Additional $20 million for Child Protection

The Hodgman Liberal Government will invest an additional $20 million in cross-agency investment over the next four years to ensure Tasmania’s vulnerable children are better protected.

The Government inherited a broken child protection system and we recognise that a different approach to child protection is desperately needed. A broken system breaks children and, over time, leads to broken adults.

By getting the State Budget back on track, we are now in a position to invest the dividends of that hard work into core services, such as providing for Tasmania’s vulnerable children and families.

The redesign is a whole of Government response that will result in an implementation plan in time for the 2016-17 State Budget.

The redesign is built upon the insights of experts working in the system and those that are impacted by its limitations; children and young people.

I would like to thank the Reference Group, led by Professor Maria Harries for their hard work in completing their report: Redesign of Child Protection Services Tasmania: Strong Families, Safe Kids, as well as the over 300 stakeholders who took part in the consultation, especially our child protection workers.

The Government has agreed in principle to all the recommendations in the report.

In order to better protect children, we must better support families.

An additional $20 million is a substantial investment that will deliver on initiatives recommended by the Reference Group, which can be categorised under three key areas.

Acting earlier and improving the timely access of advice and action – through a “one-door”, Government Statewide, early advice and referral network that will work to support children and families from day one and not just provide a pathway to the child protection service.

In the future there will be one entry point, the one phone number, where a concern is triaged and then straight away referred to the appropriate help, therefore resulting in a faster, more effective, and a more reassuring initial response for the notifier.

We will link the new front door advice and referral service with the broader non-government and government service network, including key service delivery agencies such as Tasmania Police, the Department of Education, Mental Health, Alcohol and Drugs Services and Family Violence services through either co-locating liaison positions or through other partnership arrangements.

Refocusing our child protection service and strengthening the capability of our child protection workers, with better structures and supports for our workforce; improved personal, professional and systems based support; and training and information technology that is fit for purpose so that staff are highly trained and able to readily access critical information to inform their decision-making with vulnerable children and their families.

Current child protection resources will also be refocussed into teams that have a very clear mandate to secure and maintain a safe environment for a child when it is no longer provided in the family home.

Growing the capacity of families and communities through the delivery of a continuum of services ranging from advice and support, through to intensive and, at times, assertive in-home support for families approaching the point of crisis.

The child protection system plays a very small, albeit important role in a broader system for protecting children. The report recommends that a shift of focus is required to recognise the role that child protection plays as part of a broader collaborative approach that includes families, communities, non-government organisations and government agencies.

Through community education, we will engage with the community and service providers, including the non-government sector, to build a common understanding of risk, and to better understand how together we can protect and secure the safety of children and young people in Tasmania.

In order to progress a public health approach it is critical that the statutory Child Protection Service is supported by appropriate universal and secondary support services, from both the government and community sectors.

These reforms are a fundamental change in the way that child protection services are delivered in this State. These measures will not only better support our child protection workers to do their job, but create a stronger, safer, future for Tasmania’s children and young people.

The Redesign of Child Protection Services Tasmania: Strong Families, Safe Kids report is available online: http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/children/cpsredesign
Jacquie Petrusma, Minister for Human Services