Dear Family Support Program Implementation team
Re: SNAICC Submission to the Family Support Program Consultation
The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, SNAICC, is pleased to take this opportunity to put forward our views on how the Family Support Program can be improved and provide better outcomes for families and children. As the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, SNAICC has focussed this submission on how the program can be improved from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children and the organisations working with them.
1. Background on SNAICC
The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) is the national peak body in Australia representing the rights and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
SNAICC was formally established in 1981, elected its first national executive in 1982 and opened a national office after first receiving Australian Government funding support in 1983.
SNAICC operates from a diverse membership base of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community based family and children's services. These include child and family welfare services, Multi-functional Aboriginal Children's Services (MACS), JET crèches, playgroups and mobile services, women's services, family support services, foster care agencies, link-up and family reunification services, family group homes, Indigenous childcare centres, preschools, parenting programs, early childhood education services, family and domestic violence services and services for young people at risk.
SNAICC has a network and subscriber list of over 1600, mostly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, but also significant numbers of non-Indigenous community based services, government agencies and individuals with an interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children.
SNAICC is governed by a national executive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people drawn from our members and operates from an office located in Melbourne with funding provided by the Department of Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
SNAICC's mission is to provide a strong voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families through a national body which represents Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's services and promotes the rights, needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
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2. SNAICC's view about the role of the Family Support Program Family Support Program
In SNAICC's view the role of the Family Support Program should be to support more Aboriginal and Torres Strait agencies of various types in more communities to successfully provide more and a greater range of family support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, extended family members and children.
The Family Support Program must recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are often extended families and that within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture family is often more broadly defined than within Western culture. As Ray Burrows Director of Gundoo Day Care Centre Cherbourg, Queensland and SNAICC National Executive member notes "Family is everyone who is a blood or marriage relation - but you don't even need to be connected in this way to be part of a big family"
In SNAICC's view providing a diverse range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family support services at the local level is by far the best way for the program to better assist and improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Supporting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service system with strong partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous services is also critical to improving outcomes.
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3. SNAICC Comments on Proposed Family Support Program Vision
SNAICC strongly supports a vision statement for the program that reflects supporting families, nurturing children and building stronger more resilient communities.
SNAICC strongly advocates for the right of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to grow up in a community free from the harmful effects of violence, child abuse and child neglect
SNAICC's Strategic Plan describes one of SNAICC's roles as to "to facilitate and promote programs and initiatives that assist families and communities to build on their strengths and care for children in ways that keep them safe, healthy and connected to culture." 1
SNAICC believes that this should also be the role of FaHCSIA's Family Support Program.
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4. The Importance of Family in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture
The Family Support Program provides enormous potential to improve the circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families because family is central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait culture. Family is culturally very important because it is what provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with their identity and belonging. Strong families and strong communities are both a vital part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and identity. Supporting families to care for children and for other family members is therefore critical.
Some thoughts on the importance of Family and Family Support from selected members of the SNAICC National Executive
"Culture land and spirit are tied together so closely that you can't have one without the other; but it's not a complete story without family - it's like building a house without mortar, it makes the right shape but there's nothing to hold it together."
Sharron Williams
Chief Executive Officer
Aboriginal Family Support Services, Adelaide
SNAICC National Executive Member
"With Aboriginal kids family is a really important part of establishing their identity. Family determines what happens with them in life. If they don't know who they are they just wander, in their spirits as well, seeking permanency and belonging."
Geraldine Atkinson
President Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Incorporation
SNAICC Deputy Chairperson (Early Childhood)
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5. SNAICC Comments on Proposed Key Program Requirements
The Department Discussion paper describes the proposed Key Program Requirements or the operating environment for the Family Support Program within which the department intends to enhance outcomes achieved for children and families through the program.
SNAICC feels that some shifts of emphasis within the proposed program are needed to enhance outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. SNAICC requests that the following requirements be added to the Key Program Requirements to ensure the new program delivers improved outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
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Additional Key Program Requirements requested by SNAICC
1. Enhance outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children by funding programs that assist Aboriginal families and communities to build on their strengths
- Recognise there are real strengths within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and families including connection to culture, family and extended family and community relationships and networks and that these are best understood and worked with by locally based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies.
- Recognize the expertise within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to know and understand community needs and community strengths.
- Recognize that programs that evolve within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are most likely to meet community needs and that support is needed to help programs evolve at the community level.
Discussion
The departmental Discussion Paper 2 states that "the Minister expects that services delivered under the Family Support Program will build on the existing strengths of individuals, families and communities to develop positive and sustainable change'.
SNAICC agrees that funding should assist families and communities to build on their strengths. In the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context this means that programs must evolve locally, not be imposed from outside. They must be nurtured and shaped by an Aboriginal community based agency that both understands the community's needs and recognises what strengths there are within the community to meet those needs. The program delivery must then be managed by a community based agency which knows the strengths of individuals and families within the community (which will include the individual or family's family and community connections) and in knowing these strengths can work with them and build upon them. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are very diverse with distinct languages and cultures and local Aboriginal agencies have history and knowledge about the community going back generations. Local level organisations often form from extensive family, clan and kinship networks with some alignment to cultural and language groups reflecting ongoing connections to country, land and sea. Service delivery by the community for the community is an Aboriginal model that is unbeatable and irreplaceable if best outcomes for children and families are being sought.
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2. Enhance outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children by improving access to culturally appropriate services.
- Ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families have access to locally delivered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community managed and community controlled services.
- Require and support non- Indigenous agencies to continually build their cultural awareness and cultural competency and to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families in a culturally respectful manner.
- Require and support non- Indigenous agencies to work in partnership with Indigenous agencies to provide specialist services or fill service gaps.
Discussion
A Key Program Requirement for the Family Support Program is listed as enhancing outcomes for families and children by improving access to 'relevant' services. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are over- represented in the all the statistics indicating need for family support services but under-represented in use of these services, particularly services that provide longer term capacity building and family strengthening or developmental programs for children. The way to reach more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families through the Family Support Program is to provide services that are culturally relevant or appropriate, this means i) wherever possible delivering services locally by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community based and managed agencies and ii) requiring and supporting non- Indigenous agencies to both provide services that are more culturally competent and to work in partnership with Indigenous agencies.
SNAICC refers the Family Support Program Implementation Team to SNAICC's SNAICC Service Development, Cultural Respect and Service Access Policy. (Please see Attached.) This policy states that
SNAICC believes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as Australian citizens, have a right to expect that all government funded and supported programs within the community services sector will be committed to culturally respectful service delivery and culturally safe practices. As such government funding bodies should work respectfully, openly and collaboratively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and agencies to define, develop and deliver services and programs in a culturally respectful manner. As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are highly localised this requires meaningful, respectful, consultative and equal working relationships at the local level between government agencies, non-government agencies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and communities. 3
SNAICC's Service Development, Cultural Respect and Service Access Policy calls on all non-Indigenous services in the out-of-home care sector seeking to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children to commit to the medium term (2-3 year) transfer of service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies. In the interim this requires non-Indigenous agencies developing strong relationships with their local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and working within a framework of respect, collaboration and negotiated partnership. Non-Indigenous agencies, (government and non-government), currently involved in the delivery of tertiary child welfare and protection services such as out-of-home care, must make commitments to transfer this service delivery over to specialist Indigenous agencies including by supporting the development of these agencies where none exist.
SNAICC also refers the Family Support Program Implementation Team to the recent SNAICC project Supporting Family Relationship Services to work positively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
SNAICC was commissioned by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) to develop a cultural inclusion resource to assist Family Relationship Services to
- provide culturally appropriate services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
- develop positive and respectful partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities in delivering such services
- use Participatory Action Research Evaluation to document and learn from the progress of their organisation's engagement with communities.
The FRS Culturally Inclusive Services Resource will target service practitioners, support and administration staff and managers across the breadth of the Family Relationship Services Program (FRSP). The resource will include cultural information and recommended resource, take a strengths-based approach to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities, and have case studies of FRSP services' success stories and positive experiences of providing effective services and programs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
SNAICC is working in partnership with Family Relationship Services Australia in this project, including in documenting the positive case studies and testing the resource in the sector.
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3. Enhance outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children by supporting and improving the capacity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies to apply for and manage funding under the Family Support Program.
- Provide adequate time and assistance for new and existing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service providers to develop their proposals
- Provide clearer application and accountability processes and requirements to support the capacity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies to apply for and manage funding.
- Provide examples of promising practices or successful models of family support services delivery by local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies to inspire and guide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies in their submission development.
- Support Indigenous services to apply for funding rather than forcing them to compete with non Indigenous services to provide support for Indigenous families within their communities.
- Set a minimum proportion of funding that will be allocated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander controlled services in each geographical area.
- Improve information sharing and protocols between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and specialist family support services.
Discussion
The local community based and community managed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services sector cannot deliver improved outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families in isolation and without support. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations have varying capacities to meet the complex needs of the many families in their communities, some requiring intensive long-term support. SNAICC believes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations have not been supported, assisted and funded at levels that match the level of need within their communities and that the design of programs and the level of funding are often overlooked by governments as reasons for the inability for some Aboriginal agencies to comply with funding agreements.
To meet the high and sometimes complex family support needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, local community based and community managed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services need the co-operation and support of both government and the non-government sector.Improved information sharing and protocols between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and specialist family support services in particular areas are needed in many areas. An Indigenous early childhood long-day-care service, for example, needs to know where to go for additional support for high needs children.
SNAICC can see the benefits in terms of simplification of bringing together the eight programs under a single umbrella program as part of the new Family Support Program although we would be extremely concerned if the streamlining of the programs meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations lost ground. A set a minimum proportion of funding that will be allocated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander controlled services in each geographical area would prevent this happening.
A process to identify current service gaps across Australia and identify where more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services are required is needed; leaving service provision to the market forces is insufficient.
There are models of extremely successful provision of Family Support services by local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies that SNAICC would like to see profiled and promoted as a way of supporting the development of similar programs in other parts of the country. SNAICC would be interested in discussing a project to do this profiling similar to the 2007 SNAICC/Australian Institute of Family Studies project Promising Practices in Out of Home Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Carers, Children and Young People: Profiling Promising Programs. 4 Two brief case studies are provided below to provide examples of successful local family support services built into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies one in the early child hood sector and one in the child and family welfare sector.