Page 963 - Week 03 - Thursday, 3 April 2008
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• revised and ongoing review of policies, procedures and practices in care and protection services, reflecting child centred practice,
• revised delegations pursuant to the Children and Young People Act 1999,
• commitment to the framework for service collaboration for the care, protection and wellbeing of children and young people by ACT government departments,
• development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship and foster care service,
• improvements to the reporting and information systems for care and protection services,
• development of integrated and collaborative models of practice across departments and agencies,
• community education programs to improve community awareness of child safety, safe sleeping and child protection,
• ongoing research, training and other educational opportunities for foster carers, the service sector and staff, and
• convening of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gatherings and forums, including at Wreck Bay, to inform future policy and practice development.
This significant work continues with the commitment and dedication of staff both in the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support, the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services and all of our non-government partners, and I thank them for their work.
Any child death is a tragedy. We know that such events, regrettably, do occur and many are due to health or accidental causes. In the ACT we have review mechanisms from which we are able to learn. These include the ACT Coroner, the ACT Health clinical review process and independent studies such as this one the government commissioned. The government will continue to support mechanisms that seek to learn from these sad events, in order to improve systems, practices and policies and prevent more deaths.
I commend the final report on the recommendations of the Murray-Mackie study to the Assembly.
Paper
Mr Corbell presented the following paper:
Petition—out of order
Community Noticeboard—Charnwood Shopping Centre—Ms Porter (224 signatures).
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