Page 2526 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016

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Also in estimates hearings it was outlined that the government is procuring and building a new client management system for Child and Youth Protection Services. It is my understanding, based on the estimates hearings, that the new system will be attached to the proposed family violence hub. That was one of the Glanfield inquiry recommendations. At the estimates hearings government officials said:

… our expectation is that that funding will go directly to supporting families requiring intensive support to engage with a range of early intervention and other services in order to address the issues around their experience of family violence.

I do hope that the client management system does make a difference and does ensure that decision-makers have real-time access to accurate and up-to-date information when making decisions about vulnerable children and young people, which leads me to the Glanfield inquiry recommendations and changes which have been made as a result of that.

Earlier this year I spoke in the Assembly about the need for better information sharing between government directorates and agencies in the context of care and protection and family violence. The Glanfield report, the Report of the inquiry: review into the system level responses to family violence in the ACT, was handed down in April this year. It made a number of recommendations not only relating to children but to clearly authorising information sharing and fostering a culture of appropriate information sharing and collaboration.

In estimates hearings on 28 June Mr Corbell said:

Mr Glanfield makes a number of recommendations around changes to privacy provisions in ACT law to provide greater clarity around the fact that offices are actually empowered to share information where there is a common objective, ie, the safety of children.

We do hope that the legislative change and the funding allocated in the budget for that does in fact result in better information sharing in the context of care and protection and family violence, so that our vulnerable children and young people are and remain safe, as do women and men who may be experiencing domestic and family violence.

DR BOURKE (Ginninderra—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Disability, Minister for Small Business and the Arts and Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (5.50): As the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs I am committed to delivering positive outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans. The ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2015-2018, now in its second year of operation, commits both the ACT government and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body to a whole-of-government approach to achieving equitable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the ACT by developing and supporting strong families. The empowerment and resilience amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in the ACT is a key outcome identified by the community during the agreement’s consultation process.


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