What is the main principle of case management What is the role of the case manager in a case management framework?

The case management framework outlines six key stages of service delivery in the case management model.

The process of case management is dynamic, and clients may move through or exit at various stages of the framework depending on presenting need. Specific work practices link to each individual stage.

Supporting families to safely care for their children may require support from multiple agencies, and across several disciplines, in order to address their needs and vulnerabilities and build on family strengths. The focus remains on ensuring that the right supports at the right time can reduce the effects of trauma and harm, keeping children connected safely with their families and lessening the demand on the child protection system.

The focus of engagement when working with families to safely care for their children will include:

• identification, assessment and mitigation of risk
• children’s wellbeing, including safety and strengthening family wellbeing
• respect for diversity, connection to culture and genuine partnership (inclusive of consultation with Aboriginal workers when working with Aboriginal families)
• access to support and services to reduce isolation and increase connection
• enhancing outcomes by collaboratively working with partners and sharing knowledge
• building a culture that is reflective and continually developing, with practitioners who are confident in their practice wisdom
• practice wisdom is supported by evidence-informed approaches and tools, and is focused on outcomes for children, their families and their communities.

The need for culturally appropriate case management interventions which provide sensitive and adequate support for Aboriginal children and their families who are risk of statutory intervention is considered throughout the framework.

Practice point: case management

Case management can be brief and intense, or delivered over a longer period of time. The case management process is dynamic and not always linear, and stages of the framework can happen simultaneously. The process of case management should be seamless for children and their families, with the quality of interaction, not quantity, being the focus of engagement.

Six key stages of service delivery

Intake

Key outcomes

• current child risk and safety issues identified
• historical child protection concerns identified
• family strengths and support identified
• eligibility determined
• provide client or service referral information
• identify agencies involved with client

Referrals to Safer Family Services (SFS) are accepted from a variety of sources and, where systems enable, are triaged by the local line manager. The main purpose of the triage process within the SFS context is for the local line manager to assess all information accessible and consider whether the program will be able to provide support given the following elements:

• child and family’s level of risk / complexity
• urgency of response required and capacity to respond
• are existing supports and services in place
• historical and current concerns of child abuse and neglect (including family violence) and including outcomes from service interventions.

Each of these must be considered separately in order to make safe and appropriate decisions. SFS does not have waiting lists for children and families at risk. If a child and family are not allocated a service due to eligibility or capacity to respond, then an alternative response will be nominated to the referrer within five working days of request being received.

Client engagement

Respect, compassion, a non-judgmental approach and persistence underpins engagement. Work with the client in discussing their needs; recognise and acknowledge the strengths they bring to the engagement process.

Wise use of authority is required, including being as clear as possible about non-negotiables. Ensure transparency early in the process (first meeting) regarding information sharing, confidentiality and obtaining consents wherever possible and practical to do so.

Consider the historical practices, intergenerational trauma, experiences of racism and discrimination that may cause an Aboriginal client to possibly resist involvement for fear of statutory intervention. Consult with Aboriginal workers to ensure discussions are conducted in a culturally safe and responsive way.

Assertive engagement and trauma informed practices will be used to engage children, families and communities.

Client self-referral provides a strong platform to commence building rapport with the client. Meaningful engagement is supported by authentically listening to client-identified concerns and motivation for presenting to the service. This first interaction places an onus on the worker to be alert to the presence of risk and ensures that clients receive the best possible available service for their circumstance.

Identification of presenting needs

Gain an understanding of how and why the client is currently presenting. Identify the strengths (protective factors) that the client is demonstrating. It is critical that you gain a sense of the client’s perception of the concerns and presenting issues and how it impacts them.

Determine client expectations of service intervention. Consider additional supports or information (from Department for Child Protection) that may be required to identify presenting needs.

Risk assessment

Determine any immediate or potential risks to the safety of the child and other family members. Discuss with the client areas of potential risk including child protection, domestic or family violence concerns.

Build an evidence base through discussion with the child and family and your own observations (if possible). Determine the level of risk associated with each factor identified, inclusive of family’s insight into concerns and protective capacity.

In circumstances of family violence, is the perpetrator of violence within the home and willing to engage with services? What is the history of service engagement with the family and what have the outcomes been?

Determine any broader risks to you as a worker or the organisation.

Workers taking accurate and timely case notes (activities undertaken and client responses) provides a record of worker and agency engagement, and additionally lessens clients experiencing ‘service fatigue’ by repeating their story numerous times.

Eligibility assessment

Each program will gather information regarding risks identified by others working with children and their families, including on education sites and in Children’s Centres. Working through concerns assists to identify ‘risks’ or noted concerns, existing or previous service engagement (and outcomes), informal supports and strengths/resilience the child and family have demonstrated, all of which assists in the triage process for line managers.

Child safety assessment

Explore the following factors with the referrer:

• safety issues or child protection issues (abuse/neglect)
• school or day care arrangements (strength of education site connection)
• other agency involvement with the child/family/community
• connection to kinship, nation, community, other extended family
• immediate health issues (nutrition, clothing, medical)
• legal issues, such as court matters, intervention orders (domestic violence) or custody issues (Family Court orders)
• other relevant risk factors, for example mental health, substance use or social isolation.

Determine whether a notification should be made and/or immediate safety response is required and prioritise this action.

Ascertain the parent or kinship carer’s parenting capacity and safety for all family members (consider family violence concerns), particularly with respect to the current crisis and determine support needs.

If possible, has the referrer observed attachment or interaction between parent/carer and child, or directly spoken to the child about the referral and gauged their understanding of what the child’s perspective or wishes might be?

External referral from Safer Family Services

Where possible, ensure a referral is made to a more suitable service, with consent from both child and parent/carer (where possible and appropriate).

Using principles of a connected system, provide adequate information with the referral so the person doesn’t have to re-tell their story. Provide the client with as much information as possible about the referral, for example who they will be seeing, and agree together how they can get there.

Identify other services/agencies involved

Gather information regarding other services involved with the client and their level and purpose for involvement.

Cultural considerations for Aboriginal clients

Where required, an Aboriginal worker should be consulted as soon as possible in the intake/triage process, when children and families identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Recognise the possibility of service resistance, lack of trust, fear or indifference Aboriginal children and families may present within the context of past experiences of oppression, and systemic racism either witnessed or experienced.

Assertive engagement and compelled clients

Engagement with services can raise a myriad of issues for children and their families. Recognise the imbalance of power, fear, shame or anxiety that may go with parents speaking out or acknowledging safety concerns (for their children, themselves or other family members).

Recognise that risks such as child protection and family violence are often embedded in intergenerational trauma, therefore, children and their families could be cautious of engaging due to previous poor or harmful service responses.

For Aboriginal children and their families, it is likely that any previous service experience did not listen to, consider or respect culture in responses. Additionally, it is highly probable they may have experienced systemic racism.

Compelled clients understand their limited options, namely, they must work with the pre-statutory service or be referred to the statutory authority. Like service resistant clients, compelled clients may have experienced a poor service outcome in either the pre or statutory space, including police and other crisis response services, for example, family or domestic violence services.

Relationship is the key – trust and engagement, encouraging clients to participate in decisions, articulating goals and alternative services available to them, empowering clients and advocating (when required) to remove systemic barriers and considering the client’s possible previous exposure to oppressive practices.

Build on existing strengths and natural support systems and work collaboratively to build sustainable change that supports safety within the home for children and family members.

For Aboriginal children and their families, respect that the kinship system works to keep children safe and connected to culture and nation. Consider allocation of case to an Aboriginal worker as primary practitioner, or consider co- working with an Aboriginal peer to enhance cultural safety for child and family with home visits etc.

Practice point: intake

Each element must be considered within the triage process; the presence or absence of any one element should not exclude further assessment when making the decision to allocate a service response. Line managers will consult each other (if required) on who is best placed to respond – this is influenced by a range of factors including (but not limited to) service capacity and practitioner cultural or service expertise.

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Assessment

Key outcomes

• psychosocial assessment
• risk assessment - child at the centre
• evidence informed assessment
• record information and observations
• assess family strengths, support and patterns
• child protection history and previous interventions
• provide immediate support/ action to promote safety

The assessment process is a dynamic process which involves more than gathering information from multiple sources to inform decision making and case planning. It is an opportunity to work collaboratively, to identify strengths and barriers (formal and informal), to critically review and reflect on competing needs and to prioritise the child’s safety and development (within the family). The paramount driver of risk assessment is the child’s safety, not the safeguarding of the family.

Assessment of needs and strengths across Child Protection Assessment Framework

Explain the assessment process and purpose, beginning with the practitioner role and purpose for involvement. Gaining consent from all family members is considered best practice (including children).

Through respectful engagement and questioning, assess presenting needs within the life domain areas. Ensure a clear understanding from child and family as to the child safety concerns, including their perceived and actual capacity to respond.

Identify the client’s goals, strengths and current support systems, both professional and personal. Gain a good understanding of needs, concerns, values and choices.

Make assessments based on the client’s responses, both verbal and non-verbal. Ensure adequate opportunity to provide input and make their own assessments on different issues; explore what has worked in the past.

Additional services currently involved or with a history of involvement should also be accessed to inform the assessment process. Include any specialist services, for example, medical, with client consent.

When working through the assessment process, be mindful that child protection and family violence are complex issues that often require coordination of multiple service responses, in a decisive and timely way. Feeling overwhelmed as workers (due to complexity and risk) is not uncommon. For children and families, those feeling as amplified by fear of statutory responses, previous poor service outcomes, and feeling inadequate and unsafe.

Complicating factors

What are the complicating factors that impact on the safety of children within the family and/or the family’s capacity to proactively address care and risk concerns? Complicating factors may include (but are not limited to): social or cultural isolation, mental illness, domestic and family violence, underemployment, disability, trauma, homelessness, substance abuse or other forms of addiction.

Concluding an assessment process

Collate all information and observations into a clear evidence informed statement of the client’s situation within each life domain area. Where conclusions are drawn as worker opinions, it is important to be clear about this within case records. Continue to test and explore these opinions through the case management process.

Clearly identify risks within the client’s situation (or behaviours) as well as capacities, opportunities and limitations. In risk assessment, weighing up the child’s immediate safety and development needs, the family’s capacity and desire to change dangerous or neglectful behaviours, and the family and child’s protective capacity all assist in the formulation of the assessment. Consultation with your line manager and supervision throughout this process is fundamental to good clinical governance.

Immediate action and support

As much as possible, work with the client to determine an immediate action plan. Ensure it is clear to the client that immediate action and support is only to address immediate concerns and that, through the development of case plan, longer term action planning can take place.

Cultural responses for Aboriginal clients

When assessing cultural need, understanding what’s most important for the client is critical. Explore the types of supports, networks and family the client may want to connect with and recognise the strength and value of these connections, particularly in supporting culture.

Cultural consultation adds value to assessment and case planning. Accessing Community Elders or Aboriginal workers familiar with client’s nation and community is critical. All attempts to accommodate the Aboriginal client’s preference for an Aboriginal worker or non-Aboriginal worker should be made.

Tools used should reflect the needs of the child, family or kinship group. Recognising the diversity of community and kinship connection, exploring what works for the child, family and kinship group will be important.

Given that the impact of trans-generational trauma, inter-generational trauma and toxic stress is as prevalent today as ever, it is crucial that we adopt respect for and humility towards understanding Aboriginal culture, being mindful of Australia’s colonisation history, dispossession, genocide, the Stolen Generation and historical practices such as segregation and assimilation.

Culturally and linguistically diverse clients, refugees, and new arrivals

Cultural consultation is critical when considering the political, religious, social and economic context and migration experience of children and the family.

It is important to have an awareness of intersectional and gender biases, and an understanding of how these can impact on working within the context of child protection and family violence.

Be cognisant of cultural diversity and how this impacts on family functioning, including (but not limited to) multiple attachment parenting, cultural norms, spirituality and religious practices, and grief and loss.

Also critical is an awareness of the trauma of genocide experienced by refugees fleeing their communities, to the grief and loss, guilt for surviving, and stress of establishing oneself in a new country.

Documenting your work

Tools provide a structured format to collate, guide and synthesise information during assessment processes. Documenting assessments within program timeframes reduces the likelihood of case drift, ensures practitioner accountability, provides evidence to inform line management endorsement (as per clinical governance arrangements) and highlights areas of complexity or requirement for specialised practice.

For Aboriginal children and families, more time may be required to build trust and relationships during the assessment phase. Discuss this with your line manager as timeframes may be extended. Consult with Aboriginal workers or community Elders (if appropriate) to assist with engagement and assessment processes to ensure cultural safety for children and families. Cultural supervision for Aboriginal staff should also be provided.

Practice point: assessment

Synthesise information gathered to consider current context, previous history and patterns, risks identified and protective factors over time. Consider what the urgency is for the child developmentally, culturally and from a secure attachment perspective. What is the balance of risk and protective capacity of family members? Who have you consulted in building your assessment? For example, family violence, mental health or cultural consultants? Who have you reflected with to critically review your practice?

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Case planning

Key outcomes

• the child’s voice is central to the plan (where possible)
• in children and family members’ own words, determine specific goals and how and when these will be achieved
• identify indicators of change – what does success look like?
• Identify risk and respond to safety issues – plan
• celebrate wins and review regularly (reduce case drift)

Case planning is a multifaceted exercise and is not offered in isolation from other supports that the child, family or community may be receiving. Case plans must be centred on meeting the child’s safety needs and may be developed over the course of several meetings with the child and their family. Capturing the child’s voice wherever possible, within appropriate developmental capacity, listening to and documenting their views and wishes for themselves, their family and community is crucial to keeping the child at the centre of the Safer Family Services service system.

Tools to capture case plans may vary according to the needs of the child and family; this is inclusive of cultural needs. As much as possible, incorporating natural (informal) supports within case plans increases sustainability. Work on restorative practices to build and repair informal relationships and kinship systems wherever possible.

Decisive and timely case plans reduce case drift and respond to the sensitivity and urgency that can surround children’s safety. Reducing risk and trauma exposure is a primary consideration for children and families. Regular reviews to identify progress and make adjustments need to be built into the case planning. Line manager endorsement of case plans is required through supervision processes.

Specific goals

Based on the assessment, consider immediate, short- term, long-term and ongoing needs and develop related strategies and specific goals to address these needs. Ensure goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely). The safety and best interests of the child are paramount in relation to decisions and actions on the case plan – keep the focus on safety.

Strategies to achieve outcomes

Focus on strengths and natural/informal networks when determining actions, with goals in the child and family’s own words (when possible).

Develop a plan of action for achieving goals with the child and family. Include any other service providers currently or likely to be involved. Ensure all service providers and natural supports maximise the child and family member’s participation with strategies.

Develop goals and strategies that are specific to achieving the desired outcomes. Goals need to primarily focus on mitigating risks to the child and on the child within the context of the family.

Alongside goals, state how they will be achieved, who will be responsible for related tasks and the timeframes for each. Tasks need to be straight forward – a series of steps required to achieve the goal.

Specification of roles and other services

Recognise the plan as a collaborative activity between the case management agency, child, child’s family and community, and other service agencies.

Clarify and document what each individual and agency will contribute to the plan. Clarify the roles and expectations of all involved from both child/family and agency perspective. Set clear and realistic timeframes including clear monitoring and review processes.

Ensure the child and family members are clear about expectations for them achieving their own part of the plan and what they can expect from others. Have all parties sign off on the case plan (if possible) to commit to their agreed responsibility.

Risk assessment and safety

Determine any risk and safety factors for the child and assess the levels of risk. Consider any related legal issues, for example, intervention orders that may require action, including referrals to Family Safety Meetings.

Develop a safety plan with the child and other family members if required. Ensure that the safety plan is distributed to all service agencies, including the school site or children’s centre attended by the child and family.

For Aboriginal children and their families, sharing the safety plan with Elders, kinship networks or community representatives increases the safety of the child and respectfully taps into the safety kinship networks of Aboriginal children.

Cultural considerations for Aboriginal clients

When putting plans together, ensure you have a clear understanding of what the priorities are for the child, family and community. Consult Aboriginal workers wherever possible and appropriate to support case plans. Set goals and timeframes around agreed priorities. If a child or family member appears reluctant to pursue a particular goal, ask questions about their concerns and explore what may be holding them back

When considering timeframes, explain to the child and family why particular time frames have been set and how this reflects a plan towards successful outcomes. When implementing timeframes, be willing to make regular contact leading up to appointments or tasks in order to ensure everyone stays on track. How are community members supporting timeframes and scheduled appointments? Remind the child and family how the task relates to what is an important priority for them. Be prepared to be flexible and make changes to timeframes, particularly if other issues arise that need to be prioritised or addressed above the original task, such as a death in the family or community. Consult Aboriginal staff at crucial points.

Documenting your work

Case plans are the ‘goals’ listed and agreed with children, families and other service providers. It provides a ‘road map’ for children and their families to exit service engagement and ensures transparency and accountability in actions progressing from assessment processes. Make sure documentation works for family – how are things depicted and what does the child and family prefer? Be flexible in your approach. Clinical governance arrangements require direct line manager endorsement of case plans.

Practice point: case planning

When working closely with children and families, at the forefront of engagement is the extraordinary courage and resilience it takes to trust and build a relationship with a new worker or service. Consider the hurt, anger, pain, loss, trauma, war crimes, detention, racism or oppressive practices that the child, family or community may have previously experienced. Children and families need to be given the opportunity to make sense of past experiences (safely), to grieve and to actively build on their resilience, strength, community and cultural connection.

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Implementation of the case plan

Key outcomes

• a child’s right to safety is paramount; focus on safety
• empower children and young people
• exercise wise use of authority – collaborate with the person, not the abuse (Human Services, 2012:13)
• work collaboratively on case plan tasks, consult and obtain consent for referrals and advocacy
• regularly review and share information

Implementing case plans:

• the child’s right to safety and wellbeing is given the greatest weight
• conscious, deliberate and purposeful activity with, and for, the child and their family
• actions that are outcomes focused and work towards case plan goals (set with the child and family)
• engaging and working with all stakeholders and coordinating task orientated responses
• being responsible and accountable to the child, family, community and the plan
• providing accurate and timely case notes on all activities undertaken and the child and family’s responses to them
• adapting new knowledge learnt about the child and family during implementation and regularly reviewing implementation and the case plan accordingly
• for Aboriginal children and family, longer timeframes may be required
• recognise that Aboriginal families may have other competing priorities; being flexible is important while ensuring that the child’s safety is not compromised
• ensuring throughout implementation that consultation with Aboriginal staff is occurring for non- Aboriginal staff working with Aboriginal families

Delivery of case plan tasks

Be action- and solution-orientated, work from a strengths perspective, focusing on the child and family member’s safety, and raising the standard of accountability for those who use violence in the home (majority being fathers).

Implementing case plan actions and tasks is very practical work and requires a proactive and supportive approach to achieving the case goals with children and their families. What’s changed in the implementation phase? Is the child’s safety increasing, has the family’s resilience grown, do family members who misuse power accept responsibility and understand their accountability?

Recognise the importance of the timeframes established and work within these. Be flexible and re-strategise when plans are not working; recognise the importance of review.

Referral and advocacy

Explore options and resources to effectively implement the case plan. Referrals for short- or longer-term involvement of external agencies are likely to be necessary to expand resources and help achieve goals. Involve the whole of the family in referral processes to expand formal supports and sustain changes.

Note that people who have experienced long term oppression through intergenerational trauma may not be able to develop their emotional strength or personal skills to advocate for their own interests, even if this is the most empowering course (Payne, 2014).

Practitioners will at times need to advocate on behalf of their client to ensure access to adequate supports and the involvement of relevant services.

Collaboration and coordination of services

Collaborate and actively build relationships with other service providers to support efficient work, reduce service duplication, remove service barriers, and build a care team around the child and their family working towards the case plan goals with a focus on the child’s safety. Ensure all agencies are aware of each other’s involvement and there is a nominated lead case manager for the child and family driving family meetings.

All agencies remain responsible to the child and family for managing their specific involvement with service tasks (Chappell, 2012).

Communication and information sharing

Maintain open and transparent communication with the child and family members and all partner agencies supporting the case plan. Regular communication helps to maintain a coordinated focus on achieving outcomes and meetings or case conferences with all stakeholders can support this process.

Information shared needs to be accurate, relevant and with consent whenever possible, but not at the jeopardy of the child’s or family’s safety, wellbeing or welfare.

Cultural considerations for Aboriginal clients

Ensure that you engage and inform the child and family about every aspect of implementation as you work on goals and tasks together. Respectful cultural responses are critical when working with Aboriginal families; recognise the safety and strength of the kinship system. Regularly review the safety of the child and family within community. Ensure that consultation with an Aboriginal worker occurs if you are a non-Aboriginal worker working with an Aboriginal family.

Ensure that case plans are intrinsically linked to wellbeing as nominated by the child/family. For example, spirituality, language, cultural connection. Ensure referrals to Aboriginal specific services are prioritised if this is requested by the child and family.

Take the time to listen and demonstrate awareness of the differences across Aboriginal nations by asking about the protocols and practices according to the client’s cultural background and incorporate this advice to provide culturally responsive practice.

Be aware of the intensely personal and ancestral impact of dispossession, past practices and policies on Aboriginal peoples.

Case notes

Case notes are evidence of a program’s sequential recording of client and agency contact while implementing case plans. Case notes provide accountability and transparency in terms of our practice and ensure a record of intervention should a child seek records to piece together their story, or should matters progress through to a statutory response requiring more formal reports for Court.

Practice point: implementation of the case plan

Implementation is the ‘doing’ of all the plans and discussion. Coordinating services, clarifying roles and establishing sound communication processes and accountability will be crucial to successful outcomes for the child and family. Case notes should be a record of the facts including relevant information to the case plan, interventions and ongoing assessment of the child and family’s changing circumstances, however, exclude extraneous or irrelevant information.

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Monitoring

Key outcomes

• review progress and re-strategise
• flexible and responsive to change
• regular case/family conferences as required
• celebrate wins, affirming and validating safety and strength within the child and family
• plan for transitions or exit stage

Monitoring case plan activities with the child, family and relevant kinship connections helps to identify progress, prioritise next steps and ensure efficiency in achieving goals. When working with Aboriginal children, family and kinship networks, recognise that timeframes may need to be extended. This will be determined by the child and family’s previous involvement with services, and their very personal healing journey.

Monitoring case plans is an ongoing and proactive process; it requires constant re-engagement with the child, pivotal family and kinship connections and community contacts, and informing other service providers on progress, gaps and areas that may require change.

Case plan reviews should be conducted every three months with the child and family. Line managers will review a case plan with supervision. Consistent service approaches and accountability to children, families and communities is part of reflective and continuous improvement practices.

A review will determine:

• how is the child travelling with the plan? Are they able to express what’s changed, what is different and how they feel?
• any reassessments needed and which partners need to be involved
• whether identified goals remain current
• whether all strategies are adequately resourced and all partners are contributing towards goal achievement
• additional opportunity to build a relationship with the child and family – can the child’s voice be captured more substantially (if required)?
• if decision making has helped towards identified goals and the impact of goal achievements
• has risk been reduced and from whose perspective? Is there agreement? What is the child saying about this? What are key kinship connections and community contacts saying?

Ensure that monitoring and review includes accurate and timely case notes on all activities undertaken and clients’ responses to them. Our commitment is to ensure a culture of continuous improvement within SFS. The use of internal audits on client files is also beneficial to agency case management standards and quality assurance processes.

Review progress and re-strategise

Engage and support the child and family with acknowledgement of their capacity, growth, insight and motivation. Fundamentally intervention is to mitigate child risk, keep child with their family and build family capacity and improve connection (to support, culture and/or community) to reducing isolation.

Stay curious! About the effectiveness of plans and how emerging information might impact, from your perspective and those of the child, family, extended support system or community. Update and/or refine goals, strategies and objectives to meet the child and family needs, and ensure goals are realistic and achievable. Consider the involvement of additional agencies or supports if necessary.

Identify barriers and respond to change

The monitoring process may identify gaps or barriers to progressing objectives of the case plan. Work with the client and other service providers to identify the challenges/barriers and openly problem solve:

• Is the goal still relevant?
• Has the situation changed?
• What new information may need to be considered?

Systemic critical thinking delivers best responses for addressing barriers experienced by the client. Creativity and persistent, working within the client’s capacity (building resilience and confidence) and agency’s resources.

Celebrate milestones

Celebrate achievements towards goals, successes and acknowledge the efforts of all involved. Ensure the client is at the centre of celebrations and acknowledgement.

Review agency involvement and possible transition or exit strategy

Review if service plan and interventions are still the most suitable/appropriate and if another agency should be the lead in case managing services. Discuss all transitions/ exit strategies with line manager as per governance arrangements.

Cultural considerations for Aboriginal clients

Are goals still relevant and a priority for the client and worker, has child risk reduced? What are some other priorities that will maintain motivation towards this goal? Continue to remain connected to the child and family and demonstrate that you are committed to working with them to make outcomes happen. Understand the long-term oppression and impact of intergenerational trauma and its influence on the child, family and community contact’s confidence and capacity.

Make sure the goals and tasks are developed in a way that works for the community. That the child, family and relevant kinship members can relate to? Ensure cultural consultation has been part of the process or seek co- working with an Aboriginal peer within your team or relevant service that is connected to and understands the child’s nation.

Practice point: monitoring

Providing support and validating good outcomes, while challenging parents or kinship carers on neglectful or other unsafe child rearing practices, is a constant tension for practitioners and the care team.

Clear, transparent and consistent messaging focused on the child’s safety, including exploring additional supports as required by the family, will contribute to maintaining this outcome.