Protection services will be better integrated to stop children from disappearing from the education system and other signs of potential abuse being missed to prevent the circumstances which led to the murder of a nine-year-old boy, the ACT Minister for Families and Community Services Minister says.
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Rachel Stephen-Smith said the ACT government has agreed, or agreed in principle, with 16 of the recommendations made by Coroner Margaret Hunter after an inquest into death of Bradyn Dillon, who was murdered by his father.
"While the Coroner's findings lay sole responsibility for Bradyn Dillon's death with his father, that does not take away our responsibility as a government and as a community to do all we can to better protect our community's children and young people," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Ms Stephen-Smith tabled the government's response to the Ms Hunter's findings on Thursday, which showed the government agreed in principle to funding more staff at the intake level of child youth protection services and would agree in principle to consider establishing a consultation team for complex cases.
"We need to continue to develop safe and effective responses to children at risk of harm. However, outcomes for children will be better if we can connect families with support before a child is identified as being at serious risk," she said.
The government has agreed in principle to enhancing information sharing between child protection and education authorities, but notes a recommendation to expand using the Connect 4 Safety federal initiative. The minister said the ACT government actively participated in the establishment of the Connect 4 Safety information sharing system.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the death of Bradyn Dillon was a tragedy.
"My thoughts today are with Bradyn's mother, his sister, his wider family and all those who knew him. As a community, we mourn any death that is the result of family violence and recognise our duty to do more," she said.
"The ACT government remains absolutely committed to the prevention of domestic and family violence and protecting the most vulnerable in our community."
The minister said demand for child youth protection services teams continues to grow, with 21,697 child concern reports to assess in the 2020-21 financial year, part of an upward trend. In 2019-20, there were 18,663 reports.
"In the 2021-22 budget, the government committed $6.49 million in funding over four years to further develop CYRIS to ensure high quality information is available to comprehensively assess the risk experienced by vulnerable children and young people," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
In the coming year, a new online reporting portal will also be finished that will streamline case management to provide high quality information to comprehensively assess the risk experienced by vulnerable children and young people, she said.
There was an extra $35.9 million over four years in the 2021-22 territory budget for safer families programs, including extra money for the Domestic Violence Crisis Service and the Canberra Rape Crisis Service.
"Importantly, the budget also included $249,000 for 2021-22 to continue the effective and innovative Family Safety Action Pilot, which supports high-risk families experiencing domestic and family violence by sharing information to identify, assess, and manage risk. It also provides case management, case coordination, and support for individuals and families," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
There had also been significant investment in training for public servants in domestic and family violence responses since Bradyn Dillon's death, she said.
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Nine-year-old Bradyn Dillon was murdered in February 2016 by his father, Graham Dillon. Dillon was sentenced to 41 years in jail in June 2018, after Justice John Burns described the man's conduct towards his son as "torture".
"The truth is that the particular acts which caused Bradyn's death were not isolated or out of character," Justice Burns said at the time.
"Those acts were simply the culmination of a brutal process of torture of Bradyn that you engaged in over many months."
A coronial inquest into Bradyn Dillon's death concluded no one could have predicted the murder of the boy at the hands of his father.
The coroner, Ms Hunter, fought back tears while handing down her findings in April. The three-year inquest, one of the largest held in the ACT, heard that Bradyn's teachers had made multiple reports about bruising to child protection agencies, and often he just never came to school.
Despite the numerous reports hinting at abuse, none could be said to be a "precursor to what eventuated", Ms Hunter said.
The coroner found the multiple reports made about the boy did not reveal a need to remove him from Dillon's care, and that the master manipulator Dillon had deceived the agencies.
The coroner said that Child and Youth Protection Services, managing 18,600 cases last year, perhaps missed the rolling harm of domestic violence on the boy, that they should have investigated Dillon's lies more thoroughly, that a more experienced caseworker could have been assigned to the case.
- 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
- Domestic Violence Crisis Service: 6280 0900 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
- Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
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