Active Efforts - DCJ

Amendments in the Care Act, under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment (Family is Culture) Bills 2022, include new ‘Active Efforts’ provisions, which will require DCJ, and Permanency Support Program (PSP) providers with case management responsibility, to take ‘Active Efforts’ to prevent children from entering care and restore more children to their parents or where that is not possible to return children to the care of their families.

DCJ is working with key stakeholders to determine what ‘Active Efforts’ mean in the child protection system.

We would value your feedback on one or more of the following to help progress this important work.

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* 1. What ‘Active Efforts’ should caseworkers, managers and PSP providers take to ensure children grow up in family, community and culture?

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* 2. What ‘Active Efforts’ should caseworkers, managers and PSP providers take to involve community representatives in service design, delivery and individual case decisions?

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* 3. What ‘Active Efforts’ should caseworkers, managers and PSP providers take to place Aboriginal children in accordance with the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle with the first priority being placement with Aboriginal relatives or extended family members, or other relatives and family members?

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* 4. What ‘Active Efforts’ should caseworkers, managers and PSP providers take to include children, parents, extended family and services engaged with the family in decision-making regarding the care and protection of their children?

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* 5. What ‘Active Efforts’ should caseworkers, managers and PSP providers take to maintain and support connections to family, community, culture and country for children in out-of-home care?

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* 6. How should DCJ partner with PSP providers and communities to actively divert children and families from further statutory child protection involvement?

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* 7. Additional comments

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* 8. If you and your team/organisation/group are interested in further consultation with us, please include your name and contact details here and a member of our implementation team in Transforming Aboriginal Outcomes will contact you shortly. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.