VACYP Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18

Strong Families, Thriving Children
The Victorian Aboriginal Children &
Young People’s Alliance
Strategic Plan
2015-18
vaccho.org.au/policy-advocacy/vacypa
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
1
Purpose
The Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young
People’s Alliance (the Alliance) purpose is to be the
collective voice for Victorian Aboriginal communities
working together to positively influence the future of
Aboriginal children and young people.
Vision
The Alliance will work towards achieving the
following Vision:
Aboriginal children and young people have every
opportunity to thrive and be raised safely in
Aboriginal families and communities.
About Us
In 2013, during the development of a submission
(Koori Kids: Growing Strong in their Culture) for the
5 Year Out of Home Care Complementary Plan for
Aboriginal Children it was recognised that there is
a need for a strong, collective voice to drive better
outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people.
Therefore in 2014, an in-principle agreement had
been formed by 13 of the Victorian Aboriginal
Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs)
involved in providing out of home care services
to form an alliance to advocate for, and positively
influence the future of, Aboriginal children and
young people in Victoria, thus creating the Victorian
Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance
(The Alliance).
The Alliance consists of 13 Aboriginal community
controlled organisations:
•
•
•
Ballarat & District Aboriginal Co-operative
Bendigo & District Aboriginal Co-operative
Dandenong & District Aboriginal Co-operative
Ltd.
Gippsland & East Gippsland Aboriginal
Co-operative
Gundtijmara Aboriginal Co-operative Ltd.
Mallee District Aboriginal Service
Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation
Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative
Njernda Aboriginal Corporation
Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation
Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative Ltd
Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative
Winda Mara Aboriginal Corporation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
2
On 17-18 February 2015, the Alliance
members attended a 2 day strategic planning
workshop in Melbourne to discuss and plan
their future directions. As a result Strong
Families, Thriving Children: The Victorian
Aboriginal Children and Young People’s
Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-2018 was
developed.
See Appendix 1 for Terms of Reference
Strategic Priorities
Alliance advocacy, actions and meetings will
be focused on facilitating the delivery of the
following priorities:
1.
Establish an Aboriginal Children’s Agreement
and Forum to implement and measure
progress against the priorities outlined by the
Agreement.
2.
Ensure every Aboriginal child and young
person in out of home care is culturally safe
and culturally connected, and there is a
strong focus on reunification.
3.
Ensure every Aboriginal child/young person
and family, regardless of where they live in
Victoria, has full access to a continuum of
prevention, early intervention, placement,
and re-unification services, delivered through
the ACCO sector.
4.
Resource ACCOs to build the life skills of
Aboriginal children and young people in out
of home care to facilitate the transition to
independence.
5.
Build the capacity of Aboriginal families,
communities and ACCOs to care for their
children and young people and to reduce the
number of Aboriginal children/young people
in out of home care.
6.
Place all Aboriginal children and young
people in out of home care under the care
and case management of an ACCO.
7.
Better support for Aboriginal and nonAboriginal carers to provide culturally
competent placements and to maintain and
grow the pool of Aboriginal carers.
8.
Ensure compliance with the Children,
Youth and Families Act 2005 as it relates
to Aboriginal children and young people
through an independently published and
audited scorecard to measure success and
compliance.
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
Strategic Priorities into Action
Initial strategies have been identified under each
strategic priority to focus Alliance activity over the
next 1-3 years. This will be done in consultation
and partnership with government agencies and key
stakeholders where required.
1. Establish an Aboriginal Children’s
Agreement and Forum to implement and
measure progress against priorities outlined
in the Agreement
1.1Create the Victorian Aboriginal Children’s
Agreement with signatories from the
Alliance, government and key agencies.
1.2Establish the Aboriginal Children’s Forum
and Terms of Reference to measure
progress against the Agreement which
will address systemic issues.
2.Ensure every Aboriginal children and young
person in out of home care is culturally
safe and culturally connected and there is
a strong focus on reunification through a
cultural support plan.
2.1Establish the Minimum requirements
for creating safe, culturally connected
Aboriginal children in out of home care.
2.1.1Adopt the Alliance’s Minimum
requirements for creating safe, culturally
connected Aboriginal children in out of
home care as the standard practice of
all government and non-government
agencies.
2.1.2
Implement the Minimum requirements
for creating safe, culturally connected
Aboriginal children in out of home care
for all guardianship cases by the 1st July
2015.
2.1.3
Implement the Minimum requirements
for creating safe, culturally connected
Aboriginal children in out of home care
for all Aboriginal children in out of home
care by the 1st June 2016.
2.2
Fully resource ACCOs to develop and
enable the implementation of cultural
support plans for every Aboriginal child
and young person in out of home care
which includes:
•
•
•
•
Return to Country cultural support
worker
Cultural support persons/Aboriginal
mentors
Access to genealogy records and
services
Socialisation/recreational activities
with other young Aboriginal people.
2.3Develop an agreed, simplified approach
that all out of home care agencies
and Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) use to identify
Aboriginal children and young people
early.
2.4Develop incident reporting mechanisms
for all agencies involved in delivering out
of home care services to include the lack
of cultural connection.
2.5Support the Australian Childhood
Foundation (ACF) to review and promote
the Charter for Aboriginal Children’s
Rights, so all Aboriginal children and
young people know their rights.
2.6Develop Aboriginal specific re-unification
guidelines to inform DHHS, Community
Sector Organisations (CSOs) and ACCO
practice.
2.7Create Aboriginal cultural competency
based standards for the DHHS, CSOs
and ACCOs and successfully achieve
standards through learning and
development.
2.8Introduce and resource ongoing cultural
training, reflective practice and coaching
for staff, including Child Protection
workers and CSOs, to ensure culturally
appropriate practices.
3.Ensure every Aboriginal child and family,
regardless of where they live in Victoria, has
full access to a continuum of prevention,
early intervention, placement, and reunification services, delivered through the
ACCO sector.
3.1Provide an additional weighting on the
base price for Aboriginal out of home
care placements to reflect the complexity
of need and service delivery.
3.2Review and amend the placement
accommodation criteria for out of home
carers to align with Aboriginal community
norms to increase placement options.
3.3Utilise and/or develop culturally-based
mental health and suicide prevention
strategies for any Aboriginal child
or young person whose social and
emotional wellbeing and mental health is
at serious risk.
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
3
4.Resource ACCOs to build the life skills of
Aboriginal children and young people in out
of home care to facilitate the transition to
independence.
4.1Improve and adequately fund an
integrated post-care transition service for
every Aboriginal child and young person
leaving care, including priority access to
services and cultural support.
4.2Have the Alliance actively participate in
the Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) in
the DHHS longitudinal study of Beyond
18 and other leaving care studies and
research.
4.3Ensure Aboriginal young people in out
of home care have access to culturally
appropriate sexual health, wellbeing and
healthy relationships information and
education.
5.Build the capacity of Aboriginal families,
communities and ACCOs to care for their
children and young people and to reduce the
number of Aboriginal children in out of home
care.
5.1Create an evidence base of the key
drivers to out of home care to inform
targeted, tailored service responses and
evaluation frameworks.
5.2Invest in expanding and evaluating
successful, evidence based approaches
that build family capability through
ACCOs.
5.3Identify an integrated response to
Aboriginal intergenerational trauma,
abuse and family violence.
5.4Establish evidence based community
diversionary options for Aboriginal
children and young people.
5.5Strengthen the role of Aboriginal women
and particuarly men in parenting.
The Alliance logo
5.6Increase funding of the Aboriginal Child
Specialist Advice and Support Service
(ACSASS) to reflect the dramatic
growth in child protection and Aboriginal
notifications.
5.7Reform the Aboriginal Family Led
Decision Making (AFLDM) program to
ensure a timelier, flexible and inclusive
service response.
The Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young
People’s Alliance logo reflects the aspirations of
Alliance members working together to achieve
strong families with thriving children.
The logo was designed by digital artist Samantha
Paxton (Way Wurru) with advice from the Alliance
Chair Karen Heap (Yorta Yorta).
The dots represent the 13 founding ACCOs of the
Alliance and the band connecting these ACCOs
represents ongoing communication and knowledge
sharing. This unified and wrap-around approach by
the services creates a collective voice around the
responsibilities we have to children, young people
and their communities.
The drawings of the children on Country represent
the positive future envisaged by Aboriginal
communities throughout Victoria for strong and
happy kids.
5.8Develop the DHHS program and
practice guidelines to ensure consistent
application of the Aboriginal Child
Placement Principle.
5.9Support ACCOs to develop innovative
partnership arrangements with
mainstream providers delivering out
of home care to help connect children
and young people to culture before and
during the transition.
6.Place all Aboriginal children and young
people in out of home care under the care
and case management of an ACCO.
6.1Advocate for legislative change to ensure
ACCOs have the option to assume the
authority for Aboriginal children and
young people under their care/case
management.
6.2Recommend the immediate
recommissioning of ACSASS to create
an open tender process reflective of
DHHS boundaries to enable local
ACCOs to participate.
4
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
7. B
etter support for Aboriginal and nonAboriginal carers to provide culturally
competent placements and to maintain and
grow the pool of Aboriginal carers.
7.1Remunerate kinship carers on the same
basis as foster carers.
7.2Develop and implement a sector wide
strategy to grow, inform and support
the pool of Aboriginal carers, including
specialist training for carers and kinship
carers.
7.3Review the eligibility criteria to become
a carer and remove any unnecessary
barriers.
7.4Create a state wide Aboriginal carer
network.
7.5Improve the assessment and training for
carers of Aboriginal children and young
people.
7.6Ensure ACCOs, carers, Aboriginal
children and young people are aware
and informed of out of home care
entitlements, rights and the availability of
programs, including post placement care.
8.Ensure compliance with the Children,
Youth and Families Act 2005 as it relates
to Aboriginal children and young people
through an independently audited and
published scorecard to measure success
and compliance.
8.1Develop an Aboriginal Children and
Young People Scorecard to measure
success and compliance.
8.2Conduct an annual independent audit of
DHHS and funded agencies performance
against the scorecard, and publish
results.
8.3Develop and implement successful
strategies to address the gaps and
ensure compliance with the Act.
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
5
Appendix 1
Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance
Terms of Reference
Purpose
To be the collective voice of Victorian Aboriginal communities working together to positively influence the
future of Aboriginal children and young people.
Vision
The Alliance will work towards achieving the following Vision:
Aboriginal children and young people have every opportunity to thrive
and be raised safely in Aboriginal families and communities.
Victorian Aboriginal Community
Controlled Organisations
Community
controlled
voice
Community sector
6
Government
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
Principles
The Alliance seeks to uphold all elements of the
Convention of the Rights of Children (CRC)1.
UNICEF summarise the sentiment of the CRC in the
following:
Roles and Responsibilities
While the priorities and agenda will change over
time, the Alliance will always:
•
Advocate for our children to be heard, to be
strong in their culture and to be safe and well
•
Advocate for Aboriginal children’s rights
•
Advocate for the earliest possible reunification
•
Advocate for systemic change and improvement
•
Build the capacity of the sector by informing,
sharing and promoting best practice standards,
policy, planning and service provision
•
Strengthen partnerships, networking and
information sharing
•
Influence and inform government and the
community sector on matters relating to
legislation, policy, planning and service delivery
•
All Aboriginal children and young people be
raised and nurtured in Aboriginal families and
communities
Monitor the implementation of government
policies and programs
•
Identify funding and collaborative research
opportunities
•
The strong voice of Aboriginal children and
families informs Alliance activities
•
Engage and communicate key messages to
stakeholders
•
People and organisations feel included as the
Alliance works openly and transparently
•
Outcomes for our children and young people are
achieved through strong partnerships
•
The right of all children to survival and
development
•
Respect for the best interests of the child as a
primary consideration in all decisions relating to
children
•
The right of all children to express their views
freely on all matters affecting them
•
The right of all children to enjoy all the rights of
the CRC without discrimination of any kind
In addition, the Alliance members will commit to the
following principles:
•
•
•
The wellbeing of Aboriginal children and young
people is our first priority
Members all champion the vision, purpose and
agenda of the Alliance
Collaboration
Relationships with organisations and people that are
part of our journey include, but are not limited to:
•
Aboriginal communities across Victoria
•
ACCOs and ACCHOs (Aboriginal Community
Controlled Health Organisations)
•
Community Service Organisations
•
National and interstate peaks representing
children and young people
•
Ministers, departments and agencies at all levels
of government
•
Commission for Children and Young People
Governance
Membership
ACCOs providing Department of Health and Human
Services funded services for children and young
people in out of home care will be eligible to become
members of the Alliance. The member is the ACCO,
not an individual. Being a member of the Alliance
will not limit an ACCO advocating on behalf of their
respective community.
Each ACCO will authorise for a representative/s to
attend meetings. The organisation should ensure
consistency of participation (including the proxy).
The membership will meet at least quarterly in
person or via teleconference. By joining the Alliance,
members will commit to attend all scheduled
meetings, and if unavailable, at least a week’s
notice will be provided.
Membership of the Alliance will be reviewed annually.
1. A
dopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1989
and ratified by Australia in 1990
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18
7
Executive
The Alliance Executive will be selected by the membership and include a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson,
Executive Officer and one other member.
Chairperson
CEO, Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative
Vice-Chairperson
CEO, Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative
Deputy Vice Chair
CEO, Bendigo and District Aboriginal Cooperative
Executive Officer
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO)
Executive
Elected annually.
Meetings
The agenda will be reflective of the strategic
priorities outlined in the Strategic Plan.
Meeting will be conducted quarterly. During the first
hour, relevant Ministers and the Secretary will be
invited (as required).
Resolving conflict
Conflict between members will be addressed using
a Code of Conduct.
Communication Protocols
•
Members of the Executive will be the agreed
spokespersons.
•
All correspondence to the Alliance will be
managed though the Alliance Executive Officer.
•
Where required, guests will be invited to Alliance
meetings to inform the strategic priorities and
arising issues.
•
The Alliance will table business at VACCHO
Member meetings to inform and engage with
other ACCOs.
8
The Victorian Aboriginal Children & Young People’s Alliance Strategic Plan 2015-18