Child Placement Principle

The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Child Placement Principle Policy Statement was developed in partnership by the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies and the Queenslander Government.  It is the cornerstone policy for community and government to work together to  preserve and enhance Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children’s sense of identity as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander through maintaining children safely within their own family kinship arrangements, community and culture. It seeks to strengthen a child’s growth and development by maintaining their cultural identity to ensure a secure sense of belonging.

The Child Placement Principle:

The safety and wellbeing of children are the paramount consideration and where parents are unable to provide safe care of their children, this Principle governs all decisions and actions taken to secure their safety and provide appropriate care and support.

QATSICPP is committed to ensuring the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle is adhered to by the Child Protection Agencies and the Department of Communities (Child Safety).

It is well documented and acknowledged in major Inquiries such as RCIADIC(1989) and Bringing Them Home (1995), that Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children have a need for, and a right to know of their own families and culture, and that denial of this has tragic consequences. Denial of identity and culture have been linked to high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, suicide rates, and over-representation in child welfare and corrections systems.

The separation of children from their families over many generations has left a legacy of grief, sadness and loss of identity, and culture, for many Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people. The traditions of group parental control, extended family involvement in child rearing and discipline of children were undermined.

The purpose of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle is to preserve and enhance Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children’s sense of identity as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander through maintaining children within their own family, community and culture. It seeks to strengthen family life through recognising the value of the extended family, kinship arrangements, culture and community in raising children.

The Child Placement Principle establishes the policy that Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander community representatives must be involved and consulted at all stages of decision making in child and family welfare matters concerning Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children, and that Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children placed in alternative care for protective reasons should be placed with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander care providers.

It also aims to support increased involvement and control by Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people in child and family welfare matters effecting communities.

The aims of the Child Placement Principle are to:

• Protect the rights of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children recognising the intrinsic connection of the extended family;
• Reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children on protective orders;
• Strengthen families to prevent and reduce disintegration of the family unit;
• Ensure that if children are removed from biological parents, that they are placed with extended family within the immediate and/or  broader Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander community;
• Ensure that if Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children are removed contact is maintained with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander families and communities;
• Ensure that if Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children are removed commitment to re-unification is of the highest priority; and
• Ensure the best interests of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander child by including consideration of the whole of life well-being.

For Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children, their connection to their extended family is a crucial aspect of their overall stability and serves as an ongoing support throughout their adult life. Foster placements outside the family may provide short term permanency through childhood but can have the effect of creating major disruption in late adolescence and adulthood. Adherence to the Child Placement Principle is the ideal method of ensuring real permanency for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children as it preserves and promotes lifelong family relationships, particularly sibling relationships, which will nurture and support them as well as future generations.

Within this framework it should be possible to find safe family placements for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children who cannot live with their natural parents. The view is that this is an achievable outcome for all children should be a key concept driving quality service delivery for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children and their families. It is a view largely absent in today’s system and its absence has resulted in a worsening dislocation of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children from their family, community and culture.