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