The Hodgman Liberal Government is progressing a 12 month trial of Intensive Family and Youth Engagement Services, to better support children and families in need.
The main aim of the service is to prevent the separation of children from their primary caregivers and to keep them out of Child Safety Services. Two Intensive Family Engagement Team Leaders have already been appointed to lead this service.
A key finding of Professor Maria Harries’ Strong Families, Safe Kids report identified a service gap in the current support system for families whose high level needs cannot be met via current early intervention services.
Many of the families falling into this service gap often find themselves subject to multiple notifications, at which time Child Safety Service intervention may become the only option to ensure child safety.
To help fix this, Children and Youth Services recently established a panel of non-Government organisations to provide additional intensive family support services, statewide.
These Intensive Family Engagement Service organisations will provide an after-hours service to support families at key stress times. The services will be tailored toward resolving the specific needs of the family, and will be complemented by referrals to external specialised providers where required.
There is no more important task for us as a community than protecting our children, which is why the Hodgman Government is redesigning a child protection system that had failed under the previous Labor-Green Government.