Transition of Aboriginal children and young people to the care of Aboriginal out-of-home care providers
The transition of Aboriginal children and young people in out-of-home care to the care of Aboriginal organisations is of critical importance to their wellbeing. It is a significant undertaking for both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sector.
The success of transition will rely on a truly collaborative approach and ensuring that the Aboriginal agencies receiving these placements have all the necessary information they need to meet the needs of children and young people transitioning into their care. This is particularly important as new Aboriginal agencies begin providing out-of-home care services for the first time. It has been our experience that if transition of placements to new providers is not managed well, the care provided to children and young people can be compromised.
The Office of the Children’s Guardian also has a role to play in the transition of placements.
- The transition project control group is doing further work on minimum information requirements to support transition - as a member of this group, our office will be part of these discussions.
- We publish information on our website about conditions on the accreditation of the ‘receiving’ agency that limit the number or type of placements the agency can accept.
- We will prioritise monitoring of agencies that are anticipated to grow significantly through the transition project so we can identify risks quickly.
- In our routine onsite monitoring of designated agencies, we will particularly focus on placements that have been identified for transition to an Aboriginal agency. Where we can see gaps in casework or documentation that may compromise the successful transition of the placement, we will raise this with the ‘referring’ agency.
- We will continue to have conversations with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal agencies about challenges and opportunities as the transition project progresses.
Carer transition
The Out-of-home Care Transition Project Guide sets out requirements to support the transition of authorised carers. It includes information that should be exchanged between transferring agencies and Aboriginal agencies to support the re-authorisation of carers, and how this information can be used in the carer re-authorisation process.
