1.1 What is Kids in Focus?
Kids in Focus is an early intervention, family focussed component of the wider National Drug Strategy. The Strategy consists of a range of other measures implemented through the Health, Justice and Customer’s portfolios and is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.
In April 2009, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon Jenny Macklin, announced a refocusing of the previous Strengthening Families Program to provide focused parenting and substance misuse support where children are at risk of harm or long-term disadvantage. The name for the new model was changed to Kids in Focus – Family Drug Support.
Kids in Focus is specifically directed towards family support rather than the health, education or criminal aspects of the strategy. Kids in Focus aims to assist families; including parents, grandparents, kinship carers and children of substance using parents, by taking an early intervention and family-focused approach to dealing with the impacts of substance misuse on families.
Kids in Focus has been funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) since 2005 under the name of NIDS Strengthening Families. To date, a diverse range of services to support families has been funded including counselling, support, advice, information, advocacy and referral.
Kids in Focus is linked to two important initiatives of the Australian Government – the new Family Support Program and the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children.
1. The Family Support Program
The Family Support Program (FSP) brings together a number of community-based families, parenting and children’s services under a single umbrella program to build on the strengths and achievements of each of the individual initiatives to provide a more coordinated and flexible approach to delivering support to families and children. Kids in Focus is an initiative within the Family and Parenting Services stream of the FSP.
2. National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children
The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children (the Framework) is a long term national approach to help protect all Australian children developed in collaboration with Australian, State and Territory governments and non-government organisations. The Framework is structured around six high level supporting outcomes with associated strategies and indicators of change. The most relevant for the drug and alcohol sector are that:
- Children and families access adequate support to promote safety and intervene early; and
- Risk factors for child abuse and neglect are addressed.
Further information on the FSP and the Framework is available on the FaHCSIA website (www.fahcsia.gov.au).
1.2 What is the objective of Kids in Focus?
As part of the process of developing a new service model FaHCSIA worked with the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) to gain an understanding of the views and needs of the drug and alcohol, family support and child protection service sectors to inform the new approach for Kids in Focus. The outcome of consultations across all three sectors informed the development of the new service model.
Kids in Focus aims to improve outcomes for children in families with substance misuse problems by providing integrated, long term and intensive support to vulnerable families and children at risk.
Supporting families with substance problems means supporting parents to parent more effectively and overcome their substance misuse as well as supporting children by normalising their lives. Successful support to these families is integrated, long term and intensive and the structure of the refocused Kids in Focus reflects this need.
The new Kids in Focus allows for flexibility of the service delivery model. The model should be tailored to and be dependent on local needs and will be a matter for services to determine however, the philosophy underpinning the service must be a whole of family focus in that services should focus on the child or the parent/ carers but must operate within the aim of supporting the children of the family and minimise the effects of the parents substance misuse problems on these children.
To achieve these goals, Kids in Focus will focus on supporting families with alcohol and other drug problems by:
- providing intensive support services to families, including parents / carers and children dealing with substance using parents in the community;
- providing support for parents to parent more effectively and overcome their substance misuse;
- supporting children by normalising their lives (school, sport, and other regular routines) and building resilience;
- providing targeted counselling and intervention through the child protection system where necessary; and
- support other FSP services to identify and support children at risk
1.3 What are the planned outcomes for Kids in Focus?
High Level or Long Term Outcome under the Family Support Program
- To increase access to and timely provision of integrated services for families in a community context, particularly vulnerable and at-risk families, to improve child development, safety and family functioning.
Kids in Focus should seek to achieve the following outcomes
- The emotional, social and economic impact of substance misuse on children and the families of substance using people is minimised and family capacity is strengthened.
- Reduced psychological and physical harm caused to substance users, their children and other family members.
- Enhanced or improved family functioning and relationships through provision of services to drug using parents and their children.
- To increase access to and timely provision of integrated services for families in a community context, particularly vulnerable and at-risk families, to improve child development, safety and family functioning.
- Improve parenting skills.
- Normalise experiences of children with substance using parents or family members (e.g. involvement in sport, child care places) and building resilience.
- Increased collaboration and partnerships within the family support, child welfare and AOD sectors.
Please refer to the Family Relationship Services Guidelines at Attachment A for further information.
1.4 Funding
A total of $3.2 million of funding per annum is available for Kids in Focus from May 2010 to 30 June 2013.
The funding will be made available for the provision of one specialist intensive parenting support service in each State and Territory nationally. These services will be required to provide substance misuse support services to children at risk and vulnerable families in a specific location as well as a telephone advice service to FSP providers to support them to identify and support children at risk.