Published Wednesday, 14 March, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Minister for Child Safety
The Honourable Desley Boyle
Stronger focus on Indigenous children in care
Child Safety Minister Desley Boyle today announced a $1.48million plan to better protect Indigenous children across the state.
Ms Boyle said she had approved a restructure of the Department’s Indigenous Services and Development Branch and an extra $246,000 a year for the new set-up.
“Considerable effort has been made to ensure better services for Indigenous children, but it’s time for a change,” Ms Boyle said.
“This will fund more staff and place them where we need them most – on the ground in the regions and at a senior level in central office making sure Indigenous children are a focus in everything we do.
“In Queensland, we have too many Indigenous children in care.
“In the past financial year, the Department of Child Safety received 4312 calls about Indigenous children suspected of being harmed or at risk. Of these, 1839 cases were substantiated. There are about 1800 Indigenous children in care.
“We’ve got 490 Indigenous carers and we need more so these children don’t lose contact with their culture.”
The new initiative includes:
• Seven Indigenous Support Officers based in each of the Department’s zones in: Far North Queensland; North Queensland; Central Queensland; Brisbane North and Sunshine Coast; Brisbane South and Gold Coast; Logan and Brisbane West and; Ipswich and Western;
• Five Principal Policy Officers – Indigenous Co-ordination in each of the Department’s five divisions, including an Indigenous Champion in the Director-General’s office;
• A Principal Resource Officer in Cairns and a Senior Resource Officer in Townsville to work directly with communities and other government departments on Indigenous issues and;
• A Principal Funding Officer to develop funding policies and practices for Indigenous services.
“We need more Indigenous communities and Indigenous organisations to work with us to keep children safe,” Ms Boyle said.
“We’ve got funding available for these organisations, but there just aren’t enough people with the skills to run them.
“This funding will employ support staff right across Queensland to work with Indigenous communities to give them skills so they can recruit, train and support Indigenous foster carers. We need more organisations to provide counselling for Indigenous children and their families and cultural advice on all Indigenous children in care.
“The resource officers will also work closely with existing organisations to increase their capacity,” Ms Boyle said.
“Of course, there are more Indigenous children in the Cape and the Gulf and we will have a special focus there.
“Recruitment will start soon for a senior person both in Cairns and Townsville to work on specific initiatives for communities in those regions.
“These resource officers will work directly with the communities to identify what they need and will liaise with other government departments to get things happening on the ground.
“There will also be new senior staff in each of the Department’s divisions so they can feed Indigenous expertise into every area.”
The change comes after consultation with the QLD ATSI Child Protection Partnership - the peak body for Indigenous organisations working with the Child Safety Department - and with staff in the existing Indigenous branch.
The new set-up will replace the Department’s Indigenous Support and Development Branch, which had been created in response to the CMC inquiry into foster care.
Improvements made since then include:
• Establishment of a state-wide network of Indigenous organisations to provide advice to the department regarding any major decisions involving Indigenous children who have been harmed or are at risk of harm;
• Enactment of the Indigenous Child Placement Principle which endeavours to place Indigenous children with a member of their family, and if this is not possible within their community or language group;
• Implementation of a state-wide campaign to recruit more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander foster carers;
• Increased employment of Indigenous staff and cultural competence training for the wider workforce;
• Establishment of the Child Safety Director’s Network to strengthen links across government agencies to better respond to Indigenous children.
Ends
Media contact: 3224 7477
Ms Boyle said she had approved a restructure of the Department’s Indigenous Services and Development Branch and an extra $246,000 a year for the new set-up.
“Considerable effort has been made to ensure better services for Indigenous children, but it’s time for a change,” Ms Boyle said.
“This will fund more staff and place them where we need them most – on the ground in the regions and at a senior level in central office making sure Indigenous children are a focus in everything we do.
“In Queensland, we have too many Indigenous children in care.
“In the past financial year, the Department of Child Safety received 4312 calls about Indigenous children suspected of being harmed or at risk. Of these, 1839 cases were substantiated. There are about 1800 Indigenous children in care.
“We’ve got 490 Indigenous carers and we need more so these children don’t lose contact with their culture.”
The new initiative includes:
• Seven Indigenous Support Officers based in each of the Department’s zones in: Far North Queensland; North Queensland; Central Queensland; Brisbane North and Sunshine Coast; Brisbane South and Gold Coast; Logan and Brisbane West and; Ipswich and Western;
• Five Principal Policy Officers – Indigenous Co-ordination in each of the Department’s five divisions, including an Indigenous Champion in the Director-General’s office;
• A Principal Resource Officer in Cairns and a Senior Resource Officer in Townsville to work directly with communities and other government departments on Indigenous issues and;
• A Principal Funding Officer to develop funding policies and practices for Indigenous services.
“We need more Indigenous communities and Indigenous organisations to work with us to keep children safe,” Ms Boyle said.
“We’ve got funding available for these organisations, but there just aren’t enough people with the skills to run them.
“This funding will employ support staff right across Queensland to work with Indigenous communities to give them skills so they can recruit, train and support Indigenous foster carers. We need more organisations to provide counselling for Indigenous children and their families and cultural advice on all Indigenous children in care.
“The resource officers will also work closely with existing organisations to increase their capacity,” Ms Boyle said.
“Of course, there are more Indigenous children in the Cape and the Gulf and we will have a special focus there.
“Recruitment will start soon for a senior person both in Cairns and Townsville to work on specific initiatives for communities in those regions.
“These resource officers will work directly with the communities to identify what they need and will liaise with other government departments to get things happening on the ground.
“There will also be new senior staff in each of the Department’s divisions so they can feed Indigenous expertise into every area.”
The change comes after consultation with the QLD ATSI Child Protection Partnership - the peak body for Indigenous organisations working with the Child Safety Department - and with staff in the existing Indigenous branch.
The new set-up will replace the Department’s Indigenous Support and Development Branch, which had been created in response to the CMC inquiry into foster care.
Improvements made since then include:
• Establishment of a state-wide network of Indigenous organisations to provide advice to the department regarding any major decisions involving Indigenous children who have been harmed or are at risk of harm;
• Enactment of the Indigenous Child Placement Principle which endeavours to place Indigenous children with a member of their family, and if this is not possible within their community or language group;
• Implementation of a state-wide campaign to recruit more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander foster carers;
• Increased employment of Indigenous staff and cultural competence training for the wider workforce;
• Establishment of the Child Safety Director’s Network to strengthen links across government agencies to better respond to Indigenous children.
Ends
Media contact: 3224 7477