Invitation to RCNA members

Invitation to RCNA members from Dr Geoff Holloway, Research Manager, Australian Research Alliance for Children & Youth

ARACY has been engaged to develop a Common Approach to Assessment, Referral and Support (CAARS) as one of the projects under the Government’s National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020.  The CAARS project seeks to improve the capacity of organisations providing support to families to identify and respond to children and families that are ‘vulnerable’ or ‘at risk’ – before a crisis triggers statutory intervention.  The first step in this project is to develop options for a common assessment tool/s for use in services and professions most likely to encounter first warning signs of child abuse and neglect and make recommendations about information sharing mechanisms and processes associated with the tool’s use.  There is more information on the ARACY web site, which we progressively update as the project takes shape.

As part of the stakeholder consultation process, the Allen Consulting Group will be  conducting a series of 24 workshops across Australia.  In each capital city 4 workshops will be undertaken, focusing on stakeholders who are service providers in primary, secondary and tertiary service areas.  These workshops will begin on 9th September in Sydney and finish in the week beginning the 5th October.  A detailed schedule of the workshops is provided below. 
 

Each workshop will run for 2 hours and will involve key service providers and policy representatives nominated by Taskforce members and other organisations, from each State and Territory.  Accordingly, we would like you to nominate 6 people for each state and territory either from your particular profession or from your associations/networks to participate in (a) the primary services workshop (2 nominations); (b) the secondary services workshop (2 nominations) and (c) the tertiary level workshops (2 nominations) to be conducted in each capital city.

The key objectives of conducting these workshops are to:

·         provide opportunities for key stakeholders to have input into the Common Approach to Assessment Referral and Support Project;

·         assist the project team to gain a detailed understanding of issues that will be critical to developing a pool of viable options in terms of constructing a Common Assessment Tool/s; and

·         provide the project team with  an opportunity to ask stakeholders for any additional information that could be used as an input into the project.

Types of workshops

Universal Services -  those that are in repeated contact with the same families, and have capacity to identify needs and make referrals to targeted/specialist services. 

Highest priority: teachers, doctors, social workers (includes Centrelink, non-government health or community centres), counsellors (includes schools, private practice), child care workers, maternal health nurses, family support services.

Other: police, emergency workers (includes ambulance workers) – who have day to day contact with families.

Targeted Services - including family support services, mental health, substance abuse, family violence, etc.

Statutory Services - including statutory child protection, out-of-home-care, youth justice, etc

Children – aged 12-17.  Participants for these workshops are being sought through Children’s Commissioners.

The workshop schedule is as follows:

Please email Coralie Gerrard by COB Thu 13 August 2009  with your contact details:  full name, position, organisation, telephone numbers  and email address.

ARACY require this information by 14 August 2009.

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