Page 1724 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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groups, professional associations, academics, policy and research institutes, and government and civic-based stakeholders.
As part of its considerations, the committee scheduled a series of briefings to hear from subject-matter experts who provided background information on aspects of the inquiry coverage. The committee also heard from witnesses through public hearings in January and February 2020. Evidence to the inquiry emphasised a risk-averse approach to the sharing of information and urged that this be reframed to one of a risk-management approach. Contributors noted that decision-making in care and protection matters was a difficult mandate, and complex, and that at times there were legitimate reasons for not sharing information. However, the default prohibition on the sharing of sensitive information, and the lack of appeal and review rights, established a culture of information-sharing that was counterproductive to transparent and accountable decision-making.
Ultimately, such a culture is not in the best interests of a child or young person—the people whom the system seeks to serve. The committee recognises that decision-making under the Children and Young People Act 2008 affects the rights of individuals in profound and life-changing ways. It is imperative that people using the care and protection system “feel that there is justice, not just there somewhere but there as a first step”. Those words were from Mr Chris Donoghue of the ACT Law Society, in evidence provided to the committee.
In seeking to respond to the many issues raised in evidence to this inquiry, the committee has been forward looking in setting out its views and recommendations, using an overarching ethos that a care and protection system and its services should, at all times, be needs led, not service led. In doing so, the committee has sought to install an unlocked front door to the ACT care and protection system that can be opened to access the information needed by the clients of care and protection services and the stakeholders working in and across the care and protection continuum to assist these clients.
The committee has also endeavoured to establish an equitable power balance between the care and protection system and those highly vulnerable individuals who are caught up in the system that is supposed to be acting in their best interests. Accordingly, in the report the committee has set out its consideration of the many issues raised in evidence covering its inquiry terms of reference across the following parameters. The first is the overarching ethos of the Children and Young People Act 2008. The ethos of the act sets the tone or culture for the sharing of information in the care and protection system. The second is the legislative framework for care and protection services in the ACT. The legislative framework operationalises the culture for the sharing of information in the forward provisions relating to information sharing and the scope of decision making under the CYP Act.
The third is practice matters. Practice is the expression of the culture and values of information-sharing and decision-making in action. The committee accepts that questions about, and decision-making surrounding, the care and protection of children and young people in the Canberra community are often controversial, complex and require a balancing of rights. In that context, those working in the care and protection
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