Care criminalisation of children with disability in child protection systems
Video transcript
Care criminalisation of children with disability in child protection systems – Research Report
Background
The Disability Royal Commission has published a report. The report is about child protection systems.
It looks at children with disability who are not safe at home and may need to live with different families like kinship carers or foster carers, or in group homes.
This report focuses on how to prevent children with disability involved in the child protection system from interacting with the criminal justice system, which includes getting in trouble with police, going to court or jail.
This report looks at different ways to help children with disability involved in the child protection system.
The report was a joint project between University of Western Sydney, Monash University and the Centre for Evidence and Implementation.
Key findings
The report identified factors that increase the chance of children with disability who have contact with child protection interacting with the criminal justice system. And it identified ways to prevent this cohort from getting involved in the criminal justice system.
This report found the following factors increase the chance of children with disability who have contact with child protection interacting with the criminal justice system:
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Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
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disability not being diagnosed, or diagnosed late or not diagnosed properly
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using drugs or alcohol
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having family or friends involved in crime
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not enough family support
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living in a poor neighbourhood
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being in out-of-home care
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not enough support to transition from out-of-home care
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not enough therapeutic and support services
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lack of culturally appropriate care and therapeutic services for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and people from some cultural groups
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being excluded from school
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lack of service coordination.
These are the factors which increase the chance of children with disability in the child protection system interacting with the criminal justice system.
The report also found protective factors that decrease the chance of children with disability who have contact with child protection interacting with the criminal justice system. These include:
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type of disability (children with physical disability are less likely to get involved in crime)
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living in wealthy neighbourhoods
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getting intensive family support services, and having a stable placement in out-of-home care
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in residential care – getting detailed assessments, having a special therapeutic placement, having routine, good matching of co-residents, more staff, less staff rotation and disability expertise
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getting mental health services
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getting disability assessed early
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services working together.
These are the factors which decrease the chance of children with disability in the child protection system interacting with the criminal justice system.
The report found some approaches are effective in preventing children who have contact with child protection from interacting with the criminal justice system. These include:
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intensive family-centred support which tries to keep children with family and prevent them from entering out-of-home care
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getting assessed for disability early, and intervening early
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services and programs that are sensitive to culture, disability and trauma.
These are the ways that help prevent children who have contact with child protection from interacting with the criminal justice system.
Recommendations
The report recommends several ways states and territories can help prevent children with disability who have contact with child protection from interacting with the criminal justice system. Some of these are:
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the Australian Government collaborate with First Nations and disability groups to help guide policies aimed at reducing children who have contact with child protection from interacting with the criminal justice system
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making sure there are intensive family support services for families so children with disability can stay safely at home
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developing policy between child protection and education departments which helps children with disability in child protection systems stay at school
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making sure there are options for intensive kinship and foster care support for children with disability
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putting protocols in place between residential out-of-home care providers and police aimed at preventing children with disability from getting involved in crime.
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making sure that all residential care is therapeutic, and meets the needs of children with complex disability needs.
These recommendations are important for all states and governments responsible for child protection services.
More information
To read the full report, visit our website. Go to the ‘Publications’ section and click on ‘Research program’.