Identify and respond to children and young people at risk - NSW ...

Highlight the impact that abuse and neglect can have on children and
young people’s short and long-term capacity to:
Reach developmental milestones for physical and psychological development
Develop the capacity to make and maintain close personal relationships
Meet community expectations for behaviour and community participation
Maintain personal stability (e.g. housing, relationships)
Find and keep employment
Raise children
4. Acknowledge that just because we are concerned about the presence
of some risk factors does not mean that a child will have an adverse
outcome.
Individual children will show extraordinary resilience, or will benefit from the
presence of protective factors.
We are still learning about the factors that are associated with resilience, and
how we can promote resilience for children for whom protective factors have not
been naturally present. However research has helped us identify some factors
that are more likely to be associated with adverse outcomes.
Detailed lists of indicators are provided in the Appendices 2-6 of the
Participants Manual.
5. Justice Wood in his 2008 report identified that:
‘too many reports are being made to the Department of Community Services
(as Community Services was known at the time) which do not warrant the
exercise of its considerable statutory powers’.
He recommended that the threshold for reporting should be raised to ‘significant
risk of harm’ and that where concerns were below the threshold the focus
should be on connecting families with services that could assist them to address
risks, rather than necessitating a statutory response.
6. Emphasise the validity of the concerns that participants have raised
about children on the butcher’s paper. The issue is not whether these
indicators are relevant in identifying children and families, but
identifying where there are valid concerns and where children and
families may benefit from assistance. The question is how best to assist
children and families, and specifically whether that assistance is given
best through a statutory legally mandated organisation, or whether it is
preferable for families to receive it on a voluntary basis, with a focus on
meeting needs rather than statutory protection.
Facilitator’s notes:
If time allows you could show the trigger segments ‘Pam’ or ‘Vince’ from
the Identifying and Responding to Risk of Harm DVD. It can be useful in
making concrete connections about the long-term impact of
maltreatment on children.
Keep Them Safe CHCCHILD401A – Facilitator’s Manual
© The NSW Technical and Further Education Commission
(TAFE NSW – Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank, 2010)
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