Rethinking Reunification Families SA Reunification Initiative Dr Helen Jeffreys
May 21, 2015
Rethinking Reunification Families SA Reunification Initiative
Dr Helen Jeffreys
What is reunification?
• Reunification is the process of reconnecting
children and young people placed in out of home
care with the family from which they were
removed, by providing services and supports to
the child, their family and their carers.
• It is a dynamic process that begins as soon as
children are placed in out of home care, and
ends when they return home, the child is settled,
and the family are no longer in need of ongoing
statutory intervention.
What the data told us:
In 2011 when we began implementation planning:
• South Australia had around 6.1/ 1000 children in
out of home care, an increase from 3.9/ 1000 in
2005
• Total numbers in care had also steadily
increased from 1329 in 2005 to 2188 in 2010 (a
65% increase) which was higher than the
national increase of 51% during the same period
(AIHW 2011, Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
What the data told us
• In 2009-2010, 644 new children entered care
and 405 went home
• Nationally, the ratio of children entering care in
2009-2010 to those exiting was .78
• In South Australia, the ratio was .62 which
indicated that relatively more children were
staying in care for longer periods compared
to the national average
(AIHW 2011, Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
Reunification timeframes
• In general, South Australian children who return
home usually do so within the first 12 months,
but this proportion is generally smaller than
observed in other States
• The pattern of reunification was more stable and
slower
(Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
Reunification rates
• Overall, a smaller proportion are reunified (only
30% vs. up to 50% in other States)
• This is generally consistent with the AIHW
figures which show that the numbers of children
remaining in care in South Australia is growing
more rapidly (in relative terms) to some other
States
(Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
Family characteristics
• There was a very high prevalence of problems in
families and much of this related to domestic
violence, parental substance abuse, parental
mental health problems and poverty (financial
difficulties and housing problems)
(Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
Family complexity
• It was very rare to find any families who were characterised as having only a small number of isolated problems
• Seven or more risk factors were identified as being present in almost half of the families
(Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
Services indicated
• For effective reunification to occur, many
families need multiple services operating in
conjunction with one another
• The most important of those would appear to be:
financial and housing assistance; drug and
alcohol services; mental health; and domestic
violence services
(Delfabbro, McCormick, Kettler, Fernandez 2012)
Reunification Initiative
• In the 2011-12 Budget, the South Australian Government provided an additional $4.7 million per annum for five years to strengthen Families SA’s focus on reunification
• Funding was invested in trialling innovative solutions beginning in four Families SA Offices, Limestone Coast, Woodville, North Eastern and Noarlunga
Reunification Initiative
• The Reunification Initiative provided Families SA
with an opportunity to develop new and
innovative models of engaging and working with
families who have children in care, with the aim
of reunifying children in a timely and safe
manner
What did we want to achieve?
• Where children are separated from their family
due to parental incapacity and/or risk of harm,
the primary goal has been to intervene
proactively to return the child home safely and
quickly, hence:
- increase the number of children reunified
with their birth families
- decrease the length of time children
spend in alternative care
How did we do this?
• Restructured existing teams within targeted
Offices to create a dedicated focus on
reunification
• Strengthened and built policy and practice
linkages
• Created a multidisciplinary approach
• Built service partnerships and promoted child protection as everyone’s business
A ‘whole of Office’ approach
• Rather than simply create ‘Specialist
Reunification Teams’, the Reunification Initiative
sought to encourage a larger shift in thinking
about family engagement in child protection
practice
• Not only did we have to strengthen reunification
practices, but we also needed to pay heightened
attention to placement prevention in the first
instance.
How did we do this?
• Families SA staff alone cannot achieve Reunification and Family Preservation
• Whilst we increased Families SA Office staff numbers through the Initiative and worked on strengthening our intra-agency collaboration, we sought to embed a way of working that breaks down traditional inter-agency “silo’s” of practice
Governance structure
• Across government Steering Committee
• Project Board
• Office specific working groups
- Monitor progress
- Manage/resolve issues arising and/or
- Manage up
Our partners Partnerships developed with:
- Health SA
- Housing SA
- Disability SA
- The Youth Court
- Children’s Centres/Schools
- Alternative Care Sector
- Non Government Sector
- Intra-agency (Psychological Services, Principal Social Workers, Principal Aboriginal Consultants)
Health SA • Seconded and co-located senior mental health
and drug and alcohol clinicians to Families SA Offices to:
- Provide a point of entry into the health system for families involved with the child protection system who are experiencing mental health crisis or Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug issues
- Work collaboratively to reduce identified risk factors and increase protective factors for children and their families
Health SA
• a one stop, seamless service delivery for
families
• service linkages and pathways
• accelerated referral processes and procedures
• opportunities for formal and informal learning
and development for all staff
• instant access to agency administrative
databases that provided clarity of information for
clients in common
Specialist therapeutic services
• Women and Children's Health Network - Infant Therapeutic Reunification Service
• Specifically targeted therapeutic interventions in relation to the attachment and relationship-based issues for infants (aged 0 – 2 years) and their parents that will enhance timely decision making for this vulnerable age group
• 64 referrals over the past year; completed 21 parenting capacity assessments and recommended reunification in 13 cases
Youth Court
• Judicial Officer led Reunification Review Meetings
• Court involvement in supervising and supporting families to address issues that impact on child safety and wellbeing
• Increased accountability and monitoring of progress towards agreed case plan goals
• Enhanced communication and understanding between Families SA and the Court
Children’s Centre's
• Actively partnered with local Children’s
Centres
• Linked socially isolated parents with universal
community services and supports
• Facilities utilised for family contact and parent
education purposes in a community setting
that is non-threatening and family friendly
• Staff trained in Marte Meo, Bringing up great
kids, Circle of Security
Office for Schools
• School staff and Families SA are gaining a
better understanding of each others business
and are building stronger networks and linkages
as one department
• Draft communication protocols were developed
to establish referral mechanisms, regular review
processes and formal communication pathways
between Families SA, parents and School
Principals where children are involved in a
reunification plan
Alternative care providers
• Strengthened the interface with family based
carers (foster, kinship and relative carers) and
supported them to be positively involved in
reunification efforts
• Developed Residential Care options that support
reunification efforts and provided a therapeutic
environment to assist children and young people
Non government sector
• Worked in partnership with the Stronger Families Safer Children Programs to inform and develop new service models for the delivery of Family Preservation and Reunification Services
• Sector consultations to clarify how the Initiative and the contracted service providers could work in partnership to build capacity in this area
Multi-disciplinary teams
• Case Support Workers
• Family Support Workers
• Financial counsellors
• Social Workers
• Mental health and drug and alcohol clinicians
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
Multi-faceted approaches
• A Care Team approach involving provision of
practical help (financial support, active linkage to
services) and emotional support alongside more
defined interventions (educative and therapeutic
work and relationship-based casework)
Solution focused practice
Our goal is to:
• Work in partnership with the family to help
identify their strengths
• Focus on everyday life events
• Help families build the skills necessary to
manage the situations that are difficult for them
Post reunification support
• Reunification, although a positive milestone for
the family, is also a time of readjustment, and a
family already under stress can have difficulty
maintaining safety and stability
• about 25 percent of all children who go home
will return to care at some point, often within one
year (Wulczyn, 2004)
2 years on Table: # of children reunified
Go live date
Noarlunga
North Eastern
Limestone Coast
Woodville
Total 1 Nov 2011 2 April 2012
18 June
2012
27 Aug
2012
Number of families in
reunification teams 71 40 30 31 172
Number of children in
reunification teams 127 60 44 55 286
Number of children where
reunification has ceased 38 23 11 16 88
Number of children where
reunification is continuing 55 17 12 16 100
Number of children
reunified 32 19 9 12 72
Number of children where
entry into care has been
prevented
2 1 12 11 26
Key learnings
• Genuine consultation required for ‘buy in’ to change
• Restructure of teams not sufficient in itself to change practice
• Whole of organisational commitment needed
• The need for a consistent, unified practice approach
Key learnings
• Working across government departments with differing mandates is complex and requires ongoing maintenance of working relationships
• Joint (across agency) training is an effective strategy in breaking down barriers and increasing understanding of other service areas and responsibilities
• Reunification needs a driver to maintain impetus and motivation
Families SA Redesign
• Five Program Areas
• Ten Projects
• Project Management Methodology
• A Unified Practice Approach
• An adopted Practice Framework
• Evolution and transformation of the Initiative from a pilot at four sites to state-wide applicability
Evaluation
• All children and families will be tracked from their
initial contact with Families SA to capture
decision making and assessment processes,
interventions and service delivery and child and
family outcomes (2009-2015)
• Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies
will be used
Reunification as a discreet,
visible process
• Reunification is the last resort in efforts to
keep children out of care
• Where children have been removed from
the care of their parents the system needs
to go to extra lengths to support
reunification by helping families to care
safely for their children