Intensive Family-Based Support Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families

Paper published April 2012

Background

SNAICC is seeking to profile promising practices by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled agencies that:

• contribute to effective identification, intake and referral systems for families,
• provide intensive family-based support and family preservation services, and
• potentially provide support to facilitate family reunification or restoration where children have been removed.

At the state level, there are several trends in child protection systems that have led to an upsurge of interest in the further development of intensive family support services. Notifications of suspected child abuse and neglect have continued to increase, especially the number and proportion of cases relating to neglect and emotional abuse. High re-notification and re-substantiation rates indicate that many families coming to the attention of child protection services have very complex and chronic needs, with multiple risk factors at the intersection of child protection concerns with other family needs, such as:

• domestic and family violence,
• parental mental health problems,
• family homelessness and precarious housing, and
• parental drug and alcohol problems.

Alongside this, there are faster rates of infants entering care, children staying longer in care, and ongoing very high levels of overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in child protection and out-of-home care. The combination of these factors has positioned child protection as a specialised service, with a high threshold for state intervention, highlighting gaps in the service system for secondary-level family support.

The need for a balance between tertiary child protection and secondary, community-based services is also desirable so that a notification of suspected child abuse and neglect is not the primary pathway for access to services. This has led governments to direct attention to increasing the capacity of the family support sector, with multi-agency approaches and improved intake mechanisms to well-targeted, evidence-based support services.

At the Commonwealth level, the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children also emphasises early intensive intervention to assist families, with the first three-year action plan noting priorities in the areas of Closing the Gap, announcing funding for Indigenous Children and Family Centres and Indigenous Parenting Support Services, and Joining up service delivery, including refocusing Communities for Children to target the most disadvantaged communities.

Across Australia, each jurisdiction’s child protection and family support systems have developed differently, so there is not necessarily consistency in policy or practice in the relationship between family support and statutory child protection intervention. There are differences in access and eligibility for different levels of family support, aims and purposes, and whether services are provided by government or non-government providers.

Government financial investment in non-government service providers also varies, including the emphasis placed on funding, supporting and working with community-controlled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies to address child and family welfare needs.

This background paper:

• offers an evidence-based working definition of programs aimed at family preservation and family restoration or reunification (intensive family support) in the Australian context,
• overviews the evidence base and key features of intensive family support programs, services and interventions,
• identifies limited Australian evaluation findings, and
• overviews the features and scope of intensive family support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, based on program descriptions and definitions used by the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian governments.