Just Work as a Team: Reconstructing Family Inclusion from Parent, Carer and Practitioner Perspectives

January 2023 Research team: Nicola Ross, Jessica Cocks, Wendy Foote and Kate Davies

This research focuses on family inclusion in child protection. ‘Family inclusion’ in this study refers to “the active and meaningful participation of parents, family, kinship networks and communities in the lives of children. It is a process and lived experience over time that helps ensure children’s family relationships are not lost”.  Children who have been removed from their parents’ care tend to have better health and wellbeing outcomes where their family is included throughout the child protection process. While children’s and parents' rights are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Commonwealth and State government policy stress the importance of participation and family inclusion, there are tensions in implementing family-centred, rights-oriented frameworks into welfare-oriented child protection systems. Research makes it clear that currently, parents and families are not effectively included in the child protection and out of home care systems. Despite numerous acknowledgments, reviews and change recommendations in Australia, increasing numbers of children are being taken into care, much of this increase occurring in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Evidence suggests that parents and families feel powerless to influence the system as individuals in their own cases, in the legal system, or as a stakeholder group in the broader system.

This research explored family inclusion from the perspectives of key people who are actively involved when children are removed from their parents’ care. It was undertaken in the Hunter Valley of NSW. The study included focus groups and interviews with parents, kinship and foster carers, adoptive parents, lawyers who represent parents, practitioners from the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) and practitioners from family support and out-of-home care. Their voices help to better understand the complexities of family inclusion, the impact of inclusion and exclusion and the possibilities for change. If, as the evidence suggests, family inclusion is good for children, then it is essential to understand the ways in which children’s families, carers and practitioners experience the child protection system.

The study found:

• A lack of agreement about what family inclusion is. It’s not just face-to-face visits between children and families –but all forms of communication that allow these relationships to continue.
• Parents and kinship carers know what is needed but power differentials mean they can’t influence practice; as a result, family inclusion varies greatly.
• Child protection policy does not include a principle of family inclusion, that assists to target resources and supports practitioners to prioritise it.
• Kin and foster carers are vital to achieving family inclusion. Their attitudes determine if they implement it, but they have limited support.

Findings from this research align with current evidence about the growing need to fundamentally change the foundations of child protection and out-of-home care practice and policy. The study reiterates the call to include the perspectives of children, parents, and families. It emphasises significant power differentials in these systems, that disempower parents and families in child protection processes. The research findings presented in this report evidence the need to:

• Develop a shared understanding of family inclusion.
• Develop a sector culture that values and prioritises family inclusion and the voices of parents, families and children; and
• Develop a process for family inclusion by co-design with stakeholders.

Read the full report here.