The ACT should follow New Zealand's example by being bold enough to introduce family group conferencing to reduce the number of children going into care, according to a Canberra researcher.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The significant change is needed because the number of children going into care is doubling every 10 years, Mary Ivec from the ANU's Regulatory Institutions Network unit said.
"We know every six months, somewhere in the country, we will see another child protection inquiry," she said.
"I think we do need to look at mandating family group conferencing, it's what happens in New Zealand and they are certainly having fewer children in care per capita than we are."
Ms Ivec is part of a strong delegation of Australian researchers attending the Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in New Zealand, beginning on Monday.
A family group conference would involve anyone significant in the life of the child at risk – parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, godparents and school teachers – and make better use of community resources.
"In New Zealand family group conferencing is mandated before anything goes to court," Ms Ivec said.
"Family group conferencing is another regulatory mechanism, to give the family a chance, an opportunity to look at the problems, become aware of the problems, look at what resources are available within the informal support network before it escalates.
"We get told child protection is everyone's business and it is everyone's business but then community does need to be given an opportunity to actively be part of that, much more so than just reporting and then having the decision made behind closed doors.
"Across Australia we have legislation in place that allows for family group conferencing, the problem is that it's up to the discretion of the professionals involved.
"At the moment we can see up to seven or eight professionals involved making decisions about the family. This isn't family group conferencing, this is case conferencing.
"Families and those who care about them can bring resources to the table and offer solutions to the problems child protection authorities want addressed.
"What we need to see are professionals being given permission to work in a way with families which isn't just about a muscular regulatory response.
"We are seeing international evidence from 30 odd countries showing family group conferencing is a much more effective way to go.
"There is hard work being done in Canberra by people working in child protection but the child protection authorities often fail to recognise the resources that are available, so we need to look at how we can better engage with our community."
