Carer Connection Newsletter Sept 13

Carer Connection

Carer Liaison Officer Update Welcome to the Spring edition of the Carer Connection.

This edition is a shortened version to introduce myself as the Carer Liaison Officer and update you on the Carer Roundtable. The next newsletter will be a bumper edition. The focus of this month’s issue is to outline what happened at the second ACT Carer Roundtable held Friday, 23 August 2013. The newsletter will also give you an update of what happened since the first Roundtable held in March and what is planned for the future.

Looking towards the end of the year there are a number of events coming up. The National Foster and Kinship Care Conference will be hosted by Sydney 31 October – 1 November 2013. I expect this conference to be very worthwhile and I look forward to attending and hope to see some of you there. CREATE is hosting a national Conference in the ACT From Strength to Strength: improving the care system for children and young people through participation, will take place in Canberra 22-24 November 2013. Grants are available for young people and carers to attend the conference.

There was a great turn out for the Foster Care Expo held Saturday 14 September 2013 at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre at Yarramundi. This joint recruitment activity was an initiative of Barnardo’s Australia, Australian Childhood Foundation, Anglicare ACT, Marymead and Galilee Foster Care and supported by ACT Government. Keynote addresses from Dr Sue Packer, ACT Citizen of the Year, Noel McNamara, Manager Therapeutic Services, Australian Childhood Foundation and Julia Clayton, CREATE Foundation were compelling and insightful. A Fostering Panel: The Stories of Families Who Foster was a wonderful way of developing awareness of the needs of vulnerable children and families. A big thank you to all those involved for making this a successful event.

This year the much anticipated OCYFS Kinship Care Christmas Party will also be held on Saturday 7 December 2013 at the Tuggeranong Child and Family Centre. Kinship Carers will soon receive invitations to this wonderful event and I am looking forward to the opportunity to be involved, with many others, in planning,

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While brief, I hope you find this Carer Connection Newsletter informative. If you need support or information, please contact me on 6205 8357 or you can email your enquiry to [email protected] or [email protected]. Warm Regards

Teresa Tuite OCYFS carer Liaison Officer

Carer Liaison Officer Profile I am looking forward to supporting and liaising with many foster and kinship carers over the coming months as I establish myself in the Carer Liaison Officer role. I have already had the opportunity to attend some carer events where I have been interested to listen to carer experiences and suggestions.

To let you know a little about myself, I grew up and lived in Canberra until 1986 when I moved to Adelaide to study Social Work and obtain a Bachelor of Social Work. I was fortunate to work at the Aboriginal Family Support Service in Adelaide which provided out-of-home-care (OOHC) services for the Aboriginal Community in South Australia. I then worked as a regional coordinator with the agency providing Alternative Care Services (the continuum of family preservation/reunification and full range of foster care programs) across metropolitan Adelaide.

I have also worked in services for young people, homelessness, public housing advocacy and early intervention in Adelaide , OOHC in Ireland, St Vincent’s Mental Health Service in Darlinghurst Sydney and more recently, Disability ACT where I worked at a service for people with an intellectual disability, mental illness and involvement with the Criminal Justice System.

Prior to graduating from Social Work, I worked in remote North East Thailand for 3.5 years. I was responsible for developing a family centre and outreach program for children and families from the extremely poor and deprived villages in this traditional, agricultural region of Thailand. This challenging but wonderful experience enabled me to experience life and social development work through a vastly different lens. The insights from this rich learning experience continue to inform my world view and approach to social work in different settings. I continue to visit and remain connected to Nong Khai through friends and work colleagues from the local community and have seen children who accessed our program, grow into young adults making their way in life.

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It is my passion for working towards positive change that is sustainable, respectful and participatory, that inspired me to complete a Masters in International Social Development at the University of NSW.

I hope with my experience and knowledge, I can assist in resolving your questions or concerns. Please do not hesitate to contact me on 6205 8357 or by email at [email protected] or [email protected].

ACT Carer Roundtable Update Firstly, thank you to everyone who attended the second ACT Carer Roundtable. There were over 30 foster carers, kinship carers, out of home agency representatives and Office for Children, Youth and Family Services representatives in attendance.

The afternoon ran as a world cafe style so that all attendees had an opportunity to contribute to the following questions: 1. What are the most important things we need to know about a child or young person when they first come into care? 2. How can we gather and store important personal history information for a child or young person about their time in care? 3. What needs to happen for us to work better together?

The Roundtable was another huge success with carers contributing to a range of discussions about how we can make the system better for children, young people and carers.

Firstly, what’s happened since the first Roundtable.... We held the first Roundtable back in March 2013 and we have listened to what you have said. There has been a lot of things happening to try to address the issues that you have raised -

Out of Home Care Strategy The discussions from the first Roundtable fed into the development of an Issues Paper to help identify all the issues facing the out of home care sector. These issues will then be considered as part of the Out of Home

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Care Strategy. The Issues Paper was handed out to carers at the second Roundtable and is available at - http://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/ocyfs/out_of_home_care/out-of-home-care-strategy-2015-2020

Carers are asked to provide feedback on the issues identified in the Issues Paper and to provide a response to the questions. Carers are invited to provide a written submission about the Issues Paper and/or attend a Stakeholder Engagement Forum to discuss the Issues Paper. The Stakeholder Engagement Forums will be held:

Date: Wednesday 18 September 2013 Time: 6.00 – 8.00pm Venue: Tuggeranong Child and Family Centre, 159 Anketell St Greenway ACT

Date: Thursday, 19 September 2013 Time: 12.00 – 2.00pm Venue: Gungahlin Child and Family Centre, 51 Ernst Cavanagh St Gungahlin ACT

Care and Protection Services recently commissioned the Parenting Research Centre and University of Melbourne to undertake a literature review of national and international best practice is out of home care. The evidence review will provide Care and Protection Services with a rigorous overview of the evidence to help guide the development of the Out of Home Care Strategy. The evidence review can be found at - http://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/ocyfs/out_of_home_care/out-of-home-care-strategy-2015-2020

Integrated Management System The Care and Protection Services Integrated Management System (IMS) Project team are continuing to make progress on the project. The Intake and Appraisal module is closer to finalisation with facilitated desk top reviews being conducted with Care and Protection Services staff. It is anticipated that the Intake and Appraisal module will go live in October with the launch of the Care and Protection Services Knowledge Portal.

The Care and Protection Services Knowledge Portal will be the one source of current policy and practice direction for all Care and Professional Services staff and will ensure staff are up to date. The Knowledge Portal utilises Microsoft SharePoint and will facilitate live feedback on practice for staff. This will ensure our practices continuously improve over time.

The Managing Placement module has now been scoped and work is commencing. The Care and Protection Services IMS Project team have appreciated input from carers during the scoping process. The recent carer’s roundtable provided direct feedback to the Care and Protection Services IMS Project team on some key areas such as information at time of placement, life story recording and ongoing communication.

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The team have been undertaking a review of literature including reviews of the ACT system from the 2004 ‘The Territory as Parent’ Vardon review to present, the Munro Review in the UK, the Bringing Them Home report and similar to ensure what we have learnt in the past is considered.

The gap analysis for the family work module is nearing completion and development of this module will commence in the near future. The Voluntary Care Agreement policy and procedures have been drafted and the ACT Children and Young People Commissioner will be reviewing it shortly.

The team have developed a series of Practice Guidelines for Care and Protection Services staff which will continue to grow during the development of the remaining modules. Practice Guidelines support Care and Protection Services staff in their professional judgement. Practice Guidelines drafted so far include; Child development and trauma guide; Genograms, eco-maps, time lines and behavioural sequences; Including fathers; Making effective referrals; Supporting contact; Supporting children and young people in care through transitions; Parental protective factors and family protective resources; and Responding to a prenatal report.

The team has also been developing a one page overview of the care and protection system flowchart to assist people to understand the care and protection process from intake to leaving care and post order support. This will be a valuable resource in the future.

The team can be contacted at [email protected] and welcome feedback and ideas.

Carer Consultation Group In response to you wanting us to hear the voices of carer more the Carer Consultation Group has been formed and is chaired by Bev Orr. The purpose of the Carer Consultation Group will be: o to provide two way communication between carers and OCYFS; o to provide advice/feedback to the Executive Director, OCYFS on systemic out of home care matters; and o matters for discussion and consideration can be raised by OCYFS and by members of the group.

Additional Roundtables The next ACT Carers Roundtable will be scheduled for end of November 2013 and will take place in the evening to cater for those who couldn’t come to the day time session.

Foster Carer and Kinship Carers Guide The Foster Carer and Kinship Carers Guide is currently being updated and will contain the most up to date information for carers.

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Kinship Carer Therapeutic Support OCYFS is partnering with the Australian Childhood Foundation to offer therapeutic support for kinship carers. This is an exciting opportunity for kinship carers who might need additional support with addressing the behaviours your child or young person presents with. If you would like more information about this program please contact your Kinship Care Support worker.

FREE Relationships Australia Counselling – Foster Carers Based on your feedback OCYFS has extended their contract with Relationships Australia to enable foster carers to access their services. Relationships Australia offer a range of counselling services about any relationship that you might need help with. If you would like to access counselling please contact Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277. Please don’t forget this service is already free for kinship carers.

Consistent Decision Making At the first Roundtable carers said there were lots of issues with the consistency of decision making. Since the Roundtable, Care and Protection Service staff have all been trained in decision making and the ways to record decisions. The training included how to use key templates which are being built in to the policies and procedures.

Communications Protocol The Communications Protocol will go some way to address the issues carers raise about communication. The Protocol is now fully operational and will also be built in to the policies and procedures so that it becomes standard practice.

Positive Futures, Caring Together Training Carers raised the need to review the training supports offered to carers. A major project underway is to review the training package provided to foster carers. This project is ongoing and will consider the findings from both Roundtables about how things can be improved.

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ACT Carer Roundtable Feedback – 23 August 2013 1. What are the most important things we need to know about a child/young person when they first come into care?

This question focused around the types of information that carers would like and the way the information is provided.

There was a discussion amongst carers about the need to access as much information as possible as quickly as possible versus wanting to get to know the child or young person themselves.

There was very much a consensus that at the start of a placement carers need to know basic information such as age, gender, any extreme behavioural issues, contact information and as much information about the child or young person’s medical needs. This included allergies, medications, immunisation record, medicare number and health history. Some carers also wanted to know why the child has come into care and whether the child or young person had been exposed to anything traumatic directly before placement.

As the placement continued carers identified they needed to be able to access more information. Carers wanted to know how to apply for medicare care cards, health care cards, passports and birth certificates. Carers wanted to develop a behaviour plan to identify and address any behavioural changes emerging in the placement. Some carers were interested in having contact with the child or young person’s birth family or previous carers to obtain the child’s history. It was appreciated this might not always be possible or for the best as the child’s previous carer may not be objective about the placement which could impact on the new carer.

Additional information included the child or young person’s placement history, their likes or dislikes particularly around food choices, routines and bedtime habits, care plans, contact details for emergency support and caseworkers, their life story book, the birth mother’s pregnancy history or family’s mental health history.

One participant summed up the information nicely as ‘they needed as anything you would tell a friend if your child was going over for a sleepover’.

In terms of how the information is provided to them many agreed it need to be in writing as particularly at the start of the placement the carer may not remember pertinent details because its a time of crisis. Carers wanted Care and Protection Services to be as clear as possible about the potential length of placement even if this is over estimated.

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The biggest suggestion was to consider how we can use technology to share information. This was seen as a way for carers to be given and to provide information about the child or young person.

The final comment on this question was about what information did Care and Protection Services and the out of home care agency need to know about the carers in order to place children and young people. This was in terms of being able to support carers to take the placement and to keep the child or young person in their care. This was discussed in terms of identifying and offering both practical and emotional support for carers.

2. How can we gather and store important personal history information for a child or young person about their time in care?

Everyone agreed a child or young person’s history is extremely valuable and important and should be collected for the child or young person throughout their life. Carers could clearly see they have a role to play in the collection of personal history and information given they have the most contact with the child or young person. It was also noted however, that often information about the child or young person is not available to carers, particularly about their time prior to coming into care. This information was seen as being really important but there were questions about how this could be collected and documented consistently.

There was agreement that children and young people should hold their own information needed but this needed to be considered in relation to the age of the child, maturity level and stage of life.

Information was broken up into life story work and those records kept ‘on file’. Carers saw they should be responsible for life story work such as collecting personal information about their journey in care including:  Photos  School pictures  Family outings  Holidays  School reports  Memorabilia  Contact experiences

It was agreed that the child or young person should lead the process and help to decide what should be in their life story.

Carers asked for clear guidelines and training about how to capture a child’s life story coherently and consistently but appreciating the individual child or young person’s circumstances. It was recognised some

9 Carer Connection children’s life story will be very complex as they move placements or restoration is attempted. There was acknowledgement the life story needed to be respectful about the child’s journey. Coupled with training was the suggestion of a Carer Toolkit which includes information about how to develop a life story for a child or young person. The Toolkit could incorporate therapeutic tools to assist the child or young person understand their past in a safe way.

Another part to the discussion was about the records stored by the agency or Care and Protection Services and how information is shared. Often different agencies will hold information about the child or young person and this isn’t shared or used for in decision making. There was a discussion about the need for a protocol about sharing information.

Information kept by the agency or Care and Protection Services needed to be considered in the context of who is the audience knowing that children and young people may want to access their records at some point.

Consistently there was a theme that the child or young person’s information should be stored electronically so that the records couldn’t be lost and could be transferred if the child or young person moved on. It was noted that ideally there would be one electronic system that stores a child’s information that all stakeholders could access online.

3. What needs to happen for us to work better together? There were a number of themes that came from this question –

Communication Carers would like honesty and transparency in the communication with others. Cares thought it pertinent that they could answer questions for the child or young person such as ‘what will happen to me?’

Relationships Many carers saw the need to invest in the relationships with people supporting the child or young person by being respectful, talking and listening to people not just during a crisis, acting professionally, giving each other advice, being honest, sharing information, responsive, open policies and procedures that are followed and set timeframes that are adhered to.

A suggestion to build relationships was for caseworkers to undertake a form of the carer training so they understood what carers have been trained in.

Networks

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Carers recognise the importance of their networks around them including family and friends. A suggestion was to assist carers to identify their natural supports and to develop training for these people.

Case worker support Carers discussed the role of Care and Protection Services and the agencies and how fewer changeovers in staff would positively impact carers by there being a consistent case direction. Carers also discussed the difficulties when they don’t have direct access to the child protection worker and how this can lead to a breakdown in communication or duplication of responsibilities. This was particularly seen during emergency medical situations when carers felt they weren’t able to contact Care and Protection Services after hours unit directly but had to go through the agency.

A suggestion to assist carers was the development of an identification card for carers which details what having daily care responsibility actually means.

Where to next... The findings from the second Roundtable will be used to help the development of the IMS. The IMS will seek to incorporate, where possible, those comments and suggestions by carers in Care and Protection Services policy and procedures. I will provide ongoing updates about how your information is being used and any other developments in out of home care.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me . Warm Regards

Teresa Tuite OCYFS Carer Liaison Officer

Supports for Foster Carers and Kinship Carers

Kinship Care Support Team A team of four support workers to provide guidance, advocacy and support to kinship carers. Contact: Team Leader, Jenna Schoer. Phone: 6205 4966 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Foster Care Association of the ACT Inc. Provides support to foster and kinship carers. 10 Carer Connection

Contact: President Pauline Dusink Website: www.fcaact.org.au Email [email protected]

Grandparent and Kinship Carers ACT Inc. Provides support to all grandparent and kinship carers throughout the ACT. Website: www.grandparentandkinshipcarers.vpweb.com.au You can contact one of the following people for support: President: Marion Le: 6258 1419 [email protected] Vice President: Fran Le Pavoux: 0430432210 [email protected] Secretary: Jean Smyth: 6284 7124 [email protected]

GrandParents ACT & Region GrandParents ACT have developed the GrandParents Support Network to help grandparents who are raising, or who play a significant role in raising, their grandchildren. The group meets monthly at Marymead. When: Second Wednesday of every month during school terms between 12-2pm. Free Lunch provided. Where: Marymead Child and Family Centre, 255 Goyder St Narrabundah ACT. Contact: Kerri Huett at Marymead on 6162 5891.

Relationships Australia Relationships Australia provide free counselling for all foster carers and kinship carers looking after children who are under care under the Director-General. Cares are encouraged to call Relationships Australia to book an appointment. Contact: Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277.

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News from CREATE! We have had a fantastic few months here at Create with many events! For Child Protection Week in September, CREATE celebrated by partnering with Aikido Instructors to run a Self Defence Workshop for children aged 5 – 12 years!

We had a great turn out, with 20 children participating. It was rewarding to see their self confidence get a boost, and watch them practice assertive and appropriate responses to situations. It was also awesome to see them learn to roll people like pros if they were facing serious threats!

We celebrated NAIDOC week with an art day, and were impressed by the calibre and spontaneity of the young people’s art! Consequently we have some amazing work now displayed in our office. Drop in to see us (and our small exhibition!) at anytime.

We recently held a consultation for “Avoiding Homelessness” for our older young people who have transitioned from care. We

12 Carer Connection are in the process of compiling these interviews into a report to help improve housing awareness and options for young people. We have an upcoming consultation, “Placement Satisfaction” to help identify what makes a good placement from the perspective of young people.

We also hold monthly or bi-monthly Youth Advisory Groups to give people aged 12-25 the space to have their voice heard regularly about issues affecting young people in care. These range from more structured discussion based meetings, to a chance to just get together and hang out with other young people with care experiences. For example, in recent meetings young people provided feedback about information given to young people when they first enter care, and another time we played Pitch n Putt golf. For upcoming Youth Advisory Groups we have sessions planned with community artist and a laser skirmish with the ACT Young People’s Commissioner Alasdair Roy! Please get in contact for any inquires about upcoming events! (The picture below is from the go-karting to celebrate the end of Create Your Future program!)

In November, CREATE is hosting a National Conference in the ACT- From Strength to Strength: Improving the care system for young Australians through participation at the National Convention Centre, November 22 - 24. The conference is open to all children and young people in care in Australia, their Carers, government officials and those working in the sector. The overall purpose is to provide a national forum for young people with a care experience to learn and grow, and to connect with their peers, and those working within the system. It is also an avenue for young people with a care experience to feel empowered, informed, and to have a say and be heard. We would love to see a strong turnout from ACT and the region. Please see the attached link to the Carer’s and young person’s grant application to go to the conference!

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If you would like your child to get a birthday card, magazines, enter competitions and be invited to all CREATE activities – please make sure they are members of Club Create and that we have your current address!

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Grandparent and Kinship Care Inc ACT Written by Fran Le Pavoux

The Grandparent and Kinship Care (GKA) ACT Inc is a self funded support and advocacy group for grandparent and kinship carers. GKA is run by kinship carers for kinship carers.

We are a small but effective group of kinship carers who were formed when care and protection first called for kinship representatives to volunteer to advise the department on specific kinship issues. Since our inception, we have been unsuccessful in our requests for funding so have continued on in the absence of financial support and rely solely on membership fees for operational costs. This group recognised the absence of any transparent advocacy for kinship carers and that kinship care is quite different to foster care and as such, there are many issues which require the insight of a kinship carer to acknowledge and represent carers.

To date, we have a pivotal role in departmental policy development, meet with the departmental executive quarterly, contribute to departmental projects and have assisted many grandparent and kinship carers in their roles as carers when there have been situations that carers have required support.

If you think you might benefit from ongoing interaction with other kinship carers or would like to assist in supporting other kinship carers, we meet on the first Monday of each month at 6.30pm. Please contact our secretary Jean Smyth on 62847124 or [email protected] for further information. Annual membership fees are $5.

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ONLINE SAFETY AND CYBERBULLYING THIS EVENT IS NOT TO BE MISSED – IT WILL CHANGE YOUR THINKING

PRESENTED BY A FORMER ONLINE UNDERCOVER POLICE DETECTIVE

SIMPLE MEASURES TO CREATE A FUN, EDUCATIONAL AND POSITIVE ONLINE EXPERIENCE

WITNESS THE REAL LIFE DANGERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

DISCOVER HOW ESSENTIAL AND IMPORTANT YOUR ROLE IS

SOCIAL NETWORKING, THE LAW ONLINE, IDENTITY PROTECTION, CYBER BULLYING, SEXTING – GAMING

Where: 80 Beaurepaire Cres Holt (Anglicare Community hall back car park) When: 11 October 2013 Time: 6pm for 6.30 start and dinner RSVP phone Litmus office on: 6278 8444 by 4 October 2013 Presented by Internet Education and Safety Services Sponsored by Litmus ACT a program of Anglicare 16 Carer Connection

This year the National Foster and Kinship care Conference will be hosted by Sydney.

The conference will run in conjunction with the 2013 Tell Someone Who Cares Conference.

As in previous years, the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support (OCYFS) is providing funding for a number of carers to attend this conference. If you are interested, please contact the Carer Liaison Officer on 6205 8357.

For more information about the conference please visit

http://www.cvent.com/events/karitane-national-conference/event-summary- 2542e6f1ed384f02ab545937a3e19b0b.aspx