Working with children and families
Our relationship with families should acknowledge and understand their individual and family circumstances. This includes experiences of discrimination, grief, loss and violence.
Processes to support case management and decision making
Practitioners are most resilient when they are supported to feel confident and hopeful. Participating in regular reflective supervision can help with managing challenges and stressors.
Group Supervision
Group supervision is a shared process of consultation and decision making where practitioners discuss their work with families to gain support, ideas and alternate perspectives from work colleagues.
DCJ regularly invites partner agencies with unique knowledge, skills and perspective to group supervision sessions (e.g. early childhood educators, school counsellors).This genuine partnership creates faster and more effective referrals and information sharing, more purposeful wrap-around services and case plans, greater transparency around decisions, and ultimately, better outcomes for children and families.
Group supervision:
- allows practitioners to keep children visible and at the centre of their work
- is the opportunity to share and mitigate risk
- provides professional supervision.
The Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies offers training for group supervision facilitators.
Family Finding
The practice of Family Finding builds and expands the supportive network of family and community members that can offer a sense of belonging to children and families. Finding family members that are willing and able to ensure children are safe make an enormous difference in their lives.
All agencies can play a role in Family Finding work with children and families, whether or not DCJ is involved. Support provided by extended family networks can help prevent escalation of risk factors, and give children placed in out-of-home care placement options with family they feel connected to. Family Finding work can be an early intervention response for families with emerging risk factors and vulnerabilities.
The story ‘Turning Point’ shows how FGC can contribute to helping family networks support parents to create the change needed to keep their children safe.