use of case conferencing, joint meetings and home visiting
• Attending meetings directly related to the needs of infants, children and families
• Referrals and advocacy for services or the provision of resources
• Recording case notes on C3MS in a manner consistent with SFS Case Note Recording processes
• Completing, recording and uploading family assessments, safety plans, case plans, reviews and case closures to C3MS
• Completing all required processes in ROMS to support data capture and continued systems improvement

Back to top

Partnership

SFS recognises that the skills, resources and knowledge required to respond appropriately to complexity in the care and protection of children is beyond the capacity of a single agency. Practitioners work proactively and in partnership across the CFSS, and with key stakeholders to provide an integrated response to the needs of children and their families. These partnerships form the basis for the successful operation of the program.

Primary partners internal to SFS:

• SFS Aboriginal Practice Team
• SFS Practice Team
• Child and Family Safety Network (CFSN) including external network partners
• CFSS Pathways Service
• Aboriginal Connections Team (ACT)
• Multi-Agency Protection Service (MAPS)
• Community Development Coordinator (CDC) Program
• Other Intensive Family Services programs

Primary partners external to SFS:

• Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs)
• Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs)
• Department for Education (DfE)
• Department for Child Protection (DCP)
• Department for Health and Wellbeing (SA Health)
• Domestic and family violence services
• SA Housing Authority (SAHA)
• NDIS and private disability providers
• Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)
• South Australia Police (SAPOL)

Partnership Principles

The Practice Standards in the SFS Case Management Framework (2023:14)[1] emphasise the importance of multi-agency and multidisciplinary expertise in the face of complexity and risk. Practitioners demonstrate this through:

• Working in partnership with multi-agency and multidisciplinary teams in the discussion, planning and delivery of services
• Providing a lead case management and coordinated approach to the sharing and management of risk
• Establishing a clear language and shared understanding around risk and vulnerability
• Providing clear pathways for interagency communication and information sharing
• Monitoring service provision and family engagement throughout the case management process

Back to top

Practice Approaches

IFS practitioners draw upon various interdisciplinary concepts and social work theories, combined with firsthand experiential knowledge and practice wisdom, to support the family’s needs and work with them toward change.

Aboriginal Family-Led Decision Making: Aboriginal Family-Led Decision Making (AFLDM) is a process that allows for meaningful involvement of the family (and their important networks and supports) in the case planning process.  This process supports the right to self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to make decisions about how to keep their child or young person safe and connected to family, culture and community.  AFLDM is both an identified standalone model as well as a best practice model[1]

Assertive engagement: Assertive engagement takes a proactive approach to delivering support. It challenges the idea that a client is always responsible for engaging with services and instead requires that the practitioner persistently and consistently approaches the client to build a relationship, to engage them in critical conversations about risk, capacity and functioning, and to continue to offer support[2].

Attachment theory: Attachment theory places emphasis on the importance of emotional bonds formed between individuals, particularly in infancy and early childhood.  It suggests that infants develop a strong attachment to their primary caregiver, which influences their social and emotional development, shaping their future relationships and wellbeing.  Responsive and sensitive caregiving is emphasised as crucial for fostering health attachment patterns.

Case management response:  Case management practice is guided by the SFS Case Management Framework (2023). The framework guides the case management response, providing a solid basis for practitioners to follow best practices and maintain a consistent approach throughout the key steps of the case management process.  This framework ensures that the best interests of the child remain at the forefront of the work, while also utilising person centred strengths based and evidence-based approaches to identify, assess and address the needs of both the child and their family.

Culturally safe and responsive practice. Culturally safe and responsive practice is a decolonising approach that recognises the centrality of culture and identity when working with the whole person, and the conscious use of self and self-awareness in the process of engaging with Aboriginal or CALD people. Culturally safe practice does not diminish, demean, or disempower and works towards creating an environment that is spiritually, socially and emotionally safe.

Relationship based casework:  Practitioners are more likely to achieve positive outcomes when they can develop respectful and supportive relationships with children and families.  Relationship building requires genuine effort and the ability to persevere when families are reluctant to engage.  Successful relationship building and maintenance, is the responsibility of the practitioner and a calm, honest and respectful approach is crucial in establishing trust and modelling effective working relationships.  Practitioners should take initiative, invest time in developing relationships and listening to the children and the family and wherever possible, maximise feelings of safety in the relationship.  The approach is assertive in its engagement, intensive in the level of contact and mobile and flexible in the delivery of supports.

Restorative practice: Restorative practice is an approach that focusses on building and maintaining positive and healthy relationships, resolving difficulties, and repairing harm when relationships break down. It creates a common language and approach for fostering a sense of social responsibility and shared accountability. Families are encouraged to be involved in considering risk and concerns and be active participants in solution focused planning to solve problems, build relationships and repair harm.

Safety first approach: A safety first approach is applied where families are experiencing domestic or family violence. Within this approach, children and their mothers or caregivers’ emotional and physical safety is understood to be the priority.  There is a focus on understanding risk, addressing immediate and longer-term safety and working in partnership with the protective parent that honours and builds on her strengths, and her survival in the face of harm by the perpetrator.  Practitioners intervene in ways that place responsibility for the violence and its impact with the perpetrator. A safety-first response is enacted in partnership with children and their mothers or caregivers, recognising the importance of listening to what safety means for each individual and for the family.

Self-determination: Refers to an individual’s ability to make choices and manage their own life.  In the context of the work with children and families in SFS, this relates to the inclusion and participation of children and families in planning and working towards safety in their home, while maintaining a focus on the ‘bottom lines’ of child safety.

Strengths based approach: An approach to working with children, young people and families that acknowledges and identifies their inherent strengths, abilities, perspectives, and goals, while keeping a focus on child safety.  It is a solution focussed process that views the safety of the child as primary and draws on the strengths and abilities of the family to develop strategies to achieve safety, positive change and enhance self-determination. The safety of children is considered in the context of the presenting risks and the extent to which strengths can influence safety and mitigate risk^[3].

Trauma responsive practice: A strengths-based framework grounded in recognising, understanding, and responding to the impact of trauma, emphasising physical, psychological, and emotional safety, and creating opportunities for clients to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment (see DHS Trauma Responsive System Framework).

Back to top

Referral Processes

Children are referred to CFSS Pathways Service from approved referring partners.

SFS Intensive Family Services receive their referrals from CFSS Pathways Service and the Child and Family Safety Networks (CFSN). CFSN’s are managed by Safer Family Services.

The CFSN’s consist of key agency partners from government, non-government and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations. They are designed to provide a shared approach to the referral and allocation of high-risk families, with an agreed emphasis on assertive engagement, information sharing and joint decision making through coordinated responses for children and their families.

Current approved referrers include DCP, DfE, SA Health (Birthing Hospitals and MY Health) and MAPS. These approved referrers will be reviewed as Safe and Well reform activities progress.

Service Flow for SFS Intensive Family Services

** INFOGRAPHIC **

Plain text description of Service Flow for SFS Intensive Family Services

Referral and Allocation Process for SFS Intensive Family Services

** INFOGRAPHIC **

Plain text description of Referral and Allocation Process for SFS Intensive Family Services

Back to top

Appendix A: Acronyms

ACCO

Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation

ACCHO

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation

CALD

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse

CFSN

Child and Family Safety Network

CFSS

Child and Family Support System

C3MS

Connected Client Case Management System

CPS

Child Protection Services

DCP

Department for Child Protection

DfE

Department for Education

DHS

Department of Human Services

HRI

High Risk Infant

IFS

Intensive Family Service

MAPS

Multi-Agency Protection Service

NGO

Non-Government Organisation

ROMS

Referral Outcomes Management System

SAPOL

South Australia Police

SFS

Safer Family Services

Back to top

Appendix B: Glossary

Aboriginal

In the context of SFS when using the term Aboriginal people, it is inclusive of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  This is not to deny an individual’s identity but seeks to acknowledge the local South Australian context and that the work SFS undertakes is grounded on Aboriginal lands^[1].

Cultural humility

The reflective practice of acknowledging that the client is the expert in their own lives.  This is done through the awareness of one’s own values, beliefs and privilege while also being actively aware of other cultures’ historical realities such as legacies of violence, oppression, discrimination, and trauma. Those who practice cultural humility view their clients as capable and work to understand their worldview, encouraging a self-based process of lifelong learning.

Information Sharing Guidelines

The Information Sharing Guidelines for Promoting Safety and Wellbeing (ISG) provide a mechanism for information sharing when it is believed a person is at risk of harm (from others or as a result of their own actions) and adverse outcomes can be expected, unless appropriate services are provided with information to prevent harm or to respond to current threats to safety and wellbeing.

Intergenerational trauma

Intergenerational trauma sometimes referred to as trans or multigenerational trauma occurs when the effects of trauma are passed down between generations.  This is experienced by families and communities as a consequence of unspoken histories and ongoing effects of past policies which resulted in stolen generations, displacement from land and disconnection from culture[1].

Practitioner

A practitioner is a worker who possesses professional expertise, skills and personal qualities that are suitable for working in intensive family support systems.  The practitioner undertakes a variety of tasks within their role, inclusive of; assessment and case management processes, individual and systems advocacy, collaboration and networking across the sector and practice and development activities.

White privilege

White privilege or white skinned privilege is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances[1]

Back to top

Appendix C: Bibliography

Australian Human Rights Commission, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007  Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples | (humanrights.gov.au)

Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 (SA). Government of South Australiahttps://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/lz?path=%2FC%2FA%2FCHILDREN%20AND%20YOUNG%20PEOPLE%20(SAFETY)%20ACT%202017

Department of Human Services, 2019 Dana Shen Consultancy & Think Human, Co-designing the Child and Family Support system: final qualitative report.

Government of South Australia, Department of Human Services 2022, Safer Family Services Aboriginal Cultural Practice Framework

Government of South Australia, Department of Human Services, 2021 SFS Assertive Engagement: Practice guide

Government of South Australia, Department of Human Services 2023, Safer Family Services Clinical Governance Framework

Government of South Australia, Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Information Sharing Guidelines, Government of South Australiahttps://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/responsibilities/information-sharing-guidelines

Government of South Australia, Department of Human Services, 2021, Trauma Responsive System Framework

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Child Placement Principle: A guide to support implementation 928_SNAICC-ATSICPP-resource-June2019.pdf

UNICEF Australia, 1989 United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child https://www.unicef.org.au/united-nations-convention-on-hte-rights-of-the -child

Back to top

Outcomes - Short (0–3 months)

Mother

• Rapport established between mother and worker.
• Mother/family engage with worker/service
• Increased trust (mother - worker)
• Ante-natal needs met
• Increased housing stability
• Increased financial stability
• Increased parenting/child safety knowledge
• Acquire safe baby gear
• Drug and Alcohol harm minimization
• Link in with other support services (e.g domestic violence)

System

• Child protection concerns assessed
• Responses delivered within a holistic case plan approach.
• Appropriate referrals made to other service providers
• Increased family stability
• Work collaboratively with CFSN partners and handover cases where needed
• Increased stakeholder collaboration regarding decision making and sharing of risk
• Earlier engagement of families into services who may not have been otherwise engaged.

Outcomes - Medium (3–6 months)

Mother/baby

• Greater stability (in some cases)
• Better able to navigate difficulties
• Increased trust
• Increased understanding of the system
• Increased understanding of own agency
• Decreased fear of removal
• Increased understanding of ramifications of actions, leading to
• Increased engagement with support services
• Increased understanding of importance of contraception.

System

• Maintain good relationships with mother/family
• Able to have difficult conversations
• Improved communication channels
• Able to receive information regarding concerns
• Earlier notification re concerns
• Increased capacity of the stakeholder network to identity and respond to child protection concerns within their client base
• Increased skills and capacity of stakeholder network
• Stakeholder workforce have increased skill level to support effective responses in pre-statutory child protection work.
• Reduced duplication of services.

Outcomes - Long (6–12 months)

Child

• Receiving CaFHS checks every 3 months
• meeting developmental milestones
• Increased protective factors
• Receiving relevant allied health supports (physio/speech pathology)
• Safe at home
• Mother/family
• Greater stability
• Improved support networks
• Receiving ongoing support relevant to need
• Safety needs met
• Increased confidence to seek/access support
• Managing contraception
• Reduced risk of second pregnancy.

System

• Stakeholder network responds to child safety and protection concerns
• Agencies have up to date information.
• Agencies have access to consultation
• Earlier identification of infant’s needs and family strengths
• Coordinated service response
• Under ISG understand the need for strategic planning re child protection concerns.

Back to top

Appendix B: Acronyms

Back to top

Appendix C: Glossary