FINs and parent advocacy across Australia
Information about FINs in North Queensland and across Australia can be found on the Family Inclusion Network Australia Website
FINs and parent advocacy across the world
Information about family inclusion and parent advocacy across the world can be found on the International Parent Advocacy Network Website
On 28th November, one (1) Parent Advocate chaired a webinar for QCOSS titled Human Rights in Action: Understanding parents’ rights in the child protection system.
Facilitated by the Family Inclusion Network SEQ (FIN), the webinar brought together two (2) parents with lived experience, a Principal Lawyer from Queensland Human Rights Commission, and a Team Leader from Micah Projects Families team. This collaborative effort aimed to enhance the understanding of the rights of families within the child protection system.
Emphasizing the significance of the Charter, the webinar highlighted its role as a potent tool supporting workers, parents, and families in navigating the child protection system while ensuring the protection of parental rights. With the two (2) parents speaking to their experiences of the child protection system and how they have or could have used the Charter.
Around 200 people registered their interested to see the recording and receive the information. 80 attended live - including at least three (3) other parents with lived experience of the system.
Equal | Chance is written by and with parents and families with experience in the Queensland child protection system.
FIN used parents’ views and ideas to make a submission into the independent review of the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019. Prof. Susan Harris Rimmer invited stakeholders from across Queensland to provide feedback on experiences of the Human Rights Act 2019.
FIN’s suggestions focused on parents and families experiencing the child protection system, including:
The review also asked if there were “any additional human rights you think should be included as human rights under the Act?”
Housing is frequently a factor in Child Safety decisions. FIN therefore supports the right to housing be added. Fulfilling the right to adequate housing includes consideration by the State of the affordability and accessibility of housing, including focusing on protecting the most vulnerable and marginalised peoples’ human rights.
“Answerable and accountable to no-one … If you don’t hold people accountable you can’t fix the system.”
FIN gathered the views and suggestions of 50 parents as input for the ‘Child Protection Litigation Model’ Review 2024. The review seeks to “deliver a permanent child protection litigation model”. The project’s priorities are “set out in Charter Letters to both the Minister for Child Safety and the Attorney-General”.
FIN’s paper summarises the day-to-day impacts the ‘child protection litigation model’ has on the families it is designed to serve. The paper does not attempt to add to other stakeholders’ input around contemporary legal theory, practice, or service delivery models. Parents provide a vital and unique perspective that must sit firmly at the forefront for decision-makers as they come together about the future of the ‘Child Protection Litigation Model’.
Right now, parents are sacrificing more than ever as the ‘cost of living crisis’ creates deeper inequality.
Hear research on inequalities in child welfare (income, postcode, ethnicity, gender). How we might re-think and re-define the budgets and ‘systems’ that impact families? How might we resource parents and families in ways that work today?
Watch the recording here!
In July 2023, 14 parents with lived experience of the family support and child protection system began Parent Advocate Training. In October, 10 of those parents graduated from the program! Over 13 weeks, they learnt why the voices of lived experience are so important for improving systems; they learnt how to get involved in systems change and make their voices heard; and they learnt how to participate in systems advocacy in a safe, professional, and effective manner.
The Parent Advocate Training program was co-designed and developed, and co-facilitated, by FIN staff and parents with lived experience of the child protection system. This combination of expertise proved invaluable and was well received by trainee parents.
A 2023 Evaluation of FIN’s Parent Advocate Training Program demonstrates its effectiveness in developing the skills and confidence of parents to effect positive change in their own lives and beyond.
Read the full evaluation here: Parent Advocate Training Evaluation.
In June 2023, the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC) conducted the first ever ‘Parent Voice’
survey.
On 13 September 2023 the QFCC briefed FIN on the results of the survey, and it was publicly launched on
21 September – including a co-written media release.
In summary, of the 324 parents and family members who responded to the survey:
- 65% said information and decisions were explained clearly to them
- 55% agreed their personal information was treated respectfully and sensitively
- 53% agreed they were given the best possible opportunities to have contact with their child to
continue forging a positive and healthy relationship
- 53% felt their culture, background and practices were respected, understood and considered
- 47% felt they were treated fairly
- 45% felt recognised and respected
- 45% had a say in the support provided to their family
- 37% said they were able to maintain and strengthen their connections to language, family,
community, Country and culture.
The full report can be read here.
Charter of Rights for Parents involved with the child protection system in Queensland
This video summaries the Charter of Rights for Parents involved with the child protection system in Queensland. The Charter was developed in a partnership between the Family Inclusion Networks (FIN) of Queensland, the Queensland Parents’ Advisory Committee (the QPAC), and the Department.
On 10 July 2023, the Hon Craig Crawford, MP, Minister for Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services announced a review of the State’s residential care system to be led by the Director General of the Department.
“In Queensland, the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services partners with non-government organisations to provide care arrangements for children and young people in out-of-home care. The residential care system operates in a challenging environment of growing demand, increased complexity of family needs, and pressure across other care service options, such as foster care.” (Queensland Government Get Involved site).
The review seeks to respond to the shared concerns held by the Department, non-government organisations and the community about current care arrangements.
Opportunities for input into the review have included the Queensland government’s “Get Involved” consultation site, discussion forums, ‘workshops and knowledge circles’, site visits, and a roundtable. The aim is to report back by the end of the year.
This paper, collated by FIN Southeast Queensland, delivers the views of 11 parents.
The views and suggestions of these 11 parents are insightful, pragmatic, and empathetic – parents hold a unique place in systemic reviews.
With parents’ views in such minority, it is difficult not to conclude that, despite enormous strides forward in the past five years, “the system” continues to have a bias and a value set that does not acknowledge parents and families as stakeholders in their children’s lives.
Full text: Residential Care Review 2023 Submission
