vacca 2010 text · senior administrator samantha brown intake/after hours supervisor donna love...

SNAPSHOT OF VACCA EVENTS HELD IN 2010

Above: A Link Up activity day at Corranderrk

Above: Our Carers and Kids Christmas Party

Above: Our Certificate of Registration for successfully meeting

all 53 standards of Agency Registration

Right:

Thelma

(as Dolly

Parton)

and Karina

at our

Christmas

function

Right: Emma, Samara,Amanda and Bev as the Sapphires

at our Christmas function

Victorian AboriginalChild Care Agency

Co-operative Limited

AnnualReport

2009

Our Vision

A community that is strong in culture,

values their children and young people and

recognises the importance of the whole

community in raising children and keeping

families together.

CONTENTS

Our Purpose 2

Our Programs and Services 2

Our Strategic Priorities 3

Our Board of Directors 4

Our Staff 4

Our Structure 9

Agenda 10

AGM Minutes 11

REPORTS

Chairperson 14

Chief Executive Officer 15

Business Unit 22

Human Resources 24

New Programs and Initiatives 28

Policy, Research and Communication 36

Lakidjeka ACSASS 40

Placement and Support 51

Southern 62

Early Intervention and Family Support 66

Link-Up 75

VACCA ANNUAL REPORT 2010 1

VACCA is a statewide Aboriginal community controlled

organisation whose purpose/mission is to advocate on

behalf of and provide services for Aboriginal children,

young people and families premised on human rights, self-

determination, cultural respect and safety.

OUR PURPOSE

OUR PROGRAMS & SERVICES

Placement & Support

• Extended Care

• Residential Care

• Aboriginal Therapeutic Residential Care

• Permanent Care

• Educational Support

• Koorie Cultural Placement Support

• Indigenous Leaving Care

• Kurnai Youth Homelessness

• Integrated Family Violence Program

Early Intervention & Family Support

• Family Support

• Innovations

• Family Counsellor

• Supported Playgroups

• Emergency Relief

• Aboriginal Family Restorations

• Aboriginal Family Decision Making

• Child FIRST

• Southern Aboriginal Child and Family Service

• Parenting

• Family Violence and Community Support

Program Development & New Initiatives

• Project Management

• Program Review & Evaluation

• Training

• Program Development

• Strategic Planning

• Koorie FACES

Policy, Research & Communication

• Public voice

• Research

• Advocacy

Aboriginal Child Specialist Advice and Support

Service

• Lakidjeka ACSASS Program

Stolen Generations

• Link-Up Victoria

Corporate Services

• Finance

• Human Resources

• Administration

• Asset & Property Management

• Contract Management

VACCA ANNUAL REPORT 20102

To respond to changing patterns of demand and need our strategic priorities now and into the future are:

1. Further VACCA’s lead agency capacity

2. Enhance VACCA’s continuous quality approach to our service delivery

3. Build the cultural competence of the mainstream service children and family welfare sector, government bodies and

the broader community

4. Enhance VACCA’s capacity to be a robust Aboriginal organisation

5. Grow our service offerings

6. Drive VACCA’s capacity to be self determining through taking on the Aboriginal reform agenda as articulated in the

new Child,Youth and Family Act

7. Enhance VACCA’s workforce to build a strong and effective Aboriginal child and family welfare service

8. Demonstrate VACCA’s capacity to achieve program performance outcomes in line with Aboriginal child welfare best

practice


OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Muriel Bamblett

Executive Assistant Teresa Hoffman

CORPORATEBusiness Manager Bernard Ferre

Human Resources Manager Con Lambros

Human Resources Officer Paula Crilly

Finance Accountant Hemantha

Angampitiya

Accounts/Payroll Officer Truc Pham

Accounts/Administration Officer Manal El-Kheir

Fleet Co-ordinator Vacant

Administration/Fleet Officer Melinda Brown

Administration Officer Jacinta Smith

Receptionist Toni McLaughlin

IT Communications Officer Alan Johnson

IT Communications Officer (p/t) Paul Giannelis

Cleaner Peter Kelly

Cleaner Steve Martin

NEW PROGRAMS & INITIATIVESProgram Manager Connie Salamone

Training Manager Chrisie Warren

Project Manager Bev Murray

Unit Coordinator Vacant

Project Officer Sarah Diplock

Project Officer (p/t) Gabrielle Bourke

Project Officer (p/t) Nigel D’Souza

Project Officer (p/t) Robin Trotter

Project Officer Vacant

Project Officer (p/t) John Wayne

Parsons

Project Officer (p/t) Alli-Jade Briggs

Administration Assistant (p/t) Kylie Duggan

Administration Assistant (p/t) Alli-Jade Briggs

Senior Training Officer (p/t) Megan Cadd

Learning & Development Officer (p/t) Martine Lynch

Learning & Development Officer (p/t) Yolanda Glenn

Senior QAS Project Officer Maureen Hogarty

POLICY, RESEARCH & COMMUNICATIONProgram Manager Peter Lewis

Research Coordinator Richard Frankland

Project Officer (p/t) Vacant

LINK-UP VICTORIAProgram Manager Sue Anne Hunter

Coordinator,Administration Irene Sazdov

Administration Support (p/t) Jarred Harrison

Coordinator, Casework,

Supervision & Group work Angela Swindle

Project Officer (p/t) Vacant

Caseworker/Counsellor Tim Church

Caseworker/Counsellor Walter Harrison

4 VACCA ANNUAL REPORT 2010

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OUR STAFF

Chairperson: Deidre King

Vice Chairperson: Rodney Monohan

Treasurer: Ralph Bamblett

Secretary: Marg Stewart

Director: James Atkinson

Director: Pam Aplin

Director: Daniel Kelly

Caseworker/Counsellor Kooramyee

Cooper

Caseworker/Counsellor Samara Ahmat

Cleaner Susan Harrison

LAKIDJEKA ACSASSBrunswick Office

Executive Manager Suzanne Cleary

Assistant Manager Lucy Romano

Senior Administrator Samantha Brown

Intake/After Hours Supervisor Donna Love

Case Administrator (p/t) Jacinta Scott

Case Administrator (p/t) Carl Burke

NW Metro (Footscray office)

Supervisor/Caseworker NW Metro Leeandra Aitken

Caseworker Vacant

Caseworker Vacant

Case Administrator Jodie Harding

SE Metro (Dandenong Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Sue Barclay

Case Administrator (p/t) Vacant

Case Administrator (p/t) Vanessa Murdoch

Caseworker Vacant

Caseworker Vacant

Gippsland (Bairnsdale Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Jeff Cooper

Caseworker May Pearce

(Morwell Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Tiffany Hood (a/g)

Caseworker Alexis Mobourne

Admin Assistant Karen Boon

Loddon Mallee (Echuca Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Teresa Kerr

Case Administrator Candice Duggan

Caseworker Aaron Taylor

(Swan Hill Office)

Caseworker Vacant

Hume (Wodonga Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Hume Kim Murray

Case Administrator Stacey Lappin

(Shepparton Office)

Caseworker Brian McGee

Caseworker Vacant

Barwon/Grampians (Geelong Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Sue Lovett (leave)

Caseworker Belinda Foley

Caseworker Vacant

Case Administrator Natalie Karipis

(Ballarat Office)

Caseworker Vacant

(Heywood Office)

Supervisor/Caseworker Wendy Lovett (a/g)

PLACEMENT & SUPPORTExecutive Manager Gwen Rogers

Administration Officer Shelena Bourke

Extended Care

Program Manager Julie Toohey

Administration Officer Thelma Norris

Team Leader – Community (p/t) Yolanda Glenn

Team Leader – Casework Liz Munt

Caseworker James Stubbs

Caseworker Kellie Auranaune

Caseworker Tamasin Krakouer

Caseworker Michael Cadd

Caseworker (.5) Vacant

Caseworker (.5) Rebecca Boss

Caseworker (Geelong) Pauline Fennell

Education Support Worker (p/t) Vacant

Education Support Worker (p/t) Jodie Cadd


Koori Cultural Placement

Support Worker Bissette Morgan

Leaving Care Youth Worker Hannah Pugh-Uren

Leaving Care Project Officer (p/t) Vacant

Kinship Care

Program Manager Vanessa Halge

Team Leader Margaret Triffitt

Caseworker Emma Bamblett

Caseworker Bronwyn McBryde

Caseworker Cassie Batten

Caseworker Arthur Ellis

Adolescent Community Placement House

Carer Pauline Cassady

Senior Case Manager (p/t) Rebecca Boss

Support Worker Gabrielle Cassady

Permanent Care

Co-ordinator Gemma Morgan

Therapeutic Residential Care

Program Manager Robbie Merrigan

Administration Officer Shelena Bourke

Therapeutic Case Coordinator Mika Akune

House Supervisor Hayley Jones

House Supervisor Christine Mayberry

Education Support Worker Vacant

Therapeutic Cultural

Support Worker Namatjira Morgan

Therapeutic Care Worker Debbie Learhinan

Therapeutic Care Worker Marie Jones

Therapeutic Care Worker Jerome Phillips

Therapeutic Care Worker Rebecca Mayberry

Therapeutic Care Worker Violet Arden

Therapeutic Care Worker Darren Gobbey

Therapeutic Care Worker Vacant



Reliever Shane Potter

Reliever Robert Falden

Reliever Shannon Andy

Reliever Troy Brickell

MORWELLKurnai Youth Homelessness Service

Program Manager Marion McNeill

Team Leader Lorena Thompson

Initial Assessment

Planning/Youth Worker Rehana Naidu

Community Development

Worker (p/t) Esme Thompson

Youth Worker Tareena Maynard

Indigenous Family Violence Program

Integrated Family Violence

Caseworker Donna Hood

Integrated Family Violence

Caseworker Rachel Carter

EARLY INTERVENTION & FAMILY SUPPORTExecutive Manager Kerry Crawford

Acting Operational Manager Belinda Fry

Program Manager Denise Kaur

Manager Nyoka

Morgan-Briggs

Manager Renessa Nelson

Family Support Team Leader Kim Wood

Community Support Services Karina Thorpe

Coordinator

Administration Officer Judith Stephens

Administration Officer (p/t) Narelle Slater

Child FIRST Aboriginal Liaison

Officer Michelle Tilmouth


Officer Ben McKenzie

Case Coordinator, Restorations

Program Vacant

Family Decision Making Convenor

(NW) Kane Cooper

Family Decision Making Convenor Paul Ferris

Family Support Team Leader Rhiannan Mudie

Family Support Caseworker Jennifer Garrison

Family Support Caseworker Kate Unwin

Family Support Caseworker Vacant

Family Support Caseworker Vacant

Family Support Caseworker Dominique

Spagnolo


Therapeutic Counsellor Natasha Cordisac

Early Childhood Development

Worker Brittany Palmer

Early Childhood Development

Worker Sally-Anne Lowden

Family Violence Caseworker Vacant

IAFP&R Team Leader Helen Lewkowicz

IAFP&R Snr Caseworker Troy Johnson

IAFP&R Caseworker Vacant

IAFP&R Child Wellbeing worker Vacant

SOUTHERN VACCAProgram Manager Nathan Fenelon

Administration/Reception Dishni

Wanigasekera

Coordinator Julie Pearson

Out of Home Care Coordinator Vacant

Family Coaching Victoria

Co-ordinator Georgina Sullivan

Kinship & Extended Care Worker Machelle Walker

Senior Caseworker Elizabeth Brown

AFPP Caseworker Fazilla McKerrow

AFPP Caseworker Vacant

Koori Cultural Placement

& Support/Carer Recruitment Sharon Blow


Worker Vacant

Community Support Coordinator David Owen

Playgroup Coordinator Cindy-Lee Harper

Playgroup Worker Belinda Swindle

Playgroup Worker Elana Coetzer

Playgroup Worker (p/t) Vanessa Murdoch

Family Coaching Victoria Amy Gunning

Family Coaching Victoria Vacant

Family Coaching Victoria Vacant

EASTERN ABORIGINAL CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICEFamily Services Team Leader Vacant


Worker Vicky Peters

Staff currently on maternity leave

Brenda Young

Renee Howell

Rene Sephton

Kylie Bell

Angela Chittem

Christine Lovett

Nikita Rotumah


WE FAREWELL THE FOLLOWING STAFF WHO HAVE LEFT VACCA SINCE THE LAST AGM:

EARLY INTERVENTION & FAMILY SUPPORT LAKIDJEKA ACSASS

Sepi Weerasinghe Jodie Jackson

Rebecca O’Dowd Jenna Bamblett

Shara Graham Temara Blackwood

George Briggs Sara Frederiksen

Natalie O’Connor Colleen Howell

Amanda Firebrace Caroline McGee

Laura Campbell Peter Shane Rotumah

Anne Brown Kevin Walker

Joy Kerr Sara Flottl

Jedda Charles

Lace Curphey SOUTHERN OFFICE

Daniel Smith Jill Owen

Dimi Kandris Julie MacDougall

NEW PROGRAMS & INITIATIVES PLACEMENT & SUPPORT

Fiona Roberts Rebecca Crawford

Nayuka Hood Theresa McNally

Joanne Clarke Sandra Young

Sue Molnar Tenille Abell

Corporate Services Peter Shepherd

Julieanne James Kiri Herekuiha

Sylvia Choate Illana Atkinson

Dot Dwyer Phil Ah Wang

Peter Harrison Arif Gray

Thomas Golden-Brown

Ben Clark

Jan Muller

Casey Atkinson

Meriki Hood

Robert McCubbin


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VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL CHILD CARE AGENCY

AGENDA

1. Welcome,Acknowledgement of Country,Attendance,Apologies

2. Confirm the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting

3. Receive and consider reports from the Chairperson, Chief Executive Officer, other staff of the

Co-operative and the Auditor

4. In accordance with s238 of the Co-operatives Act 1996 and the Regulations, appoint an Auditor

5. Elect and determine the remuneration of Directors

6. Carry out other business that may be lawfully brought forward


Present: As per attendance sheet attached.

Apologies: Deidre King, Pam Aplin,Thelma Canavan,Alf

Bamblett, Sue Barclay, Sue Lovett, Monty Muckenberger,

Stacy Lappin, Melinda Brown, Leeandra Atkins, Jan Muir,

Sharon Blow,Arthur Ellis, Kylie Bell,Yolanda Glenn, Ben

Clark, Sara Frederikson, Liz Munt.

The meeting commenced at 1.25pm.

As the Chairperson, Deidre King, was unable to attend

the meeting Rodney Monohan (Board Member) acted as

Chairperson. Rodney paid his respects to the traditional

owners of the land and welcomed everyone to the

meeting. Members were asked to stand for one minute’s

silence to acknowledge community members who had

passed away.

NEW MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONSThe Directors were unable to endorse the new

membership applications as they did not have a quorum.

The following membership applications will be endorsed

at the next VACCA Board Meeting:

• Jedda Charles, Rebecca Crawford, Johannah Maza,

Sharlene Johnson, Kelvin Onus-King,Thelma Norris,

Alli-Jade Briggs, Samara Ahmat, Brian McGee, Linda

Bamblett, Georgia Bamblett, Kaelun Brown,Temara

Blackwood, Belinda Foley, David Owen, Nyoka

Morgan-Briggs,Vicki Peters, Karen Boon,Alexis

Mobourne,Tareena Maynard and Cassie Batten

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS AGMMembers read through the minutes of the previous AGM.

MOTION: “That the minutes of the previous AGM be

accepted.”

Moved: Sylvia Choate

Seconded: Alan Johnson

CARRIED

There was no business arising from the minutes.

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORTRodney read through Deidre King’s Chairperson’s report.

MOTION: “That the Chairperson’s report be accepted.”

Moved: Marg Stewart

Seconded: Jarred Harrison

CARRIED

STAFF REPORTThe CEO, Muriel Bamblett, presented a powerpoint

presentation on VACCA’s new initiatives for 2009. It has

been an exciting year for the development of a range of

initiatives across many of VACCA’s programs:

Corporate Services Unit:

• The development of a dedicated HR Department

and Business Unit

• Document management control project

Statewide Initiatives for the sector and DHS:

• The roll out of the Aboriginal Cultural Competency

Framework

• VACCA facilitated 16 workshops between July

and August

• Involvement in the Certificate and Diploma in Child

and Family Welfare which is in partnership with

LaTrobe Uni, Bouverie, Melbourne Uni,Take Two and

VACCA

• The cultural elements of Therapeutic Residential Care

• This is a trauma informed therapeutic approach

for Aboriginal children under 12 years of age

requiring residential care

Aboriginal Kinship Care Model

• VACCA has developed a culturally appropriate

kinship care model to be rolled out across Victoria

Development of Statewide Therapeutic Foster Care

Model

• Developed a discussion paper to inform the

development of Aboriginal therapeutic foster care

across the state

• Currently the model is being costed and strategies

for implementation are being considered


ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held at the AAL on 27th November 2009

Community Engagement Programs:

• Koorie FACES Program – a family strengthening

program aimed at building resilience against drug and

alcohol in families

• This was the first family strengthening program

run in Australian prisons

• This year it was rolled out twice at Fulham

Prison and is being rolled out at Dhurringle

Prison

• Linking In – a cultural healing program for members

of the Stolen Generation

• This was a group based program run over 10

weeks

• Koorie Women Yarning Together – strengthening

Koorie women and their families through cultural and

learning based activities that incorporate yarning up

• This was a group based program run over 8

weeks

Community Support Services:

• Aims to build on successful elements of the former

CDEP program by linking Indigenous people and

their families to other services and support in their

regions

• Intensive Case Management – Provision of intensive

case management for Aboriginal women and children

experiencing family violence in the NWM and

LaTrobe Valley region

Cultural strengthening activities for Aboriginal children

and young people:

• Wominjeka – Our Culture Our Future – VACCA

Culture and Arts Festival for Aboriginal children and

young people

• Boys cultural camp

• Girls cultural camp

MOTION: “That the CEO and Manager’s reports be

accepted.”

Moved: Theresa McNally

Seconded: George Briggs

CARRIED

AUDIT REPORTEric Townsend (Auditor) and Hemantha Angampitiya

(Accountant) presented the financial report for the year

ending 30th June 2009. Eric declared it an unqualified

report and reported that VACCA is in a sound financial

position, with a net surplus of $77,996 for the financial

year.

MOTION: “That the financial report be accepted.”

Moved: Phil Cooper

Seconded: Theresa McNally

CARRIED

MOTION: “That Eric Townsend be appointed as the

Auditor for the 2009/10 financial period.”

Moved: Marg Stewart

Seconded: Alan Johnson

CARRIED

ELECTIONSThere are five Directors due to stand down – Deidre

King,Trish Williams, Daniel Kelly, Pam Aplin and Andrew

Gardiner. VACCA received five nominations – Deidre

King, Daniel Kelly, Pam Aplin, Marg Stewart and Ralph

Bamblett.They were automatically elected onto the new

Board.The outgoing Directors,Trish Williams and Andrew

Gardiner, were thanked for their contributions to

VACCA.

REMUNERATION OF DIRECTORSMOTION: “That subject to finances, legalities and

funding arrangements, Directors be

reimbursed for all reasonable expenses

incurred whilst on official Co-op business,

further that they be reimbursed for lost

wages incurred whilst on VACCA business.”

Moved: Phil Cooper

Seconded: Nayuka Hood

CARRIED


GENERAL BUSINESSThere was discussion regarding the Moondani Family

Centre. VACCA is looking at creating a family services

centre, with VACCA being a part of it.The Agency’s

building in Brunswick is becoming too small to

accommodate staff. VACCA has secured the services of a

full-time worker to undertake the fundraising for a

building for Moondani.A challenge will be finding a big

enough block of land in the north-west region.An update

on Moondani will be provided at the next AGM.

In closing, the Acting Chairperson thanked Muriel and

staff for their hard work during the year.

As there was no further business, the meeting closed at

2.20pm.

ATTENDANCE SHEETMuriel Bamblett Wendy Lovett

Phil Cooper Rodney Monohan

Kiri Herekuiha Bronwyn McBride

Rebecca O’Dowd Theresa McNally

Jill Owen Temara Blackwood

Belinda Fry Kim Wood

Rhiannan Mudie Joy Kerr

Belinda Foley Wendy Rich

Sandie Mitchell Natalie O’Connor

Marg Stewart Jan Muller

Kevin Walker Alan Johnson

David Owen Mika Akune

Gabrielle Burke Vicky Peters

Nyoka Morgan-Briggs Angela Chittem

Karen Boon Lorena Thompson

Marion McNeill Alexis Mobourne

Maureen Hogarty Suzanne Cleary

Gemma Morgan Laura Campbell

Dimi Kandris Michael Cadd

Mary Roberts Bev Murray

Emma Bamblett Koora Cooper

Rebecca Crawford Candice Duggan

Jerome Phillips Paula Crilly

Alli-Jade Briggs Hemantha Angampitiya

Eric Townsend Cassie Batten

Ralph Bamblett Lance James

Truc Pham Chrisie Warren

Amanda Firebrace Samara Ahmat

Jodie Cadd Julie Toohey

Sylvia Choate Jarred Harrison

Nayuka Hood Teresa Hoffman

Please note that some people who attended the AGM did

not sign the attendance book.


As Chairperson of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care

Agency I am pleased to be able to present the 2009–10

Annual General report to the Aboriginal community and

the membership of VACCA.

This report provides an opportunity for me as

Chairperson of the Board to report back to the

community and membership on actions undertaken to

fulfil our responsibilities and accountabilities to the

community in governing the operations and functions of

VACCA over the past twelve months.The contents of

the CEO, of the programs and services reports provide

an opportunity for staff to share with the community and

membership some of VACCA’s fine accomplishments

over the past twelve months. It also fulfils our reporting

responsibilities in reporting on performance outcomes

achieved by the different programs and services offered

to our community and of how the funds have been

administered.

Importantly I want to acknowledge the work of all the

staff within VACCA.The issues impacting on children

involved in the child protection system are becoming

much more complex and there is a lot of media attention

on the child protection system.The nature of the work

means that the Agency is constantly managing risk.

Therefore the Board acknowledges the work undertaken

by staff and want to congratulate everyone for their

contributions over the past 12 months.

In service delivery we now operate 20 programs with an

increased focus this year on better integration both

internally between our own programs and externally with

other services.We have enjoyed significant gains in the

Agency’s commitment to the wellbeing of staff.We have

strengthened our corporate operations with improved

services to our staff.Through the Department of Human

Services Agency Registration process we have a

framework against which to identify and address agency

risks and ensure the quality of services with an ongoing

action plan to ensure VACCA’s ongoing compliance.

VACCA’s work with staff on their training and

development and in delivering sector specific training is

well regarded.The Agencies community role also in

promoting Aboriginal children and families is

demonstrated through activities such as NAIDOC,

National Aboriginal Children’s Day, through camps and

resources such as VACCA’s diaries, posters and videos,

all of which are well received.

VACCA’s policy and advocacy work are well known

within the sector and this work will continue to be a key

focus with funding from ANZ Trustees for us to

undertake policy, research and communication.

There are obviously a number of challenges ahead for

VACCA which include the Departments ongoing reform

of Out of Home Care and its implications on Aboriginal

children across the state. Most significant however will be

the implementation of Aboriginal Cultural Competency

framework for the Child and Family Welfare Sector.

VACCA believes this will put additional pressure on

Aboriginal services to resource this work with no

additional funding, if not funded mainstream Community

Sector Organisations will not be able to meet the

Aboriginal competencies.This we believe can be alleviated

by working with the sector to plan the resource

implications and have an appropriate strategy in place.

In closing I want to thank the staff of VACCA for their

work over the past twelve months particularly in

actioning and working towards the achievement of

VACCA’s strategic plan.With the development of the

Agencies Business Plan we have been able to drive the

directions towards achieving our strategic plan.All

programs have recently completed their annual

operational planning within the objectives of the agencies

strategic plan.These plans demonstrate a commitment

from across the Agency to the broader strategic direction

and clearly indicate a shared vision to achieve better

outcomes for our most vulnerable and at risk.

I trust you enjoy reading the contents of this report and

again congratulations to staff and to Muriel and her

leadership team for their management over the past

twelve months and to my fellow Board members I also

thank you for your efforts over the past twelve months

as well.

Deidre King – Chairperson


CHAIRPERSON – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

1. INTRODUCTIONThe following report is presented to the Victorian

Aboriginal Child Care Agency’s Annual General Meeting.

This year I have spent a huge amount of time out of the

office working on the Northern Territory’s Inquiry into

the child protection system.This was to place enormous

stress and additional work on all the senior managers. So

it is important that I acknowledge and thank them

formally.

This year we were to successfully hand back the child and

family services we ran in Swan Hill to the Swan Hill and

District Aboriginal Health Service. We were also

successful in securing funding from the National

Indigenous Land Corporation for our Moondani building

subject to our raising the additional money required for

the building.

The governmental policy context still offers its own

challenges and opportunities both from the

Commonwealth and State Government, with the

Commonwealth investing additional funding into family

services and with the introduction of new National Child

Protection standards.With more public scrutiny on the

Victorian Child Protection system with the release of the

Ombudsman’s report and with heightened media

attention there is enormous pressure on the state

government of address issues such as workforce,

assessment of carers and supporting grandparents. With

the elections pending there is also an air of uncertainty,

however there has been strong commitment shown by

both sides of government to addressing child protection

issues.

2. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENTAfter many years of stability at VACCA’s executive level

the VACCA senior management were to lose some long

term staff with the resignation of Rebecca O’Dowd and

of long term staff member Sepi Weerasinghe.We have

however been able to secure the services of Kerry

Crawford who has ably fitted in to the position of Early

Intervention and Family Services Executive Manager.

VACCA is currently struggling as are with other child

welfare services to attract staff. Our current staffing is

179 with our vacancies at 37. Given the workforce

challenges experienced by VACCA we have this year

employed a Human Resources Manager, Con Lambros,

with the position of Corporate Manager now a

combination of finance and resource management with a

new title of Business Manager, Bernard Ferre has been

overseeing finance, contract management, information

technology and fleet management.

The senior management team reporting to me as CEO

now includes:

Teresa Hoffman – Executive Support

Connie Salamone – New Programs and Initiatives

Bernard Ferre – Business Unit

Con Lambros – Human Resources

Sue-Ann Hunter – Link Up Program

Peter Lewis – Policy and Research

Kerry Crawford – Early Intervention and Family Services

Suzanne Cleary – Lakidjeka ACSASS

Gwen Rogers – Placement & Support

3. ANALYSIS OF CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM The following data provides for the membership and

community an understanding of how the child protection

system is performing in Victoria.

Reports, investigations, substantiations and new

orders – Aboriginal children

Data from the Department of Human Services indicate

that reports for Aboriginal children are up 5% on 2008-

09 and that reports on unborn children are up 24% to

84.Whilst VACCA’s figures from the Lakidjeka ACSASS

program vary slightly, the data indicates that the figures

are continuing to rise.

Aboriginal children:

Investigations: 1,367 (up 6%)

Substantiations: 814 (up 5%)

New orders: 609 (up 15%)

The following two graphs provide data across all child

protection interventions for Aboriginal children.


CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – AGM REPORT 2009/2010


Diagram 1.

Diagram 2.

Out of home Care

The rate of Aboriginal children in out of home care has

been increasing at a far greater proportion as compared

to non Aboriginal children as demonstrated in the graph

above.

The placement of children in Kinship Care continues to

be the dominant type of out of home care in 2010.With

stronger compliance with the Aboriginal child placement

principle this trend with continue.


Source: AIHW at June each year ** Figure subject to change with updated population projections.

Diagram 3.

Source:AIHW at June each year ** Figure subject to change with updated population projections.

Diagram 4.

Compliance with the Aboriginal

Child Placement Principle

The rate of compliance with the Aboriginal child

placement principle for Victoria is relatively poor.

Currently 42% of Aboriginal children in OOHC are

placed outside of the Aboriginal community.

State of Victoria’s children

Given the above statistics the following three graphs from

the Department of Education and Early Childhood

Development which describe the proportions of the

Aboriginal population in Victoria as a young population

we in the child protection system need to act to stem

the flow of over representation of Aboriginal children in

child protection.

The information contained within the State of Victoria’s

children 2009:Aboriginal children and young people in

Victoria is very rich and I encourage everyone to read or

check it out on the web. Key findings from this document

include:

• 50% of Victorian Aboriginal families are one-parent

families

• 47% have had relatives removed from their natural

family

• 1 in 5 aged 12 to 17 years identify as belonging to

the Stolen Generations

• 79% of adults experienced life stressors in the

previous 12 months

• 75% of children aged 4-14 experienced life stressors

in the previous 12 months

• In regional Victoria, 32% of Aboriginal children aged

4-14 had experienced the death of a close

friend/family member in the last 12 months

The above data demonstrates that as a sector we have

significant challenges ahead and access to good data is

critical to Aboriginal services.We thank the Department

of Human Services and Department Education and Early

Childhood Development for the provision of the above

data.


Diagram 5.


Source: State of Victoriaʼs Aboriginal children – DEECD 2009


Diagram 6.

4. FUNDING VACCA receives funding from the Department of Human

Services (82%), Office of Torres Strait Islander Health

(8%), Families, Housing, Community Services and

Indigenous Affairs (8%),ANZ trust (1%) and interest (1%).

VACCA is in the last of our three years of funding from

the ANZ Trustees for our Policy, Research and

Communications Unit managed by Peter Lewis, we thank

them for their support.

5. AGENCY PLANNING AND PROGRAM REVIEWS VACCA has a strong planning framework in place with

programs undertaking an annual planning process with

the Executive building onto this process with bi-annual

planning to develop the agencies Executive plan.

Currently VACCA is reviewing its management structure

given the growth in the number and range of services

now provided. Gabrielle Burke is undertaking this project.

Broadly with regards to staffing we are finding that as the

organisation grows our structure needs to be continually

reviewed which is common when there is an organisation

is in a constant environment of change. In researching

structures across similar sized service providers it was

found that a number of community service organisations

are also reviewing their structures as a response to

similar issues faced by VACCA.

Last year VACCA was to review its services to the

Southern Metropolitan region with the review

necessitating that the Agency to address the specific

issues identified in the review.Therefore an Executive

Officer for the Eastern Region, Southern and Morwell

region will been established with Gwen Rogers acting in

this position for a period of time to provide stability and

to implement recommendations contained within the

review.

6. COMPLIANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENTLast year VACCA successfully met our legislative

requirements through meeting all of the Agency

Registration standards set by the Department of Human

Services.We know that the child welfare sector is an

environment where risk is a constant particularly when

you are working with the most vulnerable and at risk

within our community.Therefore we have developed and

introduced systems, processes and procedures to

monitor and address both operational and management

risks.

7. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTAs CEO I represent VACCA at numerous forums and

undertake guest speaking on behalf of the agency.This

role is critical to ensure that the issues for Aboriginal

children and families stay prominent in the governments

planning.This has been again a busy year with the Agency

doing presentations at conferences, workshops and

community events.

Our NAIDOC Children’s Day and National Aboriginal

Children’s Day were very successful and well attended

with great support from VACCA staff.



8. FUTURE DIRECTIONSThe future directions of VACCA are heavily influenced by

the broader policy directions of government. However,

there is now more pressing imperatives that are driving

us and they include growing our workforce, fulfilling our

requirements to meet guardianship, strengthening

VACCA’s internal systems and processes, advocating for

appropriate resources and addressing gaps in services for

vulnerable and at risk children, young people and their

families. Furthermore, the importance of trauma informed

case work practice with vulnerable and at risk children

and families has been confirmed by evidence based

research. In the next year, there will be a significant focus

on ensuring that our practice across the agency is in line

with this approach.A challenge in the coming year will be

fulfilling the cultural commitments that will emanate from

the new cultural competency framework for child and

family service providers.

Above all will be our ability to secure the additional

funding required for Moondani so as VACCA can have an

appropriate facility to run our programs and services

from; to have a place where families can come to hold

family days and that is culturally responsive and engaging

of Aboriginal children, young people and families.

CONCLUSIONI would like to close by thanking Teresa for the wonderful

work that she does over the year in providing

administrative support to myself, the Executive team and

the Board of Directors and in organizing the Annual

General Meeting.

I would also like to thank the Executive and Leadership

Group within VACCA for their guidance and support

over the past 12 months.A special thanks to Connie

Salamone and Peter Lewis for their executive support of

my position. I want to thank the Board of Directors and

our chairperson Deidre King for their attention to the

work of the Agency and in delivering on their governance

responsibilities with a professional and dedicated

approach. Finally I want to thank all the staff of VACCA

for a very strong year, so personally I want to thank them

for their contributions.

Muriel Bamblett – Chief Executive Officer


SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING YEARThe Corporate Services Manager’s function has ceased to

exist with all HR functions transferred to a discrete HR

administration.With the Business Unit 2010 can be

considered to be a consolidation year that will lead to the

implementation of various strategies in the business plan.

FINANCE & ACCOUNTINGFinancial results for the year are noted in the audited

financial statements. Legacy from the past resulted in 3

accounting systems being used to run the accounting

systems, payroll and the assets register. It is intended to

develop a strategy that will lead to the acquisition of

financial software, the implementation of which will

greatly assist the function in producing more accurate

analysis and monthly figures in a more expeditious way.

Concurrent with the above a standard chart of accounts

as used by various government agencies will be

implemented.The benefit in adopting the above will be

the ability to transact with these agencies via the use of

standard reporting mechanisms.

The Business Unit continues to review cost competitive-

ness and value for money. Major functions for re-

evaluation include reducing the cost of our suppliers and

contractors, overseeing the procurement process for the

acquisition of goods and services and leasing assets

particularly in the areas of fleet, information technology

and telephony.

FLEET OPERATIONSThe search for a new Fleet Coordinator has commenced.

New strategies were developed to establish layers of

control on the assets that include monitoring the

servicing of vehicles as required by the service register,

monthly checks on petrol usage and electronic tags, and

review of infringements. Drivers that continue to be

involved in at risk behaviour will be sent to a driving

course.

Another cost-cutting strategy revolves around the

reduction of motor vehicle providers from four finance

companies to one. Other benefits will accrue as

streamlining will also result in shifting from large 6-

cylinder cars to a mix of medium sized 4-cylinder vehicles

and smaller vehicles for use in metropolitan areas.

Safety features for cars continue to be a focus of Fleet

with special attention to regular servicing.

Use of mobile phones and I-pods: programs continue to

be reminded of VACCA’s policy on the restricted use of

mobiles. Only voice activated devices are authorized.

A motor vehicle handbook is in draft stage.The

handbook will be made available to all drivers to assist

with their responsibilities. It encapsulates discrete parts of

the policies and procedures manual and will assist with

issues surrounding risk management and Fringe Benefits

Tax.


BUSINESS UNIT – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

INTRODUCTION The Business Manager oversees finance, fleet, legal and compliance, IT and facilities. Principal activities comprise of the

following areas:

Finance and accounting functions Financial Accountant

Payroll Support 3 FTE

Finance Support

Fleet operations Fleet Coordinator 2 FTE

Fleet Support

Legal, compliance & taxation Business Manager 1 FTE

IT services IT Support Officer 1 FTE

Facilities Office Cleaning Team 0.26

(2 staff)

LEGAL, COMPLIANCE & TAXATIONVACCA has succeeded in obtaining exemption from land

tax from the State Revenue Office.An application has

been made for the refund of all taxes paid on the basis

that the organization is a provident benevolent

institution.This will result in a refund of all taxes paid

over 6 years.

VACCA is currently applying to various councils for

exemption from rates. Responses were recently received

from the City of Greater Dandenong that rating

exemption will be granted, however there will be no

claw-back.This is a fastidious exercise as applications

must be made to each council where VACCA conducts

business.

VACCA is exempt from income tax. However all other

Federal taxes apply to the organisation.The Fringe

Benefits Tax report was lodged within the time limit with

the ATO. PAYG and BAS reporting continue to be lodged

on time. I am investigating the implementation of an ATO

process so that tax-related data is lodged on-line.This

step will streamline the reporting mechanism and reduce

manual intervention.

Difficult legal issues continue to be referred to lawyers

Blake Dawson for assistance.

The organisation was subject to 3 break-ins since the

beginning of the calendar year and claims for

reinstatement are with the underwriters.Additional

measures were introduced to limit access to the

buildings.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYIT is assessing the pathway leading to the replacement of

file servers. In IT terms the servers have reached the

term of their obsolescence and will need to be replaced.

A business case must be developed and approval sought

from the Board. In essence the new file server must be

able to cope with growth over the next 4 years and

include sufficient flexibility to accommodate other

locations and new technology, for example a

comprehensive accounting and reporting software.

Document management will become a feature of

VACCA’s IT operations.The way in which the

organization will manage electronic documentation will

be more secure and accessible to store and maintain

confidential organizational information.

Some of the challenges yet to be resolved within the

Document Management and Control proposal are ways

in which regional sites will be able to access generic

organization information.The Corporate Services team is

working closely with our IT providers to seek a solution

to this issue.

File server replacement and IT requirements will be

paramount in 2010/2011 budget discussions.This may

require resources additional to those noted in the

preamble above.

The overall costs may be distributed to programs on the

basis of the number of computers used by each program

as being the most equitable way of sharing the load.This

will be a one-off cost.

FACILITIES The Wurruk Avenue property in Preston currently is the

home of the Link-Up program.All insurance covers were

reviewed with the underwriters. Property insurances

were adjusted as necessary to reflect current values of

computer equipment and chattels in the process of risk

management.

Regular discussions are held with the occupiers of

Southern VACCA and Morwell to assist with matters that

affect the use of their property, for example issues with

safety and air conditioners.

CONCLUSIONCorporate Services will need to have a more public

profile in coming years. One such initiative will be regular

meetings between administration staff from East

Brunswick and those from Dandenong & Morwell offices

to re-inforce lines of communication, ie who does what

and build in an understanding the dynamics of running an

organisation. It is proposed that meetings will be IT

driven to reduce travelling time and costs.

Bernard Ferre’ – Business Manager


INTRODUCTIONThe Human Resources Program within VACCA continues

to evolve and progress throughout 2010.The employment

of a Human Resources Manager in early 2010 enabled the

organisation to focus on strategic priorities whilst also

consolidating on the day-to-day operational requirements

of the organisation via its established HR Coordinator.

Policy development in light of legislative change (Fair Work

Act and The National Employment Standards), process

improvement and a move towards strategic priorities has

been some of the highlights of the year. Major pay parity

(Equal Pay) endorsed by our sector, organisation and the

federal government, may assist in addressing the

challenges the Agency and the sector faces.

Occupational Health and Safety continues to be a strong

focus for the Agency.The recent legislative changes have

put greater onus on the organisation to mitigate work

place injury and illness and to report on any near miss

and all incidents. Paula Crilly, the Agency’s HR

Coordinator has been taking the lead in ensuring that all

incidents are investigated and reported on.

The Human Resources Program focuses on continuous

improvement in all aspects of the work it has undertaken.

The following represents the initiatives it has undertaken:

1. Establishing a strong operational HR function that is

responsive and informative and supportive to

manager and staff needs in relevant people related

areas. Example – employee relations, industrial

relations, recruitment, agency registration, occupa-

tional health and safety and policy interpretation.

2. Attraction and Retention – Further implementing

the priorities from the Workforce Development

Strategy.

3. Developing comprehensive policies and procedures

that ensure that the Agency complies with legislative

changes brought upon by the Fair Work Act 2009.

4. Assisting with the Agency’s focus on Records

Management and Document Control.

5. Supporting the Agency’s implementation of Risk

Management processes including the drafting of the

Agency Risk Management plan.

6. Driving the Agency’s OH&S processes.

7. Supporting the Southern and Morwell offices.

8. Ensuring that Agency registration needs from a

Human Resources perspective remain at the

forefront.

9. Providing sound advice regarding change as a result

of program review or restructure.

10. CEO and Executive support.

Operational Focal points this year have included:

• Fair Work Act Policy changes and implementation

• Equal Pay action

• Fit 4 Work

• The Koorie job fair and the establishment of regular

recruitment forums

• Review of Residential Care staff contracts and

remuneration

• Continual promotion of Salary packaging

• Provision of prompt support to managers and staff

regarding queries, investigations and legal advice

1. STAFFINGThe Human Resources team is made up of the Manager,

the HR Coordinator and the receptionist.The Human

Resources team works closely with the Finance, Fleet and

the NP&I team.

2. PROGRAM OVERVIEWIn working closely with internal stakeholders the Human

Resources team was able to focus on identified objectives

and priorities aligned to the organisation’s strategic

priorities, operational requirements and the Workforce

Development Strategy.

The following represent the milestones and achievements:

2.1 Accreditation

The Accreditation process in March, identified specific

continued areas of focus for the Human Resources team

regarding personnel file recording and upkeep,

compulsory pre-screening (Police and Working With

Children Check) and training record keeping.

Since accreditation, the Human Resources Coordinator,

Paula Crilly and our administrative assistant, Jacinta Smith

developed a personnel database tool.This will allow the

Agency to address personnel file (key document)

anomalies in a proactive manner.


HUMAN RESOURCES UNIT – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

2.2 Attraction and Recruitment

The organisation has continued to experience challenges

regarding turnover in some of the operational programs

of the Agency. During this time the human resources unit

has diversified its approach to attraction and recruitment

by looking to different mechanisms to attract and recruit

staff. Importantly, the review of remuneration, the focus on

bridging the competitive gap between the Agency and the

mainstream organisations and the continual focus on fair-

ness, flexibility and staff wellbeing remain at the forefront.

Participation in job fairs, the updated Agency career

webpage, the use of alternative job boards and the focus

on tailored campaigns for particular programs have

allowed the Agency to maintain its commitment to

fulfilling its workforce requirements.

The emergence of a regular cross Agency discussion

forum focussing on recruitment enables managers to

share their recruitment positives, promote candidates for

roles and outline other tactical strategies.

Continual process improvement in the area of induction

and orientation for all new staff members has been a

priority for the HR Coordinator. Ensuring that all new

staff members receive all relevant information as part of

their first day with the Agency has become the norm.An

example of this is the introduction of the ‘Fit to Work’

online pre-screening tool.This has allowed new and

existing staff members to apply for a Police Check online

and receive a response within a short time.

2.3 Staff Retention (Workforce Capability

Framework)

Addressing key elements of The Workforce Development

Strategy has been another imperative throughout the

year.The establishment of the Office of the Community

Sector,Workforce Capability Reference group and the

development of the Workforce Capability Framework is

seen as a beneficial tool that can be customised

accordingly.The Agency has established a Workforce

Capability Reference group made up of members

representing all programs.

The outcomes of the Agency having a Workforce

Capability framework are to define competencies and

career paths for staff, to systematically address training

needs, progression and remuneration challenges. In late

2010 the Agency will implement its second Staff

Satisfaction survey.

Opportunities in 2011 will include the development and

implementation of the VACCA Workforce Capability

Framework, remuneration (pay parity) review across

programs and the development of various tools.

2.4 Policy changes and implementation

Due to the introduction of the Fair Work Act and the

accompanying National Employment Standards,VACCA

reviewed, amended and implemented Human Resource

Policies addressing leave entitlements, flexible working

arrangements and other areas. Policies reviewed include,

Annual Leave, Personal Leave, Compassionate Leave and

Special Leave.This has continued with the introduction of

the new Parental Leave entitlements.

I’d like to thank Paula Crilly, the HR Coordinator in her

role in assisting staff in regards to these policy changes.

Paula advocates positively for staff member needs by

balancing the Agency imperatives with the needs of

individual staff members.

2.5 Employee and Industrial Relations

The new Modern Awards cover approximately 90% of the

Agency’s workforce.Transitioning to these awards has

occurred via consultation with management and staff.

In regards to employee relations, the Human Resources

unit has been able to respond promptly to all relevant

incidents and make appropriate recommendations that

assist managers to take appropriate action.The Human

Resources unit has worked closely with industry

providers in SIAG and with our pro bono legal team.A

strong positive has been the eagerness of staff across

different programs to engage and work with HR across

different issues and projects.

This is a reflection of the commitment that people such

as Paula Crilly and Brenda Young, from the NP&I unit have

had at the ground level and that the Executive has

displayed in its promotion of the HR function.

2.6 Records Management

This year the Agency has continued to invest in ensuring

that its Records Management reflects the past and

adheres to current best practice principles.

Due to the extensive work completed by Brenda Young

regarding Document Control and in addition a positive

partnership with The One Umbrella Group,VACCA has

drafted a Records Management framework that will guide

it in ensuring that its Records Management actions

(Archiving, record keeping, document control) are met

over the next year.


3. STAFF WELLBEINGDue to the fantastic work of the NP&I team in

establishing this program the Agency was recognised by

the Victorian government as a Fair and Flexible employer.

This will remain part of our attraction branding on our

advertisements and within our website.

The Staff Wellbeing program has been the domain of the

NP&I team however this year the Human Resources

team has taken on responsibility for certain aspects of

this.This includes all components that are linked to

Human Resources such as the staff review and

recognition process, Executive wellbeing, study leave,

higher duties and secondments.

An opportunity for the organisation in 2011 will be the

establishment of a tailored Employee Assistance Program.

Ideally, this program will promote the usage of debriefing

and counselling services and will provide these services

to staff in a confidential and prompt manner.

4. RISK MANAGEMENT AND PLANNINGAs part of the Accreditation process, Human Resources

worked in partnership with members of the NP&I team

to meet the Agency Registration requirements regarding

risk management.This meant that the Agency had an

organisational risk management plan in place and each

program had its own risk management plan in place.

Brenda Young has worked diligently in assisting the

programs to develop their risk management plans with

the Executive taking responsibility for ensuring they are

implemented.

Over the next year a structured planning process will be

developed allowing the agency to plan activities in

advance and to ensure all of its business, strategic

operational and risk management planning requirements

are met.

5. EXECUTIVE WELLBEINGIn June, the Executive as part of a retreat identified

Executive Wellbeing as a key risk for the organisation.A

plan was put forward to review the Executive structure.

The impacts and ramifications of this review will require

the hands on assistance of HR in regards to managing the

change.

Another key decision from the retreat was to put actions

into place to support Executive wellbeing including work

life balance initiatives and support mechanisms.

6. ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIESAs a small team, the challenges that HR faces are

balancing the day-to-day operational requirements with

the ongoing strategic priorities. Some of our issues and

opportunities are to work closer with the finance team

(payroll) in developing meaningful leave, turnover and

headcount reports.An ongoing challenge is with the

Payroll system and its capabilities.

To date the finance team and in particular Truc Pham and

Hemantha Angampitiya have provided excellent support

and assistance regarding reporting requirements.A real

solution for the organisation is to consider a Human

Resources Management Information system that will

provide HR, Managers and staff with data and meaningful

reports.

Due to the restructuring of the Corporate Services

program there has not been a dedicated Corporate

Administration Officer.This has meant that certain tasks

are spread across Finance and HR. In April we welcomed

the commencement of Toni McLaughlin as our

receptionist.Toni has been a positive and productive

inclusion to the Agency.

Future Directions

A key direction for the Human Resources unit will be to

assist the Agency in addressing its succession planning and

leadership needs over the next few years.The

organisation has demonstrated that it is committed to

providing appropriate and value-driven training, coaching

and support for its current and future leaders.

Leveraging from the capability framework and the positive

work completed to date by the Learning and

Development team will allow HR to make key

recommendations regarding the Learning and

Development needs in regards to managerial and

leadership competency building.

The Human Resources unit will continue to support and

provide advice to all management and staff regarding

people related questions or issues.Additionally, the unit

will provide Executive support and advice to the CEO

and Executive Team regarding Risk Management, OH&S,

Employee/Industrial Relations and Organisational

Development.

As the Executive Manager of the Human Resources team

I would like to acknowledge and thank Paula Crilly,Toni

McLaughlin, Brenda Young and Jacinta Smith for the work

they do. Paula has continued her strong focus on process

improvement and OH&S. Highlights this year have been

her strong relationship with our Insurance provider


CGU, the Koorie Job Fair, her recruitment links within

the community and her promotion and advocacy of staff

matters.

Brenda has provided excellent administration support

regarding Risk Management, Records Management and

Property services.Toni has developed positively as a new

staff member and has become a reliable, friendly and

positive face for the Agency on reception. Jacinta has

provided efficient and positive administration and

reception support as required. Importantly the entire HR

team has continued to meet the requirements of its

customers and looks forward to the opportunities of the

upcoming year.

Finally I’d like to thank the Board, Muriel, the Executive

and staff across the Agency for welcoming me into the

VACCA workforce and for appreciating the hard work

and commitment of the HR unit demonstrated via the

development of positive working relationships.

Con Lambros – Executive Manager


INTRODUCTIONThe capacity to adapt to the many new challenges that

face the child and family welfare sector, responding to the

demands on the agency and assist its staff and most

importantly striving to meet the needs of the Aboriginal

community have been evident in the work that the unit

has undertaken this past year.

The program seeks to make a positive contribution

through a range of diverse activities such as:

• Undertaking project based initiatives

• Cultural strengthening activities

• Group based community engagement programs

• Promoting staff wellbeing

• Lead responsibility for VACCA’s compliance to

agency registration requirements

• Advocating and promoting the public voice of

VACCA

• Strong involvement in VACCA’s lead agency

functions

• Community education and publicity

• Training and learning development for both VACCA

staff and the child and family welfare sector

• Policy and planning development for both VACCA

and the broader Indigenous child and family welfare

sector.

• Executive support to the CEO.

This year the unit has also been involved in overseeing a

number of VACCA’s operational programs.

STAFFThe Unit has traditionally employed people to undertake

specific projects and activities as well as having a small

core group of very dedicated permanent staff.The

demands placed on the unit are such that now the

employment of more permanent staff, including

permanent part time staff is common.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

1. PROMOTING STAFF WELLBEINGOver the past 12 months the training unit has been

involved in the development and delivery of a range of

staff well being and training programs.

Particular achievements include:

Cultural Wellbeing and Self Care

Regular events to support and build our cultural

wellbeing and staff self care have been held.A monthly

calendar is produced that includes monthly staff meetings,

key national and international dates and anniversaries,

dates of our staff wellbeing lunches and cultural films as

well as any monthly staff training opportunities.

VACCA’s two-day Induction program

This is a two-day program for all new staff in the agency

to provide staff with a broad understanding of the work

of VACCA.

Over the past 12 months we have conducted 4 Induction

programs, with a total of 63 staff completing the course.

Feedback continues to be positive through evaluations

staff state that they gain a greater understanding and

knowledge of the work of VACCA and of their role in

making a positive difference to the lives of Aboriginal

children and their families.

Study Leave

One of the programs of our staff wellbeing policy is to

support staff in gaining nationally recognised minimum

qualifications relevant to the child and family welfare

sector.

This year VACCA has supported staff members to attend

various courses including those held at Kangan TAFE to

study Certificate 4 in Protective Care. In additional to the

TAFE course, 3 staff members have been supported to

study the Graduate Diploma and the Graduate

Certificate in Child and Family Practice at La Trobe

University.There are also regular support group meetings

and direct outreach support for students.


NEW PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES UNIT– AGM REPORT 2009/2010

Certificate 11 in First Aid

The Certificate II in First Aid was held at the Link Up

office.The Indigenous Education Centre from Kangan

TAFE delivered the course and reported that 20 staff

members completed the course.

Certificate I and II in Information Technology

There are currently 12 staff enrolled in Certificate II and

5 who have commenced training and completed a

number of units; 22 staff enrolled in Certificate I in IT and

11 have completed the course.This year there has been a

focus on reaching our non Brunswick based staff.

Mental Health First Aid Training

VACCA, in partnership with VACCHO, have provided

Mental Health First Aid training.The training provides

staff with the confidence to recognise the early signs of

mental health problems, and apply the appropriate

intervention strategies.

Supervision Training Program – Making the

Most of Supervision

It was hoped that VACCA’s revised supervision program

with updated guidelines and training for staff and

supervisors would be rolled out in 2010. Unfortunately

due to other pressures, this work is still in progress and

will now be completed in 2011.

Introduction to Case Work Practice

A 3 day workshop was developed to support new staff

employed at VACCA in case work practices.The training

is called:Tjamara’s Story – How Deadly VACCA Case

Workers Make a Difference.

This training covers the foundations of case work

practice, the importance of documentation and particular

program requirements. For example, the Placement and

Support Program requires case workers to understand

and complete the Looking After Children (LAC)

documents.This training is yet to be rolled out.

All Staff In-service:What Staff Wellbeing Means

For Us at VACCA

This was a very successful in-service with 96 staff in

attendance.The in-service focus was staff wellbeing.

2. EXTERNAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

The Training Unit also provides external development and

training such as:

One Day Workshop: Introduction to Working

with Aboriginal Children, Families and Workers

in the Child and Family Welfare Sector

This one-day workshop is based on our 2006 publication:

Working with Aboriginal Children and Families:A Guide

for Child Protection and Child and Family Welfare

Workers. Over the past year the training team have

conducted 11 workshops.A total of 270 people attended

the training from a range of organizations such as Care

Connections, DHS, Relationships Australia, mainstream

child and family welfare providers including residential

staff. Feedback continues to be very positive.

‘Nikara’s Journey’ – Caring for Aboriginal

Children in Out of Home Care

This two day training program developed for non-

Aboriginal carers in Victoria who are currently caring for

an Aboriginal child in out of home care is based on the

VACCA/DHS 2005 publication: Caring for Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Children in out of Home Care.

Over the past year this training has been delivered on 4

occasions to 33 non-Aboriginal carers who requested via

their foster care agencies to attend this training. Feedback

continues to be very positive.

Aboriginal Cultural Competence Training

VACCA has delivered this training on 16 occasions across

Victoria throughout 2010.The training was based on

VACCA’s Aboriginal Cultural Competence Framework.A

total of 410 people attended the workshops.

Dr Bruce Perry

Bruce D Perry, MD, PhD, is an internationally-recognized

authority on children in crisis. Dr Perry is the Provincial

Medical Director in Children’s Mental Health for the

Alberta Mental Health Board. In addition, he is the Senior

Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy, a Houston-based

organization dedicated to research and education on

child maltreatment.

VACCA and Berry Street’s Take Two Program hosted a

morning session with Dr Perry for Aboriginal

organizations’ staff, focusing on the impact of trauma for

Indigenous communities.


Introduction to Family Violence Training

A one day training package was delivered to VACCA’s

Morwell team, which was well received.

A further one day training package was delivered to

workers in the Gippsland region for which 25 workers

attended from agencies such as Anglicare, Salvation Army,

Police and Aboriginal community workers.The training

also included a cross cultural awareness component.

The evaluation outcomes indicated that it was highly

successful.A further workshop is planned later this year

as an additional 30 workers have registered their interest

in attending the family violence training.

GEGAC Supervision training

The unit was involved in the delivery of a 2 day

workshop on Supervision to GEGAC staff and VACCA

Morwell program.

3. STATE-WIDE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENTINITIATIVES

VACCA has been commissioned by DHS to develop the

following state-wide program resources:

Case contracting guidelines for Aboriginal services - this

guide is to assist Aboriginal services assume contracted

case management for Aboriginal children in a range of

home based care options

Kinship Care Guide for DHS – this guide is for Child

Protection Practitioners to assist them make culturally

informed assessments of kinship care placements for

Aboriginal children.

4. COMMUNICATION/MARKETING PROJECTSThe Unit also has responsibility for the Agencies

communication and marketing and have coordinated:

Agency Newsletter/Staff Bulletin

Staff bulletins are now being distributed to staff on a bi-

monthly basis and based on feedback, the bulletins are

very popular throughout the organisation.The bulletin

plays a key role in assisting staff to stay abreast of

activities at VACCA.

Website Development

VACCA’s website redevelopment was completed in early

2010 and on average has recorded approximately 400 hits

a week.There has been a steady flow of resource

requests, job applications, carer enquiries and general

requests for assistance.

General VACCA Information Brochure

An information brochure has been developed to

complement the website.The website provides general

advice about VACCA’s history, identity and services.

5. CULTURAL RESOURCES The Unit as part of its ongoing role has developed

cultural resources such as:

Cultural Diary

Cultural diaries for Aboriginal children in care were

produced for the 2010 year. New diaries are currently

being finalized for the 2011 year.The diaries have been

extremely popular with a range of age groups and by

both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal services.As in

previous years the diaries will provide both cultural and

useful school information.

Cultural Rights project

VACCA has been commissioned by DHS to work with

Berry St and th Create Foundation to develop resources

to promote the rights of children in care.A range of

products specifically for Aboriginal children and young

people have been developed.While some products are

finished, others are in the final stages of completion -

these include: a bedtime story book for young children,

posters for both girls and boys and a book for teenagers.

Foster Carer DVD

Work has commenced on the development of a Foster

Carer DVD which will be used in community workshops

with potential foster carers.Award winning filmmaker

Richard Frankland has agreed to produce the film which

will aim to encourage more people to become foster

carers.

Including Children Project

VACCA is involved in the “Including Children Project”, an

initiative of the Department of Human Services that aims

to widely promote the Charter of Rights for Children in

Out of Home Care and assist in ensuring that the

Charter is being embedded into the policy and practice

of community service organisations in the sector. VACCA

will produce:


• An Entry to Care Overnight Bag with both

practical and cultural resources for our young

people who are new to care.

• Two Posters that promote the rights of children

and young people in Out of Home Care, one aimed

at Aboriginal boys and one aimed at Aboriginal girls.

• Four Postcards promoting the rights of children

and young people in care, providing contact details

for VACCA and other ACCO’s.These postcards will

be widely circulated throughout Aboriginal and

mainstream services.

• A Booklet that will be developed by VACCA with a

group of Aboriginal young people currently in care

that will promote the rights of children and young

people in Out of Home Care in the language of our

young people.This will be aimed at 12+ year olds.

• Night time Children’s Storybook aimed at

children under 12 years of age.

• Board game based on the Children’s Storybook

aimed at children under 12 years of age.

The Create Foundation and Berry Street are also

involved in this initiative and will be producing additional

resources for children, young people and services.These

resources will be circulated early next year.

Parenting Posters and Postcards

VACCA partnered with SNAICC to develop 2 posters

and 4 postcards for the Department of Education and

Early Childhood Development and these are expected to

be circulated later this year.

6. PROGRAM SUPPORT This year the Unit has been more involved in the

operations of the Agency through:

Residential Care

The NPI unit has been heavily involved in the ongoing

development of VACCA’s Residential Care program by

monitoring Residential Care for a 2 month period.

Currently unit staff are also assisting the program to

enhance its service in a few key domains.

Swan Hill Transfer

In February 2010 VACCA’s Swan Hill Child and Family

Services transferred to the Swan Hill Aboriginal Health

Service.The unit project managed the transfer. Currently

VACCA provides funds to the Health Service to run a

local Swan Hill playgroup.

Link Up

Since mid year the unit has also been directly involved in

a number of tasks with the Link Up program.

Family Services and Early Intervention

Since mid year the unit has monitored the Family

Services and Early Intervention programs and has been

involved in a number of tasks, in particular the

establishment of the Family Coaching Victoria pilot for

both the North West and Southern region pilots.

Morwell office

Since mid year the unit has been involved in assisting the

Morwell Office undertake community consultation

regarding the establishment of a family violence facility for

women and children in the La Trobe Valley.

Kinship Care Program

Since mid year the unit has participated in reviewing

the best structural arrangements for the program, in

preparation for the complete kinship care program

roll out.

Community Services Organization/HASS

registration standards

The Community Service Organisation Agency

Registration audit was conducted by QICSA on behalf of

DHS and took place between 9-12 March 2010. One of

the most significant achievements of the year was that

VACCA fully met all community services organization

standards, as well as the HASS standards.The Unit took a

lead role in this activity.

Transfer of Guardianship and Case Contracting

The program has been heavily involved in progressing

VACCA’s capacity to take on case contracting in the

North West and Southern regions.The unit also has

agency responsibility for progressing the transfer of

guardianship at a central and regional level.A regional

action plan has been developed in conjunction with DHS

in the North West region to progress this activity.


7. MAJOR PROJECTS The Unit has a number of major projects for which is has

responsibility for:

Kurnai Youth Homelessness

A Kurnai Youth Homelessness program manual is

currently being finalized.This will be followed by the

development of an Indigenous Family Violence program

manual.

Moondani

An application to the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC)

was completed this year. Consequently VACCA was

advised that the ILC had approved an “in-principle” grant

of $3 million for the Moondani project.The ILC stipulated

that the grant would be provided on the condition that

the balance of funding for Moondani’s construction would

be raised by VACCA within 2 years.A Plan to meet this

target is in preparation and will be presented to the

VACCA Board at their next meeting in October 2010.

Induction package for Residential staff

The unit is currently developing a computer based

induction package for new residential staff.

Aboriginal Adolescent Community Placement

House

The unit was involved in the establishment of the

Aboriginal Adolescent Community Placement House and

assisted staff with the development of the program

manual, a program budget and other practicalities such as

buying furniture.

Induction package for Board of Directors

The unit annually with the CEO delivers induction to new

Board of Directors.

Organizational restructure

The unit has been responsible for developing a new

organizational structure to better accommodate service

expansion whilst maintaining a strong commitment to

providing accessible and appropriate services for

Aboriginal children and families.A draft structure for the

Board to consider should be completed by the end of

November 2010.

Closing the Gap

VACCA was successful in receiving the Closing the

Health Gap funding as one of six priority projects in the

North & West Metropolitan Region in May 2010. Our

project, entitled Culturally Strong Koorie Kids Having

Fun, is a series of programs run throughout the year and

involves working with children and families connected to

VACCA and the broader community of the North West

Region in Melbourne.

The Project consists of:

• Recreation Program in collaboration with

MAYSAR and VAHS – This is an 8 week program

including a physical activity component, nutrition

component and song writing component where the

students write jingles to promote healthy life styles.

The songs will be recorded to play on 3KND.The

program is run in schools.

• Cooking and Life Skills Program – This is a 6

week program run at MAYSAR which will include

cooking sessions, budgeting, physical fitness, nutrition

and holistic health.The aim is to support families and

young people in learning about ways to live a healthy

lifestyle and support them with ideas and networks.

• Cultural Camps – VACCA collaborated with

Edmund Rice Camps to run a camp in the

September holidays with 12 children from Extended

Care and Residential Care.The camp was held at

Camp Manyung in Mt Eliza and the cultural program

was run by Carolyn Briggs and Jacob Boehme.

• Cultural Arts Program with Stan Dryden –

Stan Dryden is running painting and didgeridoo

making and decorating sessions with children in the

schools in conjunction with VACCA, who will run

the Recreation program.Art is seen as a healing

activity and integral part of a holistic approach to

health.

• Healthy Eating Circus Program with Westside

Circus – VACCA is collaborating with Westside

Circus and Victorian Aboriginal Health Service to run

two 8 week healthy eating programs.The first

program ran successfully with children referred from

the Family Support Program.The children were

engaged in circus training as well as learning more

about themselves.

Child Wise Sexual Assault Booklet

VACCA contracted a consultant to assist in the

development of a booklet for Aboriginal parents and

carers in relation to sexual assault of children.


VACCA Data Base – Professional Development

and Qualifications

The VACCA data base has now been developed to

include the names of all staff.The data base will also

register professional development and workshops

attended, as well as other academic achievements staff

may have acquired.All staff must now produce of copy of

their qualifications for their achievements to be entered

on the data base.

The data base is now the responsibility of HR to update

as staff members join VACCA and current staff complete

workshops or gain qualifications.

8. PARTNERSHIPSVACCA has a number of partnerships across the Agency.

The Unit has a number of strong partnerships:

Building Respectful Partnerships project

A practice guide on enhancing the cultural competency of

mainstream agencies has now been printed.This project

was undertaken in partnership with Berry Street and

MacKillop Family Services.A launch of the guide will

occur later this year.

Take Two

The unit continues to represent VACCA on the

governance body of Take Two and provides input into the

program to enhance its services to Aboriginal children,

young people and their families.

The development of Child and Family Practice

Grad Cert/Diploma

The unit, in conjunction with the Policy, Research and

Communication unit, continues to represent VACCA on

the governance body of the consortium.

Small Talk

In conjunction with the Policy, Research and

Communication team, the unit continues to represent

VACCA on the governance body of the Take Two, La

Trobe and VACCA consortium.The consortium aims to

develop and pilot a screening tool for assessing language

concerns that can be administrated by non-speech

therapists.

Pro Bono Partnerships

Blake Dawson Legal Services and Support

Program

Blake Dawson has assisted VACCA through the

provision of legal advice in areas as diverse as contract

preparation, court skills training, property leases and

industrial advice.

NAB Simon Wilson

NAB has assisted VACCA with the preparation of a

Business Case in support of our Indigenous Land

Corporation application for Moondani.

Nelson Alexander Real Estate

Nelson Alexander has provided us with real estate advice,

particularly for our Indigenous Land Corporation

application for Moondani.

9. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT GROUP PROGRAMSBuilding on the success of the Koorie FACES program

which has been run in previous years, we have attracted

funding for the following community group programs:

Koorie FACES Facilitators Training

This year the training team had planned to run 2 Koorie

FACES programs at the Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Co-

operative and the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-

operative. However, the programs have been delayed due

to these agencies having other commitments. It is hoped

the roll out of the training will take place during this

calendar year.

Linking In

This group program was completed by the end of the last

calendar year.The evaluation report indicated that it was

a highly successful and popular program. Linking In

focuses on cultural healing for members of the Stolen

Generations and enables participants to explore issues

such as the impact of colonization on the Aboriginal

community and related issues of grief, loss and trauma.

The Program also encourages participants to become

involved in a range of cultural activities from arts and

crafts to smoking ceremonies and visiting culturally

important sites. Participants are also involved in health

and well being activities such as learning basic relaxation

techniques.


Koorie Women Know Best

This pilot program was developed and facilitated for women

involved in family violence situations.The program sensitively

informs women on what constitutes family violence, and

improving family communication.The program also

encourages participation in cultural activities such as

weaving and painting.The program was implemented late

last year and evaluation reports indicated that it was very

successful.With modifications, it is intended to roll out

this program again early next year in the Gippsland region.

10. CULTURAL STRENGTHENING ACTIVITIES FOR ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

This year the Unit assumed responsibility for organising

this year’s National Aboriginal and Islander Children’s Day

Event to celebrate National Aboriginal and Islander

Children’s Day held on the 4th of August each year.The

feedback received indicated that the event was a great

success and was extremely well attended.

11. PUBLIC VOICE ACTIVITIESThe unit has taken a lead role in facilitating VACCA’s

public voice activities. Our staff have been involved in

many forums.A selection of the diversity of activities is

highlighted below:

• Presentations on VACCA’s staff wellbeing policy

• Cross Cultural Awareness training highlighting the

differences between mainstream CSO’s and VACCA

• Presentations on the cross cultural competence

framework that VACCA developed

• Delivery of the cultural competence framework

across region

• Facilitated discussion at the VPS Indigenous Network

Conference with participants on – The Place I Want

to Work – Inclusive Workplaces’.The staff wellbeing

and cultural competence framework were presented

to participants.

12. SUBMISSIONSThe unit was responsible for or had significant input into

the following submissions:

• Aboriginal Placement Prevention and Family

Reunification program for both the North West and

Southern region.

• Prepared Funding Applications to the National

Australia Bank and to the Commonwealth

Government on behalf of Link-Up.

13. EXECUTIVE SUPPORT TO THE CEOThe program continues to be involved in providing high

level policy and program advice to the CEO across a

broad range of areas:

• Organizational structure – the development of a

new organizational structure whilst timely and

needed will be unsettling for the unit staff as it is likely

that the unit will be absorbed into larger programs.

• Funding – the program often struggles to attract

funding for innovative projects or for the

development of cultural resources.

• Demand management – the program often

struggles to meet all demands from its key

stakeholders and must prioritize the activities it can

undertake.

• Statewide program development – there is on-

going uncertainty as to whether VACCA will continue

to be asked to undertake statewide work as our

relationship with government is ad hoc and episodic.

• Cultural competence and cultural awareness

training – there has been significant interest in

VACCA’s training by mainstream services and

government.A more comprehensive approach,

including a suite of tools, is required that will require

significant agency resources without any assurance

that funding will be gained for the activity.

14. FUNDINGThe program is largely funded by VACCA’s corporate

levy.We do not have a fixed program budget and we fund

projects through the levy and through attracting specific

project funds.

In the 2009-10 year we received funding from the

following sources:

• The Federal Department of Environment,Water

Heritage and the Arts provided partial funding to

host a North West Children and Young Peoples

Cultural festival

• DHS North West Aboriginal Family Violence Funds –

the funds contributed to meeting the costs of the

Cultural Festival

• DHS Child Protection – the funds contributed to

meeting the costs of the Cultural Festival

• DHS Child Protection – VACCA received funding to

develop the case contracting guidelines and the

guide to assist Child Protection to undertake

assessments of kinship care placements for

Aboriginal children


• Berry Street and MacKillop provide funding for the

Building Respectful Partnerships Project

• VACCA receives a partnership funding contribution

from Take Two Berry Street as part of discharging

our governance responsibilities towards the program

• Link Up program funding to undertake a number of

tasks

• DHS funding for the development of Child and

Family Practice Grad Cert/Dip (cultural component

only)

• DHS funding to develop cultural resources for

children in care

• DEECD funding to produce pro family posters and

postcards

• FAHCSIA for Closing the Gap initiative

• DHS ACP establishment funding.

• Grant application to Leith Trust for Cultural Camps

• FAHCSIA funding for Koorie FACES

15. FUTURE DIRECTIONSAs the report highlights, this year has seen the unit

involved in many complex activities.

As this is likely to be the last New Programs and

Initiatives annual report, I would like to personally thank

all the current and past staff for their hard work, passion

and commitment.The current staff I would like to thank

are: Bev Murray, Brenda Young, Chrisie Warren, Megan

Cadd-Van Den Berg, Martine Lynch, Nigel D’Souza, Kylie

Duggan,Alli-Jade Briggs, Maureen Hogarty, Gabrielle

Burke, Sarah Diplock and Rene Sephton. I would also like

to acknowledge all the great work of past staff and in

particular thank Emma Bamblett and Sue Anne Hunter.

As a manager I have been extremely fortunate to work

with many talented and committed staff. I have also been

fortunate in being able to work closely with Muriel who

has played a key role in the unit’s success.

Connie Salamone – Executive Manager


INTRODUCTIONThe Policy, Research and Communication Unit was

formally established in July 2008 after VACCA received

three year funding of $450 000 from the ANZ Bank

Trustees’ Victorian Aboriginal Granting Program,

specifically the Ella and Mitchell Brazier Fund, the Sir John

Minoque, Leigh and Marjorie Bronwen Murray Trusts, and

the GT and L Potter Charitable Trust.

The staff in the unit are:

• Peter Lewis – Manager

• Richard Frankland – Aboriginal Research

Development Co-ordinator (0.8 EFT)

• Robin Trotter – Project Officer

The aims of the unit include:

• Expanding and maintaining policy, research and

communication capacity for VACCA

• Enabling VACCA to undergo research projects

according to its strategic objectives

• Enabling VACCA to develop an approach to research

which is informed by Aboriginal cultural norms and

academic standards

• Developing and disseminating research findings

which promote Aboriginal cultural resilience and

therefore have a positive impact on government

policy formation

The key unit achievements include:

• Successful completion of a major project on cultural

safety including Victoria wide Aboriginal community

consultations to create a framework for future

advocacy and research

• Ongoing participation in research partnerships with

La Trobe University and Melbourne University

• Policy submissions to Federal and State

Governments

• Research and community consultations into the

cultural dimensions of Aboriginal Guardianship

(Section 18) funded by DHS due for completion

next year

POLICYThe unit provides ongoing policy advice and

conference/speech presentation and policy submission

drafting to the CEO.The

submissions/conferences/workshops include:

• Submission to the Victorian Law Commission Inquiry

into Child Protection

• Submission to Ombudsman Inquiries into Child

Protection and Out-of –Home Care

• Submission into DEECD Health and Wellbeing

Framework.

• Ongoing participation in Futures Exercise Working

group with DHS,AAV, OATSIH

• Participating in Victorian State of Children Report

development which this year is focused on Aboriginal

children.

• AIDA Healing OUR Way Keynote in October 09

• VPS Indigenous Network Conference in October 09

• Magistrates Conference in October 09

• Lecture at Melbourne University in November 09

• APPCAN Conference Master Class Presentation in

Perth in November 09 (Presented by Richard

Frankland and myself)

• Family Violence Forum in November 09

• NSW Aboriginal Secretariat on Child and Family

Welfare Conference in November 09

• 2009 Human Rights Oration in December

• Lecture for Social Work students at LaTrobe

University April 10

• Lecture for Speech Therapists (Presented by Sue

Anne Hunter) April 10

• Lectures for Graduate Diploma/Graduate Certificate

in Child and Family Welfare

• AIFS Conference in Melbourne July 10

• SNAICC Conference in Alice Springs July 10

• NAIDOC Week speeches July 10


POLICY, RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATIONS UNIT – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

RESEARCHThe unit undertook a major research project on cultural

safety with Richard Frankland and Robin Trotter and is

now involved in research and consultations into the

cultural dimensions of Aboriginal Guardianship.

A summary of our findings on cultural safety is in the

separate section below. It is envisaged that in 2011 the

unit will undertake research into intergenerational trauma.

Our partnership with Take Two and La Trobe University is

being continued to further develop cultural wellbeing

assessment indicators which we have called the Cultural

Yarn and will be trailed at VACCA and Take Two.The

Social and Emotional Wellbeing Indigenous Network

Group (SEWING) Circle will be the key reference group

for VACCA’s research unit. With La Trobe we hope to

co-employ one researcher for the new year. We are

waiting on recruitment via the Indigenous Employment

Program at La Trobe University.

The unit provides ongoing participation in the Who Am I?

ARC Linkage Grant with Melbourne University, the

Centre for Excellence, DHS and others, which is focused

on creating a web-based archive, archive practices

assistance and record keeping practices assistance to

enable out-of-home care services to provide a sense of

identity for former clients.The unit participated in Take

Two/La Trobe University’s Small Talk Project on the

speech/auditory needs of children in care.

The unit participated in the development and governance

of the Certificate and Diploma in Child and Family

Welfare with La Trobe University, Bouverie, Melbourne

University and Take Two, including work on a unit we are

co-delivering with Take Two in 2011. A presentation on

Aboriginal issues to the Certificate class in August.The

unit assists the CEO with presentations to the Diploma

and Certificate classes for each subject unit.The unit has

an ongoing role of facilitating cultural input into course

material with the CEO.

The unit participated on consortium looking at an ARC

Linkage Grant in October 2010 on Respite Care with La

Trobe University, Good Shepherd, Berry Street, MacKillop

Family Services and Anglicare.

Major Project – Cultural Safety Project

This is Forever Business:A Framework for Maintaining

and Restoring Cultural Safety in Aboriginal Victoria is a

major policy and research report of the Victorian

Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) and builds on

two previous projects – the development of the

Aboriginal Cultural Competence Framework for the

Department of Human Services (DHS) in Victoria and

Pringhael Thookanyat (Spirit of Children) The Victorian

Aboriginal Child Care Agency Aboriginal Youth Well Being

Project Report.

In line with VACCA’s commitment to the safety of

Aboriginal children and youth and vision for an Aboriginal

community “that is strong in culture, values their children

and young people and recognises the importance of the

whole community in raising children and keeping families

together”, the purpose of this report is to provide a

framework for:

a) understanding the current situation of Aboriginal

communities in Victoria

b) empowering Aboriginal communities to develop

processes and services which promote cultural

safety and

c) governments/departments to work as respectful

partners with Aboriginal communities in Victoria in

the creation of a culturally safe service system and

environment for Aboriginal children, youth, families

and communities.

For us, the key problem which needs to be addressed is

that of the partial removal of traditional forms of cultural

safety in Aboriginal communities and the processes which

disempower Aboriginal peoples and disable their voice

and ability to practice self-determination.This diminishing

of cultural safety occurs through a lack of respect and

recognition of the positive aspects of Aboriginal culture

and its centrality in creating a sense of meaning and

purpose for Aboriginal peoples. For all peoples culture is

essential for spiritual, emotional and social growth and

maintenance. For the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria,

culture is our spear and shield; our resistance and our

resilience.

To this end, the report:

a) outlines the situation of Aboriginal communities by

analysing colonisation from a historical/personal

Aboriginal perspective,

b) reviews the current literature on the situation of

Aboriginal communities and provides analysis based

on the positives of Aboriginal resilience and

resistance and the negatives of the ongoing impact of

colonisation,

c) provides data and highlighted comments from 131

interviews and consultations conducted state-wide

by VACCA’s research team,

d) analyses the data from our consultation with

reference to the recently released State of Victoria’s

Children 2009:Aboriginal children and young people

in Victoria report using the four keys (explained

below) as our analysis tool,


e) provides and explains a cultural safety framework for

addressing the issues and includes recommendations

for the consideration of governments/departments,

the generic human services sector and Aboriginal

communities and organisations.

It is our contention that the cultural safety framework

can be used as an Aboriginal culturally-informed tool for

policy and service development for the Aboriginal human

services sector.

In summary we suggest:

a) That in understanding and considering the situation

of Aboriginal communities today there are two key

historically-conditioned and contradictory social

forces – that of the cultural resilience and resistance

of Aboriginal communities and that of the ongoing

processes of colonisation.These social forces exist

today in a different shape to that of the past. In many

respects the social engineering of the colonisers of

the past still resonate in aspects of

government/departmental policy formation and

implementation today, if not directly then at least at

a ‘subconscious’ level as a result of cultural blindness.

This creates both policy confusion at the

governmental/departmental level and socio-

economic disempowerment at the community level.

One of the symptoms of this disempowerment can be

seen in the prevalence of lateral violence in some

Aboriginal communities, organizations and government

departments. Cultural resilience and resistance also

resonates in our current situation and can be seen in

some of the excellent work of Aboriginal Community

Controlled Organisations and pockets of cultural and

creative renaissance in Aboriginal communities. However,

until there is clarity around how the right of self-

determination is recognised by governments/departments

and actualised in Aboriginal communities, cultural

resilience and resistance will remain marginal and

underutilised.This is to the detriment of all Victorians.

b) To understand the relationship of the contrary

forces of cultural resilience and resistance and the

colonially embedded forces of disempowerment, we

use four countervailing research keys. Building on

the observations of the late anthropologist and

author of After the Dreaming,W.E. Stanner, our

research keys look at the interplay between the

positive and negative contextual forces of

• Re-membering – in other words, seeing the

past as a means to, in a sense,Aboriginal

peoples re-joining and becoming members of

both their own particular Aboriginal

communities and societies through their

remembered narratives and ensuring those

formerly silenced narratives are re-membered

in broader society. Re-membering in this way is

closely related to issues of spirituality and

belonging. Re-membering can counteract what

Stanner identified as a sense of homelessness;

• Empowering voice – in other words, helping

our people access ‘wealth and power’ and

therefore empowered in relation to broader

society. Having an effective, self-determining

voice therefore can counteract what Stanner

identified as a sense of powerlessness;

• Re-sourcing – in other words, creating a map

to find locations/situations/relationships where

our people feel culturally secure in our

communities, through the resources of land and

culture. In this way communities can build on

their cultural strengths to counteract what

Stanner identified as a sense of poverty; and

• Re-creation of cultural products through

various forms of creative activity such as music,

film, theatre, craft and art. Reclamation of

language, cultural structures, symbols and

images and fusing that with contemporary

culture to create new forms of cultural

expression can enable Aboriginal peoples to

navigate the dominant culture and maintain

their own, whilst counteracting what Stanner

identified as a sense of confusion and we have

further defined as disorientation. (Stanner

2009, pp. 206-211)

c) According to the results of the state-wide qualitative

and quantitative interviews undertaken by our

research team and our analysis of both our data and

the data provided in the State of Victoria’s Aboriginal

Children and Youth Report, it is clear that the impact

of colonisation and its echoes in society today

continues to disconnect and disempower Aboriginal

communities. However, despite these echoes there is

a depth of cultural resilience which drives these

communities.While much of traditional culture has

been diminished,Aboriginal community leaders and

members constantly find new ways of cultural

expression and systems of cultural respect.The

dissonance caused by historical and contemporary

Australian society and governmental policies has

created and further encouraged lateral violence in

communities.There is an urgent need to encourage

new, culturally attuned means of strengthening

Aboriginal communities so that they can mitigate

against the effects of lateral violence and the toxic

colonial environment.There is overwhelming support

in Victoria’s Aboriginal communities for new process


of engagement within and outside their communities

to re-member, empower, re-source and re-create

places and process that encourage cultural safety.

d) Having tested the four keys and taken into account

reports on indigenous youth and children, the

current State of Victoria’s Aboriginal Children and

Youth report and our recent research on this report

lead to the following cultural safety framework.

Recognising the key historically-conditioned and

contradictory social forces of the cultural resilience and

resistance of Aboriginal communities and that of the on-

going processes of colonisation our service sector needs

to embed a cultural safety framework in order to benefit

Aboriginal communities and have a positive impact on the

lives of Aboriginal children, youth and families.This

involves promoting cross-cultural competence in the

sector by following the key components of the Aboriginal

Cultural Competence Framework

• Self-determination and Respectful Partnerships

• Cultural Respect

• Cultural Responsiveness

• Cultural Safety

It also involves enabling Aboriginal communities to

restore processes and programs which promote cultural

safety through the aforementioned

• Re-membering

• Empowering Voice

• Re-sourcing

• Re-creation

Finally, the framework moves toward wider

governmental/specific human services policies which

enable a positive treatment of the problem faced by

disadvantaged and disempowered vulnerable Aboriginal

people.We suggest that the treatment of this problem

takes three shapes:

• Renegotiating the social contract and establishing

appropriate ways in which we treat each other in

terms of a proper foundational relationship between

our peoples and the promotion of cultural respect.

• Treatment as healing and tackling the impact of

trans-generational trauma and trans-generational

racism.

• Creating a new shared narrative between our

peoples as a means of ensuring mutual respect and

self-understanding. Ensuring that a dialogue respects

and engages Aboriginal peoples as stakeholders and

not as problems to be solved.

We are therefore suggesting a partnership between

Aboriginal organisations, governments and their

departments and the community services sector to

engage in a ten year strategic plan driven by Aboriginal

communities to embed cultural safety for Aboriginal

Victorians.

The unit plans to work with the CEO to undertake

advocacy on the framework.

I would like to thank my team Richard Frankland, Robin

Trotter. I would also like to thank the Executive team and

Muriel for their ongoing support.

Peter Lewis – Manager


INTRODUCTIONThe Lakidjeka Aboriginal Child Specialist Advice Support

Service (ACSASS) continues to hold the responsibility

within VACCA to implement the Protocol between DHS

Child Protection and VACCA.

The protocol and legislation require that Child Protection

consult with ACSASS before making any key significant

decisions on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

and young people.This includes decisions around

investigation of reports, decision to refer to services,

potential placement and placement changes, reunification

and general case planning.There is provision for

secondary consultation even if the parent or young

person does not consent to ACSASS involvement.

ACSASS is now eight years in its current form and has

been recognised around Australia as a Best Practice

model and New South Wales is working to implement a

very similar model.The program within the Victorian

context however, is still struggling with resourcing,

structural and interface issues.This year has been a

particular challenging one with a number of ongoing staff

vacancies and workload issues continuing to have an

impact on the planning and delivery of the service.

Despite these challenges,ACSASS workers still continue

to work extremely hard and work within a framework of

Aboriginal children’s rights to being safe and unharmed.

Workers are passionate about everyone taking a

responsibility to protect children and partnering Child

Protection to understand the importance and uniqueness

of Aboriginal families and culture.

1. STAFFINGOver the financial year there have been some staff

movements within the program. Leeandra Aitkin was

seconded to the North West Supervisor/Caseworker

role from Shepparton and Wendy Lovett is acting in the

Barwon Supervisor/Caseworker role while Sue Lovett is

leave for 6 months. In addition, we have seen Angela

Chittem Supervisor/Caseworker from Morwell take 12

months maternity leave and her position filled by Tiffany

Hood.All of these workers have taken on the

responsibilities in a professional and dedicated manner

and need to be commended.

Departures from the program have included Sara

Frederiksen, Kevin (Bricky) Walker,Tamara Blackwood,

Sara Flottl, Jenna Bamblett and Cassie Batten.Thank you

to each of those people who contributed in their own

way to the important work of ACSASS.

While we had employed some new staff to the program

including four case administration workers (two job

sharing), two caseworkers and an Assistant Program

Manager, one caseworker unfortunately was dismissed

following a serious breach of VACCA’s code of conduct.

2. PROGRAM OVERVIEWThe Lakidjeka ACSASS is a statewide program which

provides the service of consultation and advice through

three areas:

• Intake

• Regional Case work

• After Hours

2.1 Intake

ACSASS Intake Data

No. of reports Children Unborn Families

Quarterly Day Service reports

July – Sept 2009 632 7 300

Oct – Dec 2009 600 7 283

Jan – March 2010 573 8 298

April – June 2010 632 8 341

Total 2437 30 1222

According to the ACSASS data base, throughout the

period of July 2009 to the end of June 2010, Lakidjeka

ACSASS received a total of 2,437 reports (notifications)

across the state (excluding LGA Mildura). In addition to

2,437 reports received during the day 130 new reports

were received after hours. Given that ACSASS provides

an after hours service for Mildura some of those reports

are Mildura Aboriginal Corporation’s

This total of 2,437 during the day compares with a total

of 2,190 reports received last year. Every year the

number of reports on Aboriginal Children and young

people to Child Protection (and ACSASS) has increased

and this year is no exception.

The Intake service deals mainly with the key decision as

to whether a report (notification) should be investigated


LAKIDJEKA ACSASS – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

by Child Protection or closed and not investigated.The

decision to further investigate means that there appears

to be a level of risk or concern that cannot be managed

by support services.A closure can mean no additional

support services are required or that consideration

needs to be given to further service involvement.

Intake considers whether other support services such as

those provided through Child FIRST, general mainstream

and Aboriginal services can help assist families address

the issues raised. Some are closed very quickly as there is

not a role for Child Protection.


Most regional intake teams within Child Protection are

very familiar with the process of connecting with ACSASS

at the point of intake; however, with DHS staff turnover

being quite high, the need to continue to educate

workers on this continues to remain a priority within

Intake.Thanks to both Sara and Donna and those who

have assisted intake over the last financial year.

According to DHS data of those 2009-10 reports

received, 42.98% of reports were further actioned across

for investigation.This has been slight increase in further

actioned cases where last year this was 41% of all

reports. Please note the Southern ACSASS team covers

Southern and Eastern regions, and Barwon covers

Barwon and Grampians.

2.2 Analysis of Data

From an ACSASS viewpoint there does not appear to

have been any real impact from the Child FIRST system

which sought to take on more wellbeing reports and

allow the more serious reports go to Child Protection.

The number of reports on Aboriginal children still

continues to increase and the percentage of reports going

over for investigation continues to remain consistent at

approximately 40%.

We are unable to access our own information of what

percentage of cases are substantiated (that children are at

risk), however DHS data demonstrates that this continues

to be at a much higher rate than non-Aboriginal children.


Ages of ATSI children that were Further Actioned at Intake during period 1 July to June 30 2010

0–1 1–3 4–5 6–7 7–10 11–12 13–15 16–18

211 189 146 132 160 101 174 68

The key factors as to why Aboriginal children come

under the notice of Child Protection continue to be

family violence, drug and alcohol and mental health issues.

In relation to family violence we continue to have a

steady number of reports made directly from police who

are being called out to family violence incidents – both at

Intake and After Hours intake.

It appears that there are fewer reports around

environmental neglect coming through to Child

Protection and ACSASS and go through as ‘wellbeing

reports’ to Child FIRST. However, it appears that Intake

also sees a percentage of reports returning to Child

Protection because families are reluctant to engage with

services once they know it is their choice to do so.

Too often cases are seen where there is a need for

support rather than Child Protection involvement,

however once CP are no longer involved and all links

with support services are voluntary with some families

no longer following through.There needs to be some

further funds and service provision built into the system

that continues to promote and educate the value and

importance in raising children in a culturally strong and

safe family rather than being told to.

2.3 After Hours

ACSASS provides an After Hours Service to Child

Protection on existing regional cases and new reports.

This service is shared between most of the senior staff of

ACSASS who partake in a weekly AHS roster.The service

is limited in that consultation and advice is primarily phone

based and outreach visits no longer take place.The addi-

tional stress that would fall on workers based in Melbourne

would only compromise worker safety and wellbeing.

Workers provided the Child Protection Emergency After

Hours Service with advice on approximately 257 children

and young people and 130 of those were new reports,

the rest were on current open cases. Unfortunately, there

were a number of cases where the Child Protection

Emergency After Hours Service did not make contact

with ACSASS.

Thanks to the ACSASS senior staff who participated in

providing the After Hours service – Angela Chittem,

Donna Love, Suzanne Cleary,Teresa Kerr, Jeff Cooper,

Wendy Lovett, Leeandra Aitken and Sue Barclay.

2.4 Regional Open Cases

It is difficult to get exact figures on the number of cases

open at any one time. However, based on CRISS and

ACSASS data there were approximately 1,469* open ATSI

child protection cases in Victoria at the end of June 2010

(not including Mildura LGA).This is therefore the number

of cases that Lakidjeka ACSASS has opened across the

state. In addition to these approximately 119 are sitting

with the Intake team.

The regions open cases are a combination of new reports

through to those on court orders and long term plans.

ACSASS is expected to be involved in the life of an open

Child Protection case and provide advice on any

significant decision.

The following is an approximate break down of cases

(children & young people) per region:

Please note that for the purposes of Lakidjeka ACSASS, the

Barwon South West team covers both Barwon & Grampians

and Southern covers Southern and Eastern. Intake reports sit

with East Brunswick until they are closed or actioned. For

three regions (highlighted in blue) their numbers are not based

on updated CRISS data and are not as accurate as the others.


Region Open Cases Intake Only Total Regional ACSASS Total

Barwon South West 126 14 140

Grampians 61 10 71 187

Gippsland 171 20 191 171

Hume 135 10 145 135

Lodden Mallee 240 20 260 240

North West 392 21 413 392

Southern 240 16 256

Eastern 104 8 112 344

1469 119 1588 1469

No accurate statistics

* These statistics change almost daily

3. OPERATIONAL /STRATEGIC PLANNINGThe Lakidjeka program like other programs across

VACCA undertake an annual operational planning day.

Lakidjeka ACSASS continues to have six key priorities in

its operational plan:

1. Build and retain a stable and skilled workforce

2. Implement the recommendations of the internal

ACSASS Review related to:

• Program Management

• Program Resourcing

• Workforce and Recruitment

• Program Performance

• Funding Position

• Partnerships and Communication

3. Ensure Agency Registration Standards are suitable

for ACSASS and develop a continuous quality

improvement approach

4. Provide a quality service and meet program targets

5. Improve communication, interaction and

partnerships with:

• local Aboriginal Communities

• DHS Child Protection

• other Aboriginal Community Controlled

Organisations

• Non-government organizations

The progress against the strategic plan over the last

financial year continues to be slow paced given the

competing demands of the day to day operational tasks

and the current vacancies at both the management and

caseworker levels.

3.1 Building and retaining a stable and skilled

workforce

The first priority to build and maintain a stable and skilled

workforce includes strengthening the management

structure of ACSASS and allowing the Executive Manager

of the program to drive the strategic priorities.There

continues to be a need for assistant managers who can

provide case expertise to workers particularly given the

complexity of cases, the increase in involvement in Out of

Home Quality of Care Concerns, the case support

needed in working with high risk clients and participation

in Child Death Reviews.

In addition there is also a need to fill and increase

caseworker positions on the ground. On average the

program has carried 4-5 vacancies throughout the last

financial year with most of these being in the Melbourne

metropolitan area.

Lakidjeka ACSASS continued to have regular recruitment

processes for the vacant caseworker and administration

positions.These include caseworkers in Lodden Mallee

(Echuca), Southern (Dandenong), Grampians (Ballarat)

and Case Administrators in Southern (Dandenong) and

Gippsland (Bairnsdale).

The issue of recruitment and retention is a major issue

for the program as the work requires strong Aboriginal

workers who are comfortable working with “at risk”

children and families and who can work in partnership

with Child Protection.

The program has worked closely with Con and Paula

from VACCA’s Human Resources to try to be more

creative in our approach to recruiting staff.ACSASS,

through Lucy Romano and Samantha Brown, also attend

the fortnightly VACCA recruitment meetings where

program representatives and HR can discuss the

recruitment processes and discuss what other strategies

can be undertaken.This meeting also helps to enhance

cross program discussions around recruitment.

ACSASS staff including Lucy, Samantha and Jeff Cooper

were also involved in the VACCA workshop looking at

addressing recruitment and retaining staff. Consistency of

employment processes and parity of pay continue to be

areas which the program is particularly interested in

addressing.With the assistance of HR,ACSASS is

currently undertaking work on this and is proposing a

restructure and increase in the wage rates for ACSASS

workers.The key issues that impact on ACSASS’s ability

to attract staff include the nature of the work, the

extremely high workload and the fact that workers

wages, particularly caseworkers, are low. It is not

surprising that potential applicants do not consider

working in ACSASS when there are other more attractive

and better paid positions.

There needs to be consideration given to someone

within the agency who can promote and market the idea

of working within VACCA including for ACSASS.Word of

mouth appears still to be the best way to find potential

Aboriginal workers.

3.2 Implementation of ACSASS review

The implementation of the ACSASS review has been

minimal and there is a need to address the tasks

associated with program management, program

resourcing and general funding has stalled.At the end of

2009, representatives from VACCA including the CEO,

met with DHS Child Protection Executive to move


forward on the review. It was acknowledged that it was

timely for a review of funding arrangements and that a

Price Indexation Review of ACSASS would take place.

It was agreed that the review would be undertaken by an

independent reviewer who will begin the process once

the DHS tendering process is finalized. DHS in the

interim provided some one off funds to assist help with

infrastructure/case support and prepare for the review.

This resulted in the employment of Lucy Romano to

ACSASS.

In order to demonstrate the unique tasks undertaken

within ACSASS as well as demonstrating information on

the time taken to achieve the work of ACSASS, all staff

have been undertaking a “matrix” exercise whereby they

recorded all work done throughout the day including all

formal activities eg meetings, visits, phone calls and those

informal discussions, calls and tasks.

Lucy, Sam and Jodie Harding have been extracting the

information from the staff which is now being collated

and analysed.The initial cut of the information

demonstrates that a large part of ACSASS’s day is spent

in the areas it is expected to deliver on – Best Interest

Planning, case consultation and visits with Child

Protection to families.The information also demonstrates

that in the rural areas in particular a large percentage of

time is spent travelling.

3.3 Agency Registration Standards

ACSASS is currently not within the scope of current

agency registration as the specific ACSASS program

standards are yet to be developed with DHS.There has

been little move forward to plan and ensure that Agency

Registration Standards are suitable for ACSASS. It is

understood that work from DHS head office on this has

been minimal. On a practical day to day level however, the

program continues to be mindful of the need to meet

general governance and program specific standards

although these are currently not under formal review.

The major areas of concern for ACSASS in meeting

registration standards would be in the areas of case

notes/case recordings, supervision and meeting additional

standards around confidentiality including having adequate

private space when co locating with other VACCA

programs.

ACSASS has agreed to coordinate and develop the

registration of client files until a more permanent system

can be developed.This has meant that a master list of

current VACCA client files now exists and a further list

of those closed since early 2009.This list does not

include Link Up and ACSASS client files are kept on a

separate data base.The master list is only a tip of what

needs to be done in the area of client files and archiving

of files.As acknowledged within the executive and

leadership group, VACCA needs to prioritise its recording

and management of client files.

4. PROGRAM ISSUESThe ACSASS Program manages a number of risks both at

a casework and program level which include:

4.1 High Risk Clients

Child Deaths Inquiries and Case Reviews

Along side Child Protection,ACSASS continues to

manage a number of high risk clients across the state.

Over the last financial year,ACSASS was involved in three

Child Death Inquiries of a young boy and two young

infants.

ACSASS’s involvement in one of the inquiries was limited

as the service was not actively involved in the case. It is

hoped that issues of DHS not complying with the

DHS/VACCA protocol were raised with the region

involved by the Child Safety Commissioner.

ACSASS had also been asked to participate and co

ordinate VACCA’s response to a DHS Ministerial case

practice review in Southern region and was also involved

in another case review which had been raised with the

Ombudsman’s office.

An ongoing issue that has emerged for ACSASS and

VACCA in those inquiries is the accurate recording of

case information. It is disappointing to review files where

major events and discussions are not recorded on client

files. Even when staff have left the organization knowing

that there will be an inquiry into the case, important

notes and documents have not been included.

4.2 High Risk Adolescents & Secure Welfare

placements

A number of adolescents are deemed to be at high risk

to themselves and are as a result placed for short periods

of time in Secure Welfare Unit.The SWU is where young

people are contained for their own safety and

authorisation must be given by DHS and approved by the

Children’s Court. Consultation with ASASS must be

sought where placement in Secure Welfare is being is

being considered for any Aboriginal young person.


According to ACSASS data 37 young Aboriginal people

were placed in Secure Welfare over the last financial year,

with 26 being placed only the one time.This has

increased from the previous year where 28 young people

were placed in Secure Welfare and 16 were placed only

once.

The other young people were placed on more than one

occasion with every admission still needing careful

consideration from the care team. Given the level of risk

that some young people have, secure welfare provides a

chance for young people to be safe from harm for a

short period of time and provides a chance for

assessments including health, mental health and substance

use to take place.

A number of these young people are also involved with

the Juvenile Justice system and are at risk of being placed

on community based orders and/or receiving a sentence.

4.3 Worker stress and burnout

Workers within the ACSASS program deal with a number

of difficult, complex tasks and stressful situations.

Significant decisions such as whether a case should

proceed for investigation, whether a protective

application needs to be issued, or whether children

should be placed away from home are decisions which

are never taken lightly.The pressure on workers comes

from all directions- from Child Protection, Courts, other

Aboriginal and mainstream services and from within

VACCA.

The additional strain to be responsive to everyone and

the pressures from community to be “all things to

everyone” puts additional strain on workers.This is

further compounded by the fact that some workers and

some members of the community do not understand the

specialist role of ACSASS and its limitations.

This means that further work needs to be done to

actively promote the role of ACSASS, both internally and

externally to VACCA.This is another area of the strategic

plan which has been prioritised – improve communication,

interaction and partnerships with local Aboriginal

Communities, DHS Child Protection, non-government

organisations and other Aboriginal Community

Controlled Organisations

Previous Human Resources work undertaken around the

usage of sick leave demonstrated that ACSASS workers

are one of the more frequent users of sick leave.They

also traditionally carry a large amount of Time In Lieu,

though there has been a concentrated effort to keep this

to a minimum.The program experienced one Work cover

claim over the twelve months but was unable to

negotiate a successful return to work plan for that

worker.

The expectations and high caseloads resting with ACSASS

was hoped to be assessed through the proposed Price

Index Review. Until this time the workers continue to

have extremely high numbers of cases.The work that

ACSASS does is not one of traditional casework, and

does not case manage, however, the involvement in key

significant decision making for each child is time

consuming and relies on the development of good

partnerships and information sharing.

The following provides an approximate breakdown of the

open cases and the ratio to regional workers across the

state.These ratios are based on the number of cases to

the number of funded positions, these ratios become

even higher when there are staff vacancies.


ACSASS data on ATSI Secure Welfare placements

No of Young people Male Female Total Admissions Single Admission

July 08–June 09 28 12 16 47 16

July 09–June 10 37 19 18 58 26

North/West Eastern Hume Gippsland Grampians Southern Barwon Loddon Mallee

2009 to 17 8 6 7 6 8 3 8

2010

ACSASS workers and case administrators have

responsibility for a large number of cases. Caseworkers

are expected to be involved in significant decision making,

whereas case administrators are expected to provide

office support and data information on cases on a

quarterly basis to head office.

All workers feel the pressure and stain of being unable to

meet the demand, none more so than Supervisor Sue

Barclay and administration workers,Vanessa Murdoch and

Jodie Jackson at Southern and Leeandra and Jodie

Harding (admin) at Northern. Some rural workers also

have to contend with a large amount of travel particularly

workers in the Lodden Mallee region and the south/west

end of Barwon region.

4.4 Lack of service delivery

The biggest risk that ACSASS faces at present is that it

will be unable to provide a service in the metropolitan

regions – both North West and Southern/Eastern teams

have only a Supervisor/Caseworker and Administration

worker each. Both teams are without any caseworkers

and Leeandra Aitkin who is acting Supervisor/Caseworker

will be returning to her position in Shepparton in

October 2010.

Between these three regions there are over 600

children/young people on open child protection cases –

most of who are living at home with family but are still

deemed to be “at risk”.

The inability to attract staff will result in more pressure

from Child Protection to the other VACCA programs to

participate in investigations both with initial reports

(notifications) and quality of care concerns. More

concerning is that without having ACSASS workers on

the ground Child Protection will by default be making

significant decisions on our children without any advice

and consultation from specialist Aboriginal workers.

5. BUDGETAt the end of the financial year ACSASS reported a

surplus of funds which was due to staff savings. On

average there were at least 5-6 vacancies across the state

throughout that year.

While there was a surplus this year, the budget for

ACSASS continues to be an ongoing concern. Should

there be success in increasing workers wages (in order to

attract staff) and the filling of every position the budget

would blow out significantly.At present less than 60% of

the budget is spent on staff and payroll expenses as

administration costs within the agency and for the

regional out posted offices remain high.The program

currently operates 11 office sites.

In line with the Strategic plan further work needs to be

done in relation to the long term ACSASS funding and

budget.Without some resourcing there is little room to

shift more of the budget towards payroll and therefore


Average Caseloads

Region Open Cases Intake Only Total Regional ACSASS Funded Case Funded Case

Total Workers Ratio

Barwon /South West 126 14 140

Grampians 61 10 71 187 4 46.75

Gippsland 171 20 191 171 4 42.75

Hume 135 10 145 135 3 45

Lodden Mallee 240 20 260 240 3 80

North West 392 21 413 392 3 130.6

Southern Region 240 16 256

Eastern Region 104 8 112 344 3 114.6

119 1469

Case Administrators 5

Total Staff 25

little room to attract staff, pay more equitable wages and

restructure the program.

6. TARGETSThe ACSASS program is expected to provide quarterly

reporting to DHS on five key areas of its service delivery:

1. Referrals to ACSASS (Intake)

2. Investigations / First Home visits

3. Attendance at Best Interest Planning Meetings

4. Attendances at Best Interest Review Meetings.

5. Case Closures

Generally ACSASS is expected to meet a target of 85-

90% on these key areas.There is an expectation that

Child Protection will also comply and report on its

consultations with ACSASS at these key points within a

case.The yearly statistics are still to be finalized with

Child Protection but it would appear that most ACSASS

regions have worked hard to meet the targets, taking into

account the level of staffing available.

There appears to be some issues in one region where it

is unlikely that targets will be met. It is unclear at this

stage as to what are the barriers to this and it is hoped

that this will be clearer once the final analysis is done.

7. PROGRAM SPECIFIC THEMES

7.1 Staff Wellbeing

Supporting staff in their workplace, particular given the

identified issues they face, is a constant challenge for

ACSASS. Each year unit and supervisor meetings are held

where workers across the state can meet together to

discuss issues, share ideas and support one another.

In addition to these regular meetings,ACSASS staff

attended a three day staff wellbeing/team building retreat

in Echuca/Moama in June 2009.The aim of this was to

combine some fun and relaxation with team planning.

That night staff met up for dinner together which was a

nice way to finish off the day.

The second day was a little more serious where the team

planning day was held.As well as working through general

ACSASS business a gripe session was held where people

could anonymously raise their concerns and issues.The

group then tried to find solutions and actions to address

these.This was not an easy exercise and the process

raised some issues about the team’s strengths and

tensions.The messages again from workers were clear – a

need for clear and regular communication, more

supervision and support to prevent isolation and a need

for all workers to be proactive rather than reactive in

their work.The final few hours were spent working on

regional and team work plans.

On the final day workers went on a cultural tour with

Richard Kerr in the Barmah forest and then met Uncle

Kevin Atkinson at Cummeragunja Mission where the

school was opened up for us and we not only looked at

the memorabilia but listened to the stories about life on

Cummeragunja.This was a really memorable morning and

thanks to both Uncle Kevin and Richard for sharing their

stories and wisdom.

7.2 ACSASS Links and Partnerships

7.2.1 Cultural Support Plans

ACSASS workers were involved in forums across the

state in 2009 with the Aboriginal Children’s and Families

Unit on Cultural Support Plans (CSP). Given that only

20% of CSP’s had been developed across the state at that

stage, the forums or information sessions were aimed to

restate the importance of CSP’s and the process of how

the Department can ensure that CSP’s are in place for all

Aboriginal children and young people (particularly those

in non- Aboriginal Care).

Across the state pressure had been put on each region to

put an action plan in place for each of those

children/young people. Regional ACSASS workers have

been working along side of Child Protection and relevant

Aboriginal organizations to have the CSP’s completed.

ACSASS workers are funded to assist Child Protection in

the development of Cultural Support Plans.

Each region was asked to develop plans of actions on

how they would complete the plans. Lakidjeka was

actively involved in the processes in the North/West,

Gippsland, Barwon, Hume, Eastern and Southern

processes.There has been far less contact in the other

two regions, however it needs to be acknowledged that

in the Grampians region there was limited ACSASS

contact due to staff vacancies.

7.2.2 Family Decision Making

The links to the Family Decision Making Program

continue to be extremely important and ACSASS

continues to be a part of the Aboriginal Family Decision

Making Program/Cultural Support Program Statewide

Reference group. Having clear understanding of worker

roles and responsibilities help assist in the day to day

operations and links between programs.

While AFDM workers now have responsibility for driving

both AFDM’s and Cultural Support Plans, it is


acknowledged that ACSASS need to be included in the

pre-planning and consultation process of both.

7.2.3 VACCA Cross Program Links

In an attempt to improve communication between

ACSASS and other VACCA programs, North West

ACSASS workers and Manager have attended at both

Extended Care and Family Support and Early Intervention

staff meetings. Meetings have also been held with

Permanent Care to look at what children and young

people are deemed to be in need of permanent care and

how the two programs can share information and

knowledge.

Formal Cross Program meetings are held in which

representatives of Extended and Residential Care, Family

Support and Early Intervention and ACSASS staff meet in

order to share information and develop better working

relationships across programs.While it is acknowledges

that at a manager level this interaction has improved a

great deal, more work needs to be done at the

caseworker and team leader level.

7.2.4 Family Division of Children’s Court

VACCA, including ACSASS, has membership on the

Steering Group for the Children’s Koorie Court (Family

Division) project.The project is undertaken by the

Courts and Tribunals Unit, Department of Justice.The

project is seeking to canvas potential options to make the

Family Division of the Children’s Court more culturally

responsive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

children and families.

A report to Parliament by the Victorian Ombudsmen into

the Department of Human Services Child Protection

System resulted in a number of recommendations,

including consideration of reform within the Children’s

Court Family Division.At the end of June 2009, the

Victorian Law Reform Commission released Protection

Applications in the Children’s Court Final Report which

outlined a number of options.

Representation from VACCA, including ACSASS, was

involved in the Commission’s consultation regarding the

potential reforms. Given the strong link that ACSASS has

with the Children’s Court and decision making within the

court process it was important that ACSASS’s voice was

considered.

7.2.5 Regional and Central liaison with Child

Protection

Liaison with DHS both at a regional and statewide level is

critical to exchange information, maintain good working

relationships and address issues that may arise.

Throughout the last year a number of formal liaisons have

been held between Child Protection and Lakidjeka.These

have included meetings held with North /West, Eastern,

Barwon, Gippsland and Hume and Grampians. Liaison

with Southern, Lodden Mallee and After Hours

Emergency Service has not really happened and need to

be reactivated.

It should be noted, that Teresa Kerr, Supervisor from

Lodden Mallee, has worked tirelessly to improve the

partnership relationships with DHS, through both formal

and informal means and hopefully some of the hard work

will pay off.The work that she and her team have

undertaken, particularly in reconnecting with Swan Hill

and Mildura DHS, has been admirable.

There needs to be acknowledgement for people such as

Cindy Grant our liaison contact in the East, Nicole

Fleming from Barwon and Lorraine Robinson from

Gippsland region who continue to not only work in a

respectful manner but support and promote the

importance of ACSASS.As always Sandy Mitchell’s

program advice and support is always highly valued and

appreciated as is her willingness to advocate passionately

for the program.

Liaison with the Aboriginal Child and Family Support Unit

continues to be strong and meetings are held regularly.

Thanks go to Mary Roberts and Trish Berry for their

support and willingness to raise issues when needed.The

workshop in August 2009 where the ACSASS program

and regional Child Protection representatives met and

showcased how ACSASS could make a difference was a

positive day and it is hoped that there are more of these.

7.2.6 Child Protection Beginning Practice

Throughout the financial year ACSASS has continued to

provide input to the Child Protection Beginning Practice

Training for new child protection workers.This has been

provided by Leeandra and Samantha, who continue to

receive very positive feedback from both the trainers and

workers.Thanks to Leeandra and Sam for undertaking

this work.

A number of meetings have been held with the Child

Protection Training Unit and the Aboriginal Child and

Family Support Service to review the ACSASS input and

to consider other ways to increase the profile of how CP

can engage and work with Aboriginal children and

families.


7.2.7 Interstate Links with Aboriginal Child

Family and Community Care Secretariat

(AbSec)

At the end of 2009,ACSASS were visited by two project

workers from AbSec in NSW who have the responsibility

to oversee the implementation of “ACSASS pilot

programs” into NSW.This program will be known as

Parenting and Community Together (PACT).The two

workers spent time at East Brunswick, Footscray as well

as in the Gippsland area to spend time with caseworkers

and case administrators undertaking their day to day

work.

There has been ongoing dialogue with the relevant AbSec

project workers who want to maintain some of the

integral parts of ACSASS in the new pilot programs.What

has become clear in some of our discussions is that with

vacancies and funding issues some of the work practices

that are aspired to are not being delivered at present. For

example, our connection to the Children’s Court is

limited at present and workers, particularly in Melbourne,

are unable to attend court.

What has also been interesting is that the funding

provided to the NSW pilots is much more generous and

realistic than the funds provided by our own state

government.

7.2.8 Data and Client Relationship Information

System for Service Providers (CRISSP)

The use of the CRISSP Data system has slowed down

rather than enhanced ACSASS workers ability to put case

notes on the system.The volume of reports that come

through the program which need to be on CRISSP has

placed additional pressure on the ACSASS administration

staff – particularly at the East Brunswick Office.All

reports whether actioned or closed need to be placed on

the system. (2,427 reports 2009 -2010).

Casual staff have previously been employed to address

the back log and this is something that the program will

have to reconsider to keep up with CRISSP entries.

Thanks need to be made to Melinda Brown who

developed “How To Guides” for staff and has supported

staff and entered the majority of reports.

8. CONCLUSIONDespite the challenges that have been seen over the last

twelve months, Supervisor/caseworkers, caseworkers,

case administrators and managers all contribute to the

difficult work of ACSASS.All staff work to ensure that

Aboriginal children, young people and their families and

their cultural needs are understood and protected within

the decision making of Child Protection. Supervisors and

caseworkers in particular establish relationships with

regional Child Protection workers to ensure that the

decisions made take into account a cultural perspective

of safety and risk.

The staff in both regional and head office sites have to

contend with high volume of reports which impacts on

staffs ability to respond and the administration systems to

keep up to date. For regional staff there is the added

stress of having high numbers of complex casework with

at times limited support.The wellbeing and support of

staff is a core component which has to remain a priority

for the program.The other key priority now has to be to

attract workers by offering better working conditions

including equitable wages and realistic caseloads.

The program will continue to remain vulnerable unless

the price indexation review becomes a reality and the

real costs of providing the service and supporting staff

are acknowledged by DHS. It is hoped that the next year

will be a more positive one and that the issues will be

addressed. It is hoped that the outcomes from this review

will also result in a better understanding of the day to day

work undertaken and the worker support, training and

development needs.

Thanks are given to the wonderful staff of ACSASS for

their commitment and hard work.The workers have an

ability to keep bringing us back to the real reason why we

work for VACCA in ACSASS – better outcomes for

Aboriginal children and young people.Acknowledgement

also needs to be made to those staff who have left during

the year and to those people who continue to support

and work with us in a respectful partnership.

On a personal note, thanks go to the senior ACSASS

team for not only their support but their ability to

keeping me grounded.Thanks also to the East Brunswick

team, particularly to Samantha, who at times has the

ability to almost read my mind, and to Muriel and the

executive for their support and wisdom.

Suzanne Cleary – Executive Manager ACSASS


INTRODUCTIONThe Placement and Support Unit delivers programs to

Aboriginal children who are unable to live with their

parents and who are placed in Out of Home Care

(OOHC).There are five main types of care: Home Based

Care (also known as foster care or Extended Care),

Koorie Cultural Placement and Support program,

Education Support Program,Aboriginal Therapeutic

Residential Care, Kinship Care, Permanent Care and

Leaving Care.

The Unit also delivers the Kurnai Youth Homelessness

Program based in Morwell, the Integrated Family Violence

Program which covers the Latrobe Valley and Baw Baw

Shires.The Placement and Support Unit now consists of

nine programs which are:

• Extended Care Program (delivered at three sites)

• Koorie Cultural Placement and Support Program

(NW and SMR regions)

• Aboriginal Therapeutic Residential Care Program

• Permanent Care Program.

• Metropolitan Aboriginal Kinship Care Program

(Contracted Cases)

• Aboriginal Adolescent Community Placement House

• Leaving Care ( Brunswick, Bendigo and Morwell)

• Kurnai Youth Homelessness Program (Morwell)

• Indigenous Family Violence Program (Morwell)

The agency has one other OOHC program which is the

Kinship Care Program delivered by Southern VACCA.

Julie Toohey has continued to take on broader

responsibilities in the Placement and Support unit whilst I

have focused on the implementation of the Aboriginal

Therapeutic Residential Care Program, the new

Metropolitan Kinship Care Program (Contracted Cases)

and the Adolescent Community Placement House.

With the development of the Metropolitan Kinship Care

Program we have welcomed Vanessa Halge as Program

Manager and Margaret Triffit as Team Leader to the senior

team.

1. MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS IN OUT OF HOME CARE

1.1 OOHC Reforms

Arising from the 2009 allocation of funding of $135

million, DHS Placement and Support branch are

implementing reforms some of which are:

• Supporting children to remain at home with

their families: A placement prevention and

reunification program called Family Coaching Victoria

is in the process of being implemented. VACCA have

received funding to pilot this program in one

catchment in each of the North West and Southern

regions.The program is called the Integrated

Aboriginal Family Preservation and Restoration

Service (IAFPAR).This involves working intensively

with 10 families for a period of 12 weeks to either

prevent a child coming into care or where a child

has entered care for the first time, to enable that

child to return to their parents.

A funded Respite Care program is also being investigated.

VACCA believe that a Respite Program is an essential

part of any family strengthening strategy.

• Create more and better targeted placements

to meet the individual needs of children and

young people. In the North West region there has

been a re-allocation of funds, and VACCA have been

given funds for:

• An Aboriginal Adolescent Community

Placement House which provides placements

for three adolescents.

• Placements to cater for the needs of pregnant

young women and young parents is another

focus.

• A Metropolitan Aboriginal Kinship Care

Program (Contracted Cases) is a new program

for agencies.

• Individualized Packages (target of 10) are

available to fund special needs placements.

• Improve the education of children in care. A

long overdue review of the CIRC funding is being

conducted. It is overdue as agencies have not had a

recurring increase in funding for educational support.

The DHS/DEECD Partnering Agreement has been

strengthened.


PLACEMENT AND SUPPORT – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

• Develop effective and culturally appropriate

responses for the high numbers of Aboriginal

children in care. Cultural Support Plans (CSP) are

an essential tool to improve the well being of

Aboriginal children in care.The Aboriginal Family

Decision Making Programs have been funded to

develop CSPs for Aboriginal children in care. Funds

were made available to VACCA for the state-wide

roll out of training of the DHS Cultural Competency

Framework. Despite VACCA having done a lot of

the program development work, the Aboriginal

Therapeutic Foster Care program has not been

implemented.

• Prepare young people better for leaving care

and making the transition to independent

living. DHS have been working on the development

of an Aboriginal Leaving Care program.We have

advocated for an Intensive Case Management Service

(ICMS) for Aboriginal young people aged 14 years

and up.

1.2 Aboriginal Kinship Care Programs

Unbeknown to Aboriginal agencies, mainstream

Community Service Organizations (CSOs) were funded

in December 2009 to provide a suite of services on a

continuum in relation to Kinship Care.These services are:

Information and Advice Service, Family Services (also

supporting voluntary families), Placement Establishment

Service, Case Contracting Transition Cases and Case

Contracting Long Term cases.

Despite VACCA having provided a Proposal for an

Aboriginal Kinship Care Program in October 2009, the

Aboriginal organizations were funded to provide only the

Case Contracting components as of March 2010, as the

funds had been re-directed to mainstream agencies.

Due to intense lobbying by VACCA, $4.1 million over

four years was allocated in the May 2010 state budget for

Aboriginal agencies to implement the other components

of Aboriginal Kinship Care.

1.3 Aboriginal Therapeutic Foster Care

Despite VACCA having provided a Discussion Paper

entitled;“Aboriginal Therapeutic Foster Care for

Aboriginal Children” in September 2009, this work has

not progressed.

2. FUNDINGAll programs in Out of Home Care are funded by the

Department of Human Services Community Care

Branch.The Southern VACCA Programs are funded by

the Southern DHS region.The Leaving Care Program,

Kurnai Youth Homelessness Program, Integrated

Indigenous Family Violence Program,A Place to Call Home

and development work for an Indigenous Family Violence

Refuge is funded by the Commonwealth under the

Supported Accommodation and Assistance Program (SAAP).

VACCA have two Education Support positions.The full-

time Education Support Worker for Extended Care

children is funded by VACCA without any contribution

from DHS or the Department of Education.The

Education Support Worker attached to the residential

unit known as the CIRC (Children In Residential Care)

position is funded by the Commonwealth Government,

but is administered by the North and West DHS Region.

We are funded for a worker for two days a week.

The Permanent Care Program is chronically underfunded

in that we are funded for one position to cover the

whole state.

New funding for Aboriginal Out of Home Care Services

is as follows:

• $270,000 to continue our Aboriginal Therapeutic

Residential Care Pilot

• $244,000 to pilot an Aboriginal Adolescent

Community Placement House

• $330,000 to contract 42 Kinship Care cases in the

Metropolitan DHS regions

• $50,000 for an extra .5 position in Leaving Care.

• $10,000 for Morwell Family Violence Worker to

implement the “A Place to Call Home” program

conducted by DHS Community Housing Program

• $256,000 interim funding for the development of an

Indigenous Family Violence Refuge in Gippsland

• $25,600 one off CIRC (Children in Residential Care)

grant for education support

3. REGISTRATION PROCESSI would like to thank and congratulate all the staff in the

unit for their part in the Placement and Support Unit’s

contribution to the agency passing all the Registration

standards, particularly the ones pertaining to Out of

Home Care. Caseworkers worked hard to make sure

that all their files were up to date, and contained all the

evidence that was needed.They also made sure that they


were aware of the agency and program-specific policy and

procedures and strategic direction.

The Team Leaders and Program Managers ensured that

we had the evidence in relation to staff supervision,

appraisals, and training, and effective management of the

programs.

The Auditors chose two sites to visit both of which were

managed by the Placement and Support unit.The staff of

the Reservoir group home, the Kurnai and Leaving Care

staff at Morwell all did a wonderful job in ensuring that

sites were in excellent condition, and participated well in

the staff group discussion requested by the Auditors.The

Auditors were very moved and impressed by the

feedback they received from the Kurnai clients.All the

staff really did us proud.

The Out of Home Care Project Officer Maureen Hogarty

played a major role in working with the staff on

understanding the standards, agency policy and

procedures. Maureen developed and updated manuals,

policies and procedures, and ensured that the group

homes were compliant with Emergency and Fire Safety

requirements. Maureen worked tirelessly with the

Morwell staff to enable the completion of the Quality

Journal, and the passing of the 35 Homelessness

Assistance Support Service Standards which are different

from the CSO standards.

4. CASE CONTRACTINGA significant development for the agency in the delivery

of Out of Home Care services is the agency accepting

responsibility for undertaking case management of child

protection cases through the signing of a contract with

DHS. Upon signing the contract VACCA undertake to

provide all case management tasks, and to provide a

number of reports such as preparation of Essential

Information Records, Care plan, Care plan Review, the

Best Interest Plan (BIP) and an Annual Court Report.All

casework activity and reports are to be provided to DHS

on a shared electronic data system called CRIS which is

different from CRISSP.This has been a steep learning

curve for extended care workers and kinship care

workers.The Extended Care Team now has seven

contracted cases with five more to be signed by the end

of 2010.The Kinship Care team has 37 contracted cases.

5. PROGRAM OVERVIEW

5.1 Extended Care Program

Julie Toohey has continued as Program Manager with Liz

Munt and Yolanda Glenn as Team Leaders.

Current staff are: Caseworkers, Michael Cadd, James

Stubbs, Jo Mazza (currently on leave), Kelly Arunaune, and

Rebecca Boss. Our Access Worker is Tamasin Krakouer.

Jodie Cadd has continued as a .5 Education Support

Worker. Pauline Fennell has continued as the Geelong

Extended Care caseworker.The Koori Cultural Placement

and Support worker is Bisette Morgan, and the

administration officer is Thelma Norris. Staff who have

left the program are: Rebecca Crawford

Targets

The program has provided approximately 100 placements

for Aboriginal children in the last financial year. Some of

these placements are regular respite placements.The

program has met the target of 52 placements which

includes: 32 general, 16 intensive, and 4 complex targets.

The three types of targets are funded at different levels.

VACCA Brunswick has assessed four new carers this

year, and have conducted carer training for them.

Foster carers are greatly valued by VACCA, and are

supported by workers very well. Six Carer Gatherings

were held this year which provide an opportunity for the

carers to get together and talk about common problems

and to share some of the joys of being a foster carer.As

well as this, carers are updated about any new

information or direction in the Home Based Care sector.

A Carers BBQ is held in December each year and is well-

attended by carers and children.

Staff Training

The Extended Care team has supported staff obtaining

qualifications through the VACCA Study Leave policy.

Michael Cadd is completing Certificate 4 in Protective

Care;Thelma Norris is doing a Bachelor of Education;

Pauline Fennel is doing a Bachelor of Social Work. Staff

participated in bi-monthly consultations with Gregory

Nicolau from the START program and have also

participated in a range of training programs including

“Case management” and ‘Working with children who

have been sexually assaulted”.The team also have bi-

monthly Professional Development sessions provided by

the Senior Team members.


Education Support for Children in Care

Jodie Cadd and Jan Muller have been employed on a half-

time basis to fulfil the role. Jan resigned in February 2010

and has not been replaced however Jodie has worked

additional hours.

Both Jodie and Jan have worked with individual children

and their schools to ensure that each child has an

Individual Education Plan and a School Support Group in

accordance with the DEECD/DHS Partnering Agreement.

Jodie and Jan and other Extended Care Staff facilitated

the Books In Home Program which provides books for

children in care via three special book presentations

throughout the year using a well-known Aboriginal

person to help promote the books and reading with the

children.There are currently 40 children in this program.

Geelong Extended Care Program

Pauline Fennell, the Extended Care caseworker works

from the Lakidjeka office in Geelong, and has done some

excellent work in supporting the children and their

carers, and the children’s families, and working well with

Lakidjeka and DHS staff.

The work in Geelong is managed by Julie Toohey due to

the complexity of the cases there which require strong

advocacy and support. Presently we have five full-time

carers and two respite carers in Geelong caring for

twelve children.There are nine general placements, two

intensive and one complex.

Further work needs to be done to increase the foster

care targets in Geelong and surrounding areas, as more

Aboriginal placements are needed.

Activities for Children and their Carers

The staff have also continued with the KKICNARP (Koori

Kids in Care New Active Recreation Program) program

which is a recreational program for the children in Out of

Home Care.They are generally held in the school

holidays and all the children enjoy the days very much as

they get to see other children in care.

Most of the children in extended care participated in the

highly successful VACCA Wominjeka Children’s Festival in

November 2009 by learning dance, art and didgeridoo

playing before the festival.

5.2 Koorie Cultural Placement and Support

Program

This program is managed by Julie Toohey.Yolanda Glenn

supervises the worker.This program provides cultural

support to Aboriginal children living in mainstream

placements in the North and West DHS region. Bisette

Morgan has been working in the role since February

2010.

The program has struggled to meet targets due to a

change of worker, however valuable cultural work is being

done with clients in mainstream placements, their carers

and Residential Care staff.

5.3 Aboriginal Therapeutic Residential Care

Program

This program has been managed by the Program Manager

Robbie Merrigan since October 2009 and, with the

support and help of our Therapeutic Specialist,Tenille

Abell (until June 2010) has provided therapeutic care for

very troubled young people.

We commenced the operation of our Aboriginal

Therapeutic Residential Care Pilot program at Reservoir

in December but also implemented the principles and

practice (where possible) of therapeutic care at the

Coburg group home.

At Reservoir, the current staff are: Krissy Mayberry,

Team Leader; Bec Mayberry, Second in Charge, Marie

Jones, Robert Faldon, Darren Gobbey. Jamaica Barrientos,

Heather Brooks and Shaliesh Patel are agency staff who

have agreed to transfer their employment to VACCA.

At Coburg the current staff are: Hayley Jones,Acting

House Supervisor; Debbie Learhinan, Second in Charge,

Jerome Phillips,Troy Brickell and Robyn Young, an agency

worker who has also agreed to transfer her employment

to VACCA.

Staff at the Brunswick office are: Mika Akune, Case

Co-ordinator, Namatjira Morgan, Cultural Support

worker and Sue Molner, Education Support worker (who

retired on September 18th this year).

Staff who have left the program are: Jade Hudson-Morgan,

Casey Atkinson, Phil Ah Wang,Arif Gray,Arthur Ellis,

Robert McCubbin, Ben Clarke and Shannon Andy, Illana

Atkinson.We thank them for their work with our

children and young people.

Theresa McNally left the position of House Supervisor at

Reservoir on 30th April 2010, and I would like to thank

her for her leadership in the development and

establishment of the therapeutic pilot.

Targets

The target for the program which is 7.6 daily average

occupancy has not been met due to the agreement of a

planned entry process to the pilot therapeutic group


home at Reservoir.We only had one 11 year old boy in

the Reservoir group home for seven months when he

was joined by two boys from the Hume region on July

1st.The boys were aged 10 and 12 years.At Coburg, we

continued with a sibling group of three until the 17 year

old girl moved into a Lead Tenant placement in January,

and the 15 year old boy moved to another placement in

March.We currently have five children at Coburg with an

age range of 6-14 years.

Staff Training

Tenille Abell has provided a lot of training in relation to

responding in a therapeutic way to children and young

people in Residential Care. In particular,Tenille and Shaun

Coade from Take Two provided 5 days training on

“Yarning Up About Trauma” in February/March.

Four staff members are undertaking the Certificate 4 in

Protective Care at Kangan Batman TAFE.

There is an ongoing cycle of training in relation to Fire

and Emergency Safety to ensure that we comply with

regulations.

Most staff attended the “Resi Rocks” forum in May which

focussed on Therapeutic Residential Care.

All staff Attended the 2 day National Therapeutic

Residential Care Conference with Bruce Perry in

September.

New staff will participate in the 2 Day “With Care”

training in the next two months.

Reservoir Group Home (under 12 years)

Following the closing down of the old Reservoir program

on 12th November 2009, the house was refurbished to

make it more home-like with part of the kitchen wall

being knocked down, the internal office window closed

off and the outdoor area enhanced. Kevin Ellis did some

art work on the walls and doors of the children’s

bedrooms.

There have been many successes and also pitfalls in the

implementation of the therapeutic program with a

number of staff leaving the program including the House

Supervisor at the end of April. Krissy Mayberry, the

Second in Charge took on the responsibility of House

Supervisor.

The strength of the program has been achieving

congruence in the team through the weekly team

meetings which have included a Sanctuary model

community meeting, reflective space and teaching

conducted by Tenille, the Therapeutic Specialist.The

program has been supported by the monthly Operational

Planning meetings and Strategic Planning meetings.

In the last four months difficulties arose due to a number

of changes which were: a) no Therapeutic Specialist during

that period b) loss of staff and inability to fill vacancies

causing us to have to use agency staff c) two new boys

entering the program as of July d) change of senior

manager for 8 weeks from late July to mid September.

We are through these difficulties now with a Garry Miller

appointed by Take Two as our Therapeutic Specialist; staff

recruited to fill the lines on the roster; and it being

assessed that one boy would benefit from moving to

another placement due to ongoing violence towards him

by his older brother.

Coburg Group Home

Appointing Hayley Jones as the Acting House Supervisor

in January has had a positive impact on the day to day

running of the house.After a very difficult period of

caring for three adolescents, the composition of the

house changed in March when the 15 year old boy

moved to another placement.We were then asked to

care for younger children and have been caring for three

very troubled younger children aged 7 and 8.We have five

children in placement.The staff are doing an excellent job

of building relationships, managing very challenging

behaviours, negotiating accesses and school transport

across Melbourne.

The staff group has now stabilized after having had to use

a lot of agency staff to cover vacancies.

Weekly team meetings occur and with Garry Miller being

only a .5 position,Take Two have offered the services of

Chris Tanti to provide Reflective Space and secondary

consults to workers at Coburg.

All Residential Care staff have also had the opportunity

to have debriefing with Rob Gordon on a monthly basis,

but have found it too hard to access at the agreed time.

We are now looking at other debriefing options for the

staff.

Education Support Worker

Sue Molner has continued as the Education Support

worker in the Residential Care Program. Sue has been

able to implement the Partnering Agreement ensuring

that all children attending school have Individual

Education Plans and School Support Groups.

Sue has assisted the adolescents to access alternative

school settings which they attend irregularly. Sue resigned

in September 2010 and the position is currently vacant.


I would like to thank all our residential care workers who

do an amazing job of working face to face, twenty-four

seven, with some of our most challenging children and

young people.

5.4 Permanent Care Program

Gemma Morgan has continued as the Permanent Care

Caseworker position and was promoted to the Co-

ordinator position in April 2010.

Gemma has been managing all the Permanent Care

referrals and has completed a number of assessments

across the state and more particularly in the Loddon

Mallee and Gippsland regions. Gemma has also supported

cases which required support with access or cases which

may have been at risk of breaking down. Gemma has

great strengths in the area of finding out a child’s family

tree and in the development of the Cultural Support

Plans which often have not been completed even though

the child has been in care for many years.

Targets

The target of 16 Permanent Care assessments has been

met. Of these 16 assessments, four Aboriginal carers and

twelve non-Aboriginal carers and 27 children were

involved.There were children in placement with family

members, and children in placements with non-related

carers.

There are currently four assessments in progress.There

were ten cases that were provided with extra support

particularly around facilitating and supervising access

visits.A great outcome has been the arrangement of two

reunions for a sibling group of six children who had not

been all together for many years.

Of the Permanent Care clients referred to the agency,

eight Permanent Care Orders were made for ten

children to four Aboriginal carers and four non-Aboriginal

carers in the last financial year. Given the change in the

legislation that allows DHS to assess permanent care

placements of children in the care of Aboriginal carers,

we are not aware of the total number of Aboriginal

children placed on Permanent Care Orders across the

state.As at June 2010, there were twelve referrals on the

waiting list.

Changes in relation to the Permanent

Care Program

The Metropolitan Aboriginal Kinship Care Program

(Contracted Cases only) has taken on the case

management of 42 children in the metropolitan area.The

mainstream Kinship Care Programs are expected to

complete Permanent Care assessments that pertain to

the children who are contracted by their agencies. It is

expected that the VACCA Kinship Care Program

(Contracted Cases only) will be expected to complete

Permanent Care assessments on the cases that they are

managing.

The new Kinship Care workers require training and

support in conducting Permanent Care assessments and

this is a new area of work for our Permanent Care

program.

Other Aboriginal agencies also have Contracted Kinship

Care cases, and it is yet to be discussed if there is a role

for VACCA to provide training and support to these

agencies in completing Permanent Care Assessments and

court reports.

In light of these changes, it is imperative that we reshape

the VACCA Permanent Care Program in 2011.

5.5 Metropolitan Aboriginal Kinship Care

Program (Contracted Cases)

As mentioned earlier,Aboriginal agencies were excluded

from providing the full range of Kinship Care program

components, however work commenced in March 2010

to develop the Contracted Cases component of our new

kinship care program.

The program involves supporting relatives and friends to

care for Aboriginal children who are DHS child protection

clients on Custody or Guardianship orders by taking on

all the tasks associated with case management of a case.

Because it is a new program with a lot of training

required and new tasks to be undertaken, it was agreed

that the program which has targets in the Southern and

Eastern DHS regions would be managed from the

Brunswick office for the first 12 months of operation.

Targets

The targets for the Aboriginal Kinship Care Program

(Contracted Cases) are 30 cases in the North and West

Region, 8 cases in the Southern region and 4 cases in the

Eastern region totalling 42 cases across the metropolitan

area.

Funding was allocated on the basis of each caseworker

having a caseload of 12 cases. For VACCA, this meant that

we were to appoint 3.5 caseworkers.

No funding was made available for a Team Leader or

Program Manager to oversee the program.There is also

no funding for cars, mobile phones and coverage for

workers’ leave.


We are on track to meet the target. In the North and

West region we have 26 cases contracted with 5 referrals

pending In the Southern Region we have 5 contracted

cases with 3 referrals pending.After much negotiation, no

suitable cases for contracting were identified by the

Eastern region, and they have agreed to give their 4

targets to the Southern region.

Establishment of the new team

Emma Bamblett, Co-ordinator of New Programs and

Initiatives transferred to the program in late March and

assisted with the early developmental work.

By late May, two other caseworkers Cassie Batten,

Lakidjeka North and West caseworker and Bronwyn

McBride, Family Services caseworker agreed to also

transfer to the new program.

In June, Margaret Triffit was recruited as Team Leader. In

July, I went on two months leave and a Locum Program

Manager,Vanessa Halge agreed to come to fill the

management gap.Vanessa has continued in the role of

Program Manager.

The team has now become quite strong with weekly

team meetings being held, and the appointment of

another caseworker Arthur Ellis to work with the males

in the program.

Staff Training

There has been a lot of training for staff in the

establishment of the new training such as the state wide

introduction to kinship care called “Engaging Families in

Decision Making”. Staff have also attended training on

Case Contracting, Best Interests Planning, Looking After

Children (LAC), Court Training, CRISSP and CRIS.

Monitoring of the program

The program is overseen by a VACCA Kinship Care

Reference Group, and by the DHS Cross Regional

Metropolitan Aboriginal Kinship Care Program Reference

group.Vanessa attends the North and West DHS Kinship

Care Network meetings, and Margaret attends the North

and West Kinship Care Practitioners Group.

Achievements and Challenges

The staff have done an exceptional job of getting this

program up and running in a very short space of time.To

have signed 31 contracts in a period of 3-4 months is a

huge achievement. Staff have been visiting the families,

assessing and responding to needs, completing LAC

documents, developing Care Plans and largely meeting

DHS requirements.

Challenges for the program are: managing the complexity

of the cases due to information not being known due to

cases not having been visited for a very long time by

DHS; the carers being volunteers, not specifically assessed

and trained; being asked to do tasks which are the

responsibility of DHS; grappling with the electronic

recording requirements of CRISSP and CRIS; defining how

the Aboriginal Kinship Care program differs from

mainstream Kinship Care from a cultural perspective;

managing Quality of Care Concerns and articulating an

Indigenous perspective on risk.

There have also been teething problems in the

relationship with Child Protection due to differing

expectations of each other which is being worked

through.

The broader issue of the difficulty for Aboriginal workers

working within their own community is heightened in

working in the Kinship Care Program.

5.6 Aboriginal Adolescent Community

Placement House

As part of the North West Out of Home Care

redevelopment, VACCA was offered funding in late 2009

to set up a house with a live-in carer for three

adolescents aged between12-18 years. It was agreed that

VACCA would pilot the model over the next 12 months.

The model is a mix of elements of residential care and

home based care in the following way:

Home Based Care components:

• carers to be assessed and trained as a foster carer

• carers to receive a reimbursement

• carers provided with support and supervision

• planned entry of clients

• clients matched to carer and other residents

Residential Care components:

• carer does not live in her own home

• the house belongs to DHS managed by VACCA

• carer provided with fortnightly and a 4 week respite

• support worker employed to support the

placements

• car provided to carer by the agency

• three young people living together is congregate

care

A Project Worker, Rene Sephton commenced work in

January and a DHS/VACCA working group was set up in

February to guide the work.


Our primary carer, Pauline Cassady was recruited in April

and she assisted in setting up the house which is owned

by DHS.The house was refurbished in May and two

young people were identified as suitable for the house in

early June.A 16 year old young woman moved into the

house on 8 July this year and a 17 year old young woman

moved in on 12 July.

The positions of .5 Senior Case Manager and Support

Worker were advertised and staff were recruited but

chose not to take up the roles. Julie Toohey provided the

casework support for the program for the first three

months. Rebecca Boss from the Extended Care team was

appointed as the .5 Case Manager in October.

Pauline’s daughter Gabrielle Cassady has provided

support to Pauline in the house, and Pauline’s other

daughter Rona Cassady has provided Respite Care for

one week.

In terms of program development, we need to firm up

the Respite Care arrangements and reconfigure the hours

of the Support Worker to better fit the needs of the

young people. If a male moves into the house, a male

Support Worker will need to be employed.

Achievements and Challenges

Pauline has achieved the goal of making the house her

home and in so doing is providing a home for the young

women. Pauline has established strong relationships with

both of the young women and their parents. Pauline has

been teaching the young women about what it means to

be strong Aboriginal people who are proud of their

heritage, as well as teaching them basic life skills and to

become more independent.

Parenting adolescents is challenging at the best of times,

but Pauline has gained the respect of the young people

and has managed some difficult situations where the

young people have been disrespectful or not complied

with her bottom lines.

A particularly challenging time was when Pauline had

some respite for a week, and one young woman needed

to be hospitalized on three occasions having taken

unprescribed medication.

A key challenge will be when a third young person moves

into the house which should occur in the next few

weeks.Another challenge is to work out the best way of

supporting Pauline to sustain her in the longer term, and

developing a team approach to the care of the young

people.

5.7 Indigenous Leaving Care Program

The Indigenous Leaving Care program aims to provide

support and practical assistance to young people aged

between 16-18 years who need to move out of DHS

funded Out of Home Care placements.The focus of the

program is on addressing the issues Indigenous young

people have when leaving care, such as assisting young

people to make meaningful connection with their families

and culture, to gain access to stable accommodation,

develop necessary life skills, secure employment or

training, and it can allow for young people to be provided

with access for a limited period of time to transitional

housing where that is deemed useful.The program has

nomination rights on 5 properties across the three

regions in which to place a young person.This has now

been reduced to 4 properties.

There has been a change in the management of the

program in the last 12 months in that as of June 2009

Julie Toohey took on the supervision of the North West

and Loddon Mallee Leaving Care worker Kiri Herekuia.

Marion McNeil continued supervising the Morwell

worker,Tareena Maynard.

As of July 2010 it has been agreed with the funding

providers that providing a service to Bendigo from

Melbourne was unworkable and that it was best to pass

this work onto a local Aboriginal agency.

Funding for the program was increased by a .5 position

which has enabled us to employ one full time worker in

Brunswick and one full time worker in Morwell.

In the North and West region Kiri provided a high level

of support to young people in our transitional properties

as well as completing Office of Housing applications for a

number of young people, and assisting them to find long

term housing. Kiri worked with 8 clients until she

resigned in March 2010. Kiri worked with one young

person in Bendigo but because of the geographical

distance could not respond face to face on a daily basis.

St Luke’s Bendigo provided any crisis support.

The North and West/Loddon Mallee position was vacant

for several months until Hannah Pugh-Uren commenced

in a student placement and was then employed as the

Leaving Care worker in February. Hannah is presently

working with six young people.

With the increase in funding for the Morwell position the

catchment area for the Indigenous Leaving Care Program

is now to cover the whole of the Gippsland region which

includes the areas of the Latrobe Valley (Morwell), Baw

Baw,Wellington, South Gippsland and East Gippsland as

far as Lakes Entrance.There are presently 23 Aboriginal

young people from the ages of 15-17 who are in care in


the region which means that 11 young people cannot

access an Aboriginal Leaving Care service.As well as this

the geographical area is too large for one worker to

provide a meaningful service and the agency will be

advocating for another Leaving Care position in the

eastern part of the region.

Further to this, there are insufficient accommodation

options for Aboriginal young people aged 16-18 year in

the Gippsland region as they are too young to access

adult housing and do not access mainstream services.We

think that there is a need for transitional hostel-like

accommodation for Aboriginal young people until they

are able to access adult housing options, and will be

advocating for this in 2011.

Julie and Marion have been attending the Regional Leaving

Care Alliance meetings as well as the Local Area Service

Network (LASN) meetings in some of the catchment

areas in their relevant regions which are the key decision

making bodies for the allocation of funds and roles and

responsibilities to agencies.

Targets

The original target for each region was four young people

which was exceeded in both regions.With the increase in

funding the target is now 12 young people per region.

Developments in the Leaving Care Sector

In the last financial year some agencies were funded to

provide Post Care Support for young people aged 18-

21years who had left care and had been on Custody or

Guardianship Orders at aged 16. Berry Street in the

North and West region and Gippsland were given funds

to provide brokerage and a case management service.

This is not a satisfactory arrangement for Aboriginal

young people who will not access a mainstream service

and we need to negotiate with these agencies how

Aboriginal clients are going to receive such a service.

Leaving Care Brokerage funds administered by DHS Child

Protection and DHS Placement Support Units were

provided in all regions about two years ago, but many

clients are not receiving this money as there has been an

inadequate communication strategy to inform both

workers in the field and the young people themselves

how they can access this money, and what it can be used

for.Aboriginal young people leaving care who probably

need the funds the most, are being disadvantaged in this

process.

There is a similar situation in relation to the Mentoring

Program funds which was given to Whitelion in the

North and West Region and to Berry Street in the

Gippsland region.To my knowledge no Aboriginal young

person leaving care has accessed this program although

they are meant to be providing a service to Aboriginal

young people.

In the last few months DHS central Aboriginal Child and

Family Unit have commenced some program

development work in relation to the provision of a state

wide Aboriginal Leaving Care program.Yet while we

welcome this work, it is disappointing that the needs of

Aboriginal people have yet again not been considered

when the Leaving Care program was developed several

years ago.

5.8 Kurnai Youth Homelessness Program

The Kurnai Youth Homelessness Service, based in

Morwell, provides a culturally appropriate support service

for Indigenous young people and families in the Latrobe

Valley.The program aims to assist young people with their

accommodation needs.The staff provide a case

management approach to Aboriginal young people who

are homeless or who are at risk of homelessness.The

program provides assessment, support and referral

services to Aboriginal young people in a culturally

engaging and supportive way.

The funding for the program allows for one Co-ordinator

and a Senior Caseworker position. Marion McNeil has

been the Co-ordinator and Lorena Thompson has been

working in the caseworker position.

The client group for the program is Aboriginal young

people aged between 15-25 years.

The target for the program is 96 contacts per year. In the

last financial year, the program had 107 contacts.

Kurnai has nomination rights to one transitional property

in Morwell which is insufficient to meet the demand, and

we need to advocate for more housing options for our

young people in the Gippsland region, particularly the

Latrobe Valley.

Many Aboriginal young people access this service and

have received an excellent service from our workers as

demonstrated by the feedback given by the clients to the

Auditors.

Housing Emergency Funding (HEF)

The Kurnai program has been provided with HEF funding

to assist homeless Aboriginal clients with emergency

funding according to their particular need. Following a set

of guidelines, the funding can be used to: pay for a night’s

accommodation in a motel, pay rental arrears, pay for

travel tickets, pay for white goods etc.The agency has


been given $5000 to distribute over a 12 month period.

We have also been given $8000 as a one off grant as we

have become an Entry Point for Indigenous youth who

are homeless or are at risk of homelessness.

Opening Doors Entry Point

VACCA Morwell is now an Entry Point in the Latrobe

Valley for Indigenous Youth Homelessness under the

Office of Housing Opening Doors Strategy.This has

changed the way in which the Kurnai program operates in

that we are now required to have an Intake Worker

present at all times in the office to assist any Indigenous

young person who is homeless or is at risk of

homelessness.

We also now have to categorize our clients in three

levels which are Interim Response Level 1, Interim

Response Level 2 and Case Management.We are also

required to utilize an electronic data base called the

Resource Register to upload our vacancies for Interim

Response 1 and 2 and Case management so that other

homelessness and family violence services can make

referrals to our programs.

We have now employed an Intake Worker to do this

work, and the processes described above are being

implemented.

5.9 Integrated Family Violence program for

women and children – Morwell

The program provides an intensive case management

service to Aboriginal women with or without children,

who are experiencing domestic violence.The program is

to utilize the existing family violence assessment

framework to determine the needs of the woman and

what level of service is required.

The program is funded to provide a service in Warragul

in partnership with the West Gippsland Health Care

Group.This has extended the boundaries of the work of

the other homelessness programs at the Morwell office.

The target for the program is 8 intensive case

management cases, and 23 short term contacts.The

program has had 19 short term contacts and 2 intensive

case management cases which is excellent given that the

worker, Donna Hood only commenced work in the role

in January 2010 and is only funded to work four days a

week with this program.

Donna is excellent in engaging young women who are

escaping family violence which is critical for them to use

the program in an ongoing way.

A Place To Call Home Program

The Gippsland region will be receiving nine properties

over the next four years which can be accessed by

families including women and children who are

experiencing Family Violence, Indigenous families and

families in housing crisis.

VACCA have been offered one property to our Family

Violence Program for one of our women to live in long

term provided that she meets the eligibility criteria.The

critical component of the success of this program is our

worker’s ability to continue working with this family for

12 months at which point they can be provided with the

house.The worker is then to provide transitional support

for two months once the woman has moved into the

house.The client will then be able to tenant the house

long term.

We are waiting on Salvation Army Gippscare to identify a

property for this program in Warragul for which we will

identify one of our clients in the Family Violence program.

Under this program, DHS Community Housing will

provide one property per year for the next three years

to VACCA to put one of our Family Violence into, and

provide support for twelve months.

The funding provides for a .2 worker. Donna Hood who

works .8 as our Family Violence worker has agreed to

work an extra day a week to implement this program.

5.10 Development of Indigenous Family

Violence Refuge in Gippsland

In February 2010 we were approached by the

Department of Human Services to put in a proposal to

receive interim funding for the consultative and

developmental work around the establishment of an

Indigenous Family Violence Women and Children’s Refuge

in Morwell. No land has been purchased yet for the

refuge and so interim funding is to provide an Interim

Family Violence Service response to Indigenous women

and children for a period of two years whilst a facility is

being built.We were successful in obtaining this interim

funding as it would enhance the Integrated Family

Violence Program already operating in Morwell.

The interim funding was to be split into three areas

which are:

a) Case management support for Indigenous women

and children

b) Intensive case management support for Indigenous

women and children

c) Administration and Community Development


DHS made it clear to the Aboriginal community in

Gippsland that once the facility has been completed, an

ongoing service provider to manage the refuge will be

engaged via a public or invited submission process.

With this interim funding, we have employed a .4

Community Development Worker, Esme Thompson who

is doing the stakeholder consultations in the region and

providing reports to the Steering Group for the project.

We have also been able to employ two extra Family

Violence workers, Rachel Carter and Rehana Naidu to do

both intake and outreach work.

The program covers both the Latrobe Valley and Baw

Baw shires.

We agreed to provide two one day training for the

mainstream sector around Indigenous Family Violence.

The first of this training was provided on October 10th

and was extremely well attended with 32 attending and a

wait list of 22.We also agreed to provide a group work

program for Indigenous women affected by family

violence.The training and group work is being provided

by Megan Cadd.

6. MANAGEMENT OF THE MORWELL OFFICEGiven the expansion in the number of programs at the

Morwell office, it has been necessary to increase the

management infrastructure at the office in relation to the

all the programs except the ACSASS program.We have

decided to put in a Program Manager as well as Team

Leader position.This is needful to be able to attend all

the meetings associated with the different programs and

to service our partnerships.

7. FUTURE CHALLENGES/PRIORITIESThe major priorities in the next twelve months are:

• Strengthening the utilization of the DHS CRISSP and

CRIS electronic data bases

• The development and implementation of an

Aboriginal Therapeutic Foster Care Program

• The development and implementation of other

components of the Aboriginal Kinship Care program

which are the Information and Advice Service, the

Family Support Service and the Placement

Establishment Service

• The development and implementation of an

Aboriginal Leaving Care Service.

• The consolidating of the Aboriginal Therapeutic

Residential Care Program

• Improving the communication between the

Placement and Support Programs and other VACCA

programs and external stakeholders

• Focussing on the well being of staff by ensuring that

all staff have individual safety and well being plans.

CONCLUSIONI believe that there has been a very strong performance

by the staff in the unit, particularly by the Program

Managers,Team Leaders and House Supervisors who have

the responsibility of managing the risks associated with

children in care, dealing with homeless young people and

survivors of family violence, the running of programs, and

the functioning and well-being of staff.All the Placement

and Support workers display an astonishing level of

dedication, hard work and resilience in ensuring the well

being and safety of our children and young people in care,

and providing an excellent service to homeless young

people and women and children affected by family

violence.

I would like to thank all the staff for their commitment,

energy and creativity in doing this extremely complex and

emotionally demanding work, and in particular Julie

Toohey,Vanessa Halge, Robbie Merrigan, and Marion

McNeil and other senior staff for their leadership and

support.

Thanks also to Muriel and Connie for their unfailing

guidance, support and inspiration.

Gwen Rogers – Executive Manager


INTRODUCTIONSouthern VACCA, which is based in Dandenong, delivers

child and family welfare programs to vulnerable Aboriginal

children and families in the Southern Metropolitan Region

(SMR).The Southern Metropolitan Region is a very large

geographical region extending from Prahran south of the

Yarra River as far as Pakenham and the Mornington

Peninsula in the south, and Rowville in the east.There is

major growth in the south east of the region in the shires

of Casey and Cardinia.

VACCA have operated an office in Dandenong since 2000

with the inception of the Aboriginal Family Preservation

Program (Wilka Kwe) and the Lakidjeka ACSASS program

in 2002.The Dandenong VACCA office has moved three

times since then, with the latest move occurring in July

2009 to B1, 219 Frankston-Dandenong Road, Dandenong.

The service is now known as Southern VACCA.

The programs provided are:

• Wilka Kwe Aboriginal Family Preservation Program

(AFPP)

• Extended Care Program (Foster Care)

• Aboriginal Kinship Care

• Koori Cultural Placement and Support

• Child FIRST Aboriginal Liaison Worker

• Aboriginal Family Decision Making Convenor

• Playgroups

• Community Support Worker

• Newly funded program Integrated Aboriginal Family

Preservation and Reunification Service, also known

as Family Coaching Victoria

• Eastern DHS Region Aboriginal Family Decision

Making Co-ordinator

• Eastern DHS Region Child FIRST Aboriginal Liaison

Worker

• Lakidjeka Aboriginal Child Specialist Advice and

Support Service (ACSASS) managed by the ACSASS

Executive Manager located at Brunswick office.

1. MANAGEMENT OF SOUTHERN VACCAThe Executive Manager for the last 12 months has been

Sepi Weerasinghe and the Operational Manager has been

Rebecca O’Dowd. In June 2010 Rebecca resigned from

her position and Sepi reduced her hours significantly.

Despite this, they have both provided support to

Southern VACCA until October 2010.We thank them for

their hard work and commitment to ensuring the

ongoing functioning of Southern VACCA. Since October

2010, I have assumed the role of Interim Executive

Manager at Southern VACCA.

Jill Owen has been the Southern VACCA Program

Manager since 2006 but finished working at VACCA on

25th June 2010.This left a huge gap as Jill has a long

history in the Dandenong area and the Southern Region

as her parents were founding members of the Dandenong

and District Aboriginal Co-operative and Jill was the first

Co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Family Preservation

Program in 2000. Jill knew many of the Aboriginal families

in the area and had strong relationships with

professionals in the child and family welfare sector.We

thank Jill for her enormous contributions to VACCA and

the Aboriginal children and families in the southern

region.

Nathan Fenelon, the Eastern Region Co-ordinator

Aboriginal Family Decision Making agreed to act in the

position of Southern VACCA Program Manager for an

interim period of 3 months.

In November 2009, it was decided that the role of Co-

ordinator Family Service and Out of Home Care should

be split into two positions: Co-ordinator Family Services;

and Co-ordinator Out of Home Care Services. Julie

Pearson continued as the Co-ordinator Family Services

and Julie MacDougall was appointed Co-ordinator Out of

Home Care in November 2009. Julie Pearson has been on

extended leave since February 2010, and Julie MacDougall

finished with the agency early September 2010.


SOUTHERN VACCA – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

2. REVIEW OF SOUTHERN VACCAA review of the management and operation of Southern

VACCA commenced in June 2010 and was completed in

September 2010.

Key issues found in the review were:

1. Under funding of Southern VACCA program limits

our ability to invest in adequate management

positions, which hampers the development of

appropriate staffing models and support for staff.

2. Confusion regarding the Management Structure.

3. Lack of clarity around the roles, responsibility and

authority of the Programs Manager and clear lines of

reporting

4. A disconnect between the North West and

Southern Out of Home Care programs

5. Insufficient attention paid to partnerships and sector

participation.

Some of the recommendations of the review are:

dedicated Executive Manager for SMR to be appointed;

increase the management positions; strengthen links with

the programs at the Brunswick office; develop and

implement a specific workforce and human resources

strategy for Southern VACCA; implement the VACCA

Staff Well being Policy at Dandenong office.These

recommendations are being acted on with the

appointment of an Interim Executive Manager.

3. NEW DEVELOPMENTSIn March 2010 Southern VACCA received funding for a

placement prevention program called the Integrated

Aboriginal Family Preservation and Restoration Program

(Family Coaching Victoria) which provides 12 weeks

intensive support and ongoing support up to 12 months if

needed to families whose children have entered care for

the first time with the goal to reunite the children with

their families.The program also works with families who

are at risk of having their children placed in care.

The staffing for this new program is 2.5 staff comprising a

.5 Team Leader and 2 Intensive Family Support Workers.

We are in the process of recruiting workers for these

positions. Georgina Sullivan has agreed to a secondment

from the Brunswick office as the Team Leader Intensive

Family Support Services.Amy Gunning has recently been

appointed as caseworker.

4. PROGRAM OVERVIEW4.1 Wilka Kwe Aboriginal Family

Preservation Program

Wilka Kwe continues to work intensively for 12 weeks

with families where children are at risk of being removed

from home or where children are being returned to their

parent’s care.The funding provides for two staff to work

with two families at a time, providing 15 hours of support

per week.The Co-ordinator is expected to carry a

caseload of one family, but it has been found that this is

an unworkable situation given the amount of leave taken

by the caseworkers, and the need to provide back up

support to their cases.

During the past financial year,Wilka Kwe has worked

with a total of 14 families, 8 of which received more than

12 weeks service.This was a very good outcome given

that the program has been under staffed with only one

caseworker for the majority of the time, and has had no

Co-ordinator since February 2010.

4.2 Extended Care Program

This program provides a culturally relevant service to

provide supported placements for Aboriginal children and

young people in the southern region. Recruitment of

carers, supporting foster care placements and the

children in care is its core business.The target for the

program is 6 placements per year. On average we have

provided 8 placements each month, as well as one regular

respite placement.

We have 3 carers who provide placements. Four new

carers have been assessed and are waiting to be approved

by the VACCA Caregiver Assessment Panel.There are

3 other carers waiting to be assessed.The Senior

Caseworker is Liz Brown, and Sharon Blow has been

responsible for the recruitment, assessment and training

of the foster carers.

There have been a number of Quality of Care Concerns

which have been resolved.

With new carers being approved, we hope to increase

the number of general foster care targets in the next

12 months.

4.3 Kinship Care Program

This program is a home based care placement services

that supports relatives and friends who are caring for

Aboriginal children.The program is similar to the foster

care program in that the children are supported in their

placements, and the placement is monitored to ensure

that the needs of the children are being met.


Southern DHS region has been at the forefront of kinship

care program development and in 2003 funded VACCA

to support 10 kinship care arrangements. Machelle

Walker is the Kinship Care caseworker at Dandenong.

The target has been met in that 10 cases involving 15

children were supported in the last financial year.

This program is likely to change in the next 12 months

due to the establishment of the state-wide Aboriginal

Kinship Care Program.This program has 5 components, 3

of which are still yet to be funded for Aboriginal agencies.

The VACCA Metropolitan Aboriginal Kinship Care

Program (Case Contracting only) which commenced in

March 2010 based at Brunswick is being delivered in the

Southern Region by Bronwyn McBryde.

4.4 Koori Cultural Placement and Support

Program

This program provides support to an Aboriginal child or

young person in a mainstream placement, with the goal

being to support and strengthen the child’s cultural

identity and connection to their Aboriginal family and

community.A major part of the program is to educate

non-Aboriginal carers and agencies about the centrality of

culture to the well being of an Aboriginal child.

The target for this program is 20 children.After a lot of

targeted promotion of the program in the early part of

the year, there has been a total of 15 referrals received

and all have received a service. Some of these referrals

are currently being worked on. Oz Child has been the

highest referrer to the program.

4.5 Playgroups

The playgroups support families with children 5 years and

under in a group work model focusing on child

development, parent-child interactions and basic advice

on parenting issues.There are 3 playgroups presently

located in Frankston, Cranbourne and Pakenham.The

playgroups are held on Wednesday,Thursday and Friday

each week of the school term.Two playgroups are very

well attended, and the other one is growing.Two outings

or activities are also provided during each school holiday

period. Cindy-Lee Harper is the Co-ordinator of the

program, and she supervises 3 staff part-time Playgroup

workers who are:Vanessa Murdoch, Elana Coetzer and

Belinda Swindle.

4.6 Aboriginal Liaison Worker to Child FIRST

This worker has the role of providing consultation to the

Community Based Intake teams and mainstream Family

Support Agencies in relation to Aboriginal families

referred to Family Support programs via Child FIRST.This

service is about ensuring that a culturally responsive

service is delivered to Aboriginal families.

This program commenced in 2008 and is now well

established in the Inner Middle and Frankston-

Mornington Child FIRST Catchment areas. Frankston-

Mornington is the busiest catchment.

In the last financial year the Aboriginal Liaison Worker

was involved in 427 consultations and 10 families were

referred through to Child FIRST. In the Inner Middle

catchment, 310 consultations were provided and 6

families were referred through to Child FIRST.

Kylie Bell has worked very hard in this role, building

relationships and attending operational and service

delivery meetings. Kylie is currently on maternity leave

and due to the inability to recruit staff, has not yet been

replaced.

4.7 Aboriginal Family Decision Making

Convenor (AFDM)

This program seeks to gather together the family of a

child involved in Child Protection and supports and

prepares them to come up with a suitable and safe plan

of action for the child. Detailed preparation for the

meetings is an essential element of the program.

This position has been vacant for the whole 12 month

period, but interviews are to be held to hopefully appoint

someone by the end of November 2010.

4.8 Community Support Worker

This worker has the role to provide support and help to

any member of the Aboriginal Community. David Owen is

the current Community Support worker and sees on

average 4 clients a week. David bases himself at the

Dandenong Co-op several days a week and has had 145

contacts with Aboriginal people since his appointment in

November 2009.

5. EASTERN REGION PROGRAMS5.1 Aboriginal Family Decision Making

Co-ordinator

Nathan Fenelon has continued as the VACCA Co-

ordinator in the Eastern Region and has supervised the

Child FIRST Aboriginal Liaison Worker,Vicky Peters. In

relation to the AFDM program, Nathan has provided a

large number of pre-consultations to families which have

not resulted in actual family decision making meetings.

Nathan has maintained partnerships in the Eastern

Region by attending the Child FIRST Alliance meetings

(both operational and executive); the Eastern Aboriginal


Reference Group, the Eastern Regional Aboriginal Justice

Advisory Group and a number of other strategic

meetings.

A new development for this program is the addition of a

Cultural Support Worker attached to the AFDM program

whose role it is to facilitate the completion of a Cultural

Support Plan for every Aboriginal child in care who is on

a Custody or Guardianship Order.The roll out of this

program is in the early stages with a lot of developmental

work to be done to ensure that the goals and targets of

the program are achieved in a way that is lasting and

meaningful for the child.

5.2 Aboriginal Liaison Worker to Child FIRST

Vicky Peters has been employed in this position since

May 2009.The Outer East Catchment is by far the busiest

with Vicky having been involved in 377 consultations and

15 families being referred through to Child FIRST. In the

Inner East catchment,Vicky has been involved in 142

consultations with 12 families being referred through to

Child FIRST.Vicky has also co-worked a number of cases

with mainstream agencies to help with the engagement of

the families.

Positive relationships have been established with all the

agencies in the alliance by Vicky attending many meetings

at all the agencies.

VACCA have also delivered training child protection and

mainstream agencies in relation to the Cultural

Competency Framework and also Cultural Awareness

Training.

A key achievement was the holding of a Panel Review

meeting for an Aboriginal high-risk adolescent which

brought services together to develop a co-ordinated,

meaningful service response of the young person and

their family.This is significant as there had not been a

Panel Review meeting for a number of years, and in the

past the case would have been closed due to lack of

engagement by the young person.This was an excellent

outcome for the young person.

6. FUTURE DIRECTIONSIt is planned that all the recommendations of the review

will be implemented, which should increase our capacity

to meet all targets and improve service quality.

The major priorities are: to build a business case to

obtain additional funding to be able to employ more

management positions; improve the links between the

Dandenong and Brunswick programs via a formal

structure of meetings and forums; and to appoint an

ongoing Executive Manager to support the service. It is

also planned that the CEO and Senior Management will

have more input into strategic planning for the service.

A major piece of work for this coming year is the

implementation of the Integrated Aboriginal Family

Preservation and Restoration Program (Family Coaching

Victoria) as well as the Aboriginal Family Decision Making

Program.

CONCLUSIONFrom all accounts, it has been a challenging year for

Southern VACCA due to an inability to recruit staff, the

loss of two Co-ordinators and the long serving Program

Manager; and having senior management staff with very

large responsibilities across two regions.

All staff have done an excellent job of continuing to

provide a quality service despite the challenges outlined

above.Vulnerable Aboriginal families have been supported

and helped, and Aboriginal children in care have had their

needs met in placements provided and supported by our

staff. It is very pleasing that we have the possibility of

seven new carers in the near future, and that the

playgroups are expanding and are well-attended

I would like to thank all the staff for “hanging in” there

and for their hard work and commitment to what is

often very emotionally taxing work. I would like to thank

Jill Owen, Sepi Weerasinghe and Rebecca O’Dowd for

their tenacity and dedication in enabling the work of

Southern VACCA to continue and develop. I would also

like to thank Nathan Fenelon in particular for taking up

the responsibility of Program Manager over the last four

months.

Gwen Rogers – Interim Executive Manager


INTRODUCTIONThe Early Intervention and Family Services Program offers

Aboriginal families a varied choice of interventions across

a continuum of support ranging from early intervention

and prevention to the provision of both secondary and

tertiary services. Detailed below are details of the early

intervention and family services programs and services

performance over the past twelve months.

1. GENERAL FAMILY SUPPORTGeneral Family Support service provides in-home

parenting support to Aboriginal families and assists with

implementing routines, behaviour management strategies,

budgeting and linking into other appropriate services as

required. During the financial year (July 2009 – June 2010)

VACCA Family Support has provided general family

support service to 60 (11 short, 13 medium, 36 long)

families.This service response included information and

advice, in-home support, crisis intervention, advocacy,

assertive and active engagement; and secondary

consultations with other professionals within the

community sector.The majority of families receiving our

service reside within the North East catchment (52%);

followed by Hume/Moreland and Brimbank/Melton which

both measured 12% each respectively.

Of the 60 families provided with a service throughout the

year, 50% (30) of these were new referrals, from which 6

were self referrals, 4 Community and 20 Child FIRST.

Additionally, throughput has increased from the previous

year with it currently being at 272 days of service

compared to 221 days last financial year.This increase can

be accredited to the 36 successful closures of cases in

the program.The 5 most pressing issues facing Aboriginal

families over the financial year were parenting, Child

Protection involvement, family violence, mental health and

behavioural issues.

In total VACCA Family Support has provided 5166hrs and

41mins of service delivery for the financial year which

equates to the program working at 75% of its total

capacity.The limited service gap has been due to a

number of factors; some of which were around lack of

staffing, inaccurate recording of data and limited referrals.

In turn however, the additional hours were resourced to

the Restorations program in order to meet the needs of

the complex clients in this program.

The Emergency Relief program assisted 204 families, with

73 families being first time clients seeking assistance.The

program also delivered a non-substantive (one off advice

and referral contact) service on 228 occasions.

The program is staffed by 1 Team Leader and 6 direct

Intensive Family Support Caseworkers; however there

have been ongoing staff vacancies and the program is

currently performing and servicing the community with 1

Team Leaders and 2 Caseworkers, as well as 3 temporary

staff from McArthur recruitment services.We are

currently involved in an active recruitment strategy to

rectify this situation.

2. INDIGENOUS IN-HOME PARENTING SUPPORTSERVICE

The overall aim of the program was to enhance parental

understanding of appropriate child development, deliver

relevant activities and (music, art, crafts, etc) that fostered

positive outcomes for children; enhance bonding and

attachment between parents and children.The program

focuses on children aged between 0-5 years of age and

encourages parents to strengthen their parenting

strategies while being involved in the program.

Three group work programs occurred over the financial

year known as Kinder Circus, Rhythm Tree and Strength-

to-Strength. Each of these groups ran from 6-8 weeks

and families participated in activities with positive, healthy

interactions with their children. Families attended weekly

with the provision of ongoing transport and lunch for the

sessions.A total of 20 Adults and 25 children

participated in the group work sessions and committed

themselves to 5 hours of the program each week.The

group work component of the program conducted

quantitative and qualitative client surveys which examined

participant’s level of satisfaction and feedback for

improvement of the groups. Staff facilitators also

completed evaluation forms which looked at the overall

running of the program.The forms aimed to indicate

areas for improvement as well as qualitative data

suggesting areas where things were met successfully for

the clients as a whole.

The in-home parenting support component of this

program was able to offer the assertive outreach to 6

families over the financial year in order to ensure that the

needs of the families were met with a slightly more


EARLY INTERVENTION & FAMILY SERVICES PROGRAM– AGM REPORT 2009/2010

intensive service of 10 hours of direct contact per week.

On average, 103 hours of service was provided to each

family per intervention and ranged from 3 hours a week

to 10 hours a week.All of these families resided across

the Melbourne Metropolitan region and engaged well in

the service. Families in the in-home support program

provided regular verbal feedback to the staff or the

Manager in relation to whether or not the service was

meeting the needs of the family on a weekly basis or at

the end of the intervention period.The program also

captured feedback during the end of the service when

clients completed an exit form with the staff member and

had the opportunity to discuss positive outcomes.

This program has been managed by 1 Team Leader, with

staff vacancies for one fulltime caseworker. However, the

program has been able to successfully meet its targets

and support families with the Team Leader and the

Intensive Family Support Caseworkers as a result of the

Integrated Model.

3. ABORIGINAL FAMILY RESTORATION SERVICE(AFRS)

The AFRS program is an intensive family preservation and

reunification program which provides support and advice

to parents in their own home or at a residential unit for

up to 20 hours a week over a 12 week intervention

period.The program involves a team of staff in order to

ensure that the hours of service delivery are met and

shared across the team members effectively with the

provision of an on-call service as well.

Once again, the past year has demonstrated a significant

need of this program to support and affect change for

Aboriginal families as 20 pre-referral consultations

occurred in relation to families being eligible for this

program.The program successfully achieved its target of

working and supporting 6 families for the financial year

and over exceeded in the hours of service by delivering

2103hrs and 24 mins of service, which equated to 40.4

hours of service per week.

Out of the 6 families, two families utilized the residential

component and the remaining four were home based

interventions. Furthermore, there was an even spread of

the families in regards to the service delivery of the

program in that three families were for placement

prevention and the other three were for reunification.

All three families in placement prevention were able to

work successfully to have the children remain in the

family home; and two out of the three families in the

reunification process were successfully reunified.The

family where reunification was not successful was agreed

by the parent that this was not the most appropriate

time for reunification to occur due to the parents’ own

significant trauma issues.

Each family received approximately 15.66 weeks of

service and this equated to 94 weeks of service delivery

over the financial year.Therefore, overall the program

worked at 200% capacity.This program is actually funded

for a service of up to 20 hours per week per family, but

due to client complexity and service need, the additional

hours were able to be sourced from the integrated

model so that the program was able to achieve beyond

its assigned targets.

The Restorations program is staffed with the Team

Leader of General Family Support, a fulltime Case

Coordinator (currently vacant) and a fulltime Caseworker

as well a 0.5 Child Wellbeing Worker (currently vacant).

4. VACCA PLAYGROUPSOur playgroups support families with children aged 5

years and below in a group setting.The service provides

an opportunity and access to resources which are

culturally appropriate for parents and pre-school children

to engage in play and early learning interactions.The

focus is on healthy and age appropriate child

development, encouraging positive parent-child

interactions and basic advice on parenting issues.

Playgroups also provide a way for parents to get together

and support each other in a safe, fun and empowering

environment.

The North/West region runs 3 playgroups which cover

the areas for Roxborough Park (Tuesday group),

Thomastown (Wednesday group) and KODE Glenroy

(Friday group), respectively. Each playgroup runs for 2.5 to

3 hours per week during school terms. Session plans are

developed for each playgroup session and incorporate

suggestions from families.There has been a regular

attendance by families to the playgroups, and the ongoing

attendance is associated with the transport that is offered

to all families willing to participate in the program.

Although attendance, at times, has fluctuated due to

children being unwell to attend and parents having to

prioritise other appointments, 26 families have been

successfully and regularly attending across all the 3

playgroups.

There has been some struggle to keep the attendance

substantial for one playgroup in particular; however the

program is looking at strategies to overcome the lack of

attendance by families across all the playgroups.This will

be achieved through positive promotion of the VACCA


Playgroups with regular community and/or agency

education about the positives of being part of the

program for Indigenous children and families.

5. CHILD FIRSTThe Child FIRST program was implemented for

vulnerable families to have access to a coordinated,

intensive, and culturally appropriate family support

service to ensure that the best interests of their children

could be met.

VACCA is involved in 8 out of 9 Child FIRST sites across

the Melbourne Metropolitan Region.

5.1 North West Child FIRST

East Brunswick Office hosts two Aboriginal Liaison

Workers (ALW) that cover the North East, Hume

Moreland, Brimbank Melton and Western Child FIRST

catchments.All catchments are receiving the liaison

function at present and feedback indicates the role is

valued and utilised well.

The ALW positions offer consultations about the

appropriateness of referral, risks, and reports to Child

Protection, strengths of the family, family history, cultural

issues, culturally appropriate ways of working with

Aboriginal families, resources and service links within

Aboriginal networks and the community. In addition they

also receive a half day sit-in-period at the specified Child

FIRST offices in the respective catchments to further

discuss families, attend weekly allocation meetings and do

joint home visits.

Child FIRST is funded for 2.6 positions, with a 0.6

maternity leave vacancy in 2009/2010 financial year.

North East ALW – 0.9 EFT

Hume Moreland – 0.7 EFT

Western – 0.6 EFT

Brimbank Melton – 0.4 EFT

The North East catchment has been operating over 2

years and continues to be our busiest catchment and is

progressing well.As the below graph shows the North

East Child FIRST catchment demands the highest portion

of ALW contact and is closely followed by Hume

Moreland and Brimbank Melton Child FIRST.This justifies

the presence the ALW has twice a week at the North

East, once a week at Hume Moreland and Brimbank

Melton Child FIRST office liaising with the Child FIRST

Intake team.

The North East continues to be our busiest catchment

with 28 families being referred for support closely

followed closely by Hume Moreland catchment receiving

26 family referrals;Western catchment received

10 referrals whilst Brimbank Melton received referrals for

6 families.

ALW Consultations by Child FIRST Catchment

Consultations regarding Aboriginal families are detailed in

the following table:


Quarter North–East Hume–Moreland Brimbank–Melton Western

1 131 episodes 50 episodes 30 episodes 34 episodes




Episodes of service can include practice advice, facilitating

engagement, joint home visits, exploring cultural issues

and assessment.

• North East – 418

• Hume Moreland – 213

• Western – 192

• Brimbank Melton – 103

Feedback indicated the ALW role is increasingly valued

and respected across the Child FIRST and the integrated

family services sector and is now recognised as a core

component of the system.

The Child FIRST program met 43.81% of the designated

targets for the 2009/2010 financial year. Child FIRST did

experience a long standing ALW vacancy, which impacted

on Child FIRST program’s ability to meet targets for the

2009/2010 financial year. Following the implementation of

a strong recruitment strategy the position was filled and

Child FIRST has implemented strategies to monitor

program targets.The program is progressing well with

monthly monitoring to meet our 2010/2011 targets.

The Child FIRST North East, Hume Moreland,Western

and Brimbank Melton Aboriginal Best Interest Working

Groups which is chaired and co-ordinated by the

Program Manager of Aboriginal Liaison Services is

currently being reviewed by Executive Manager with

Child FIRST catchment representatives to ensure the

Aboriginal Best Interest Working Group model reflects

VACCA’s current position. It is anticipated these changes

will occur in the 2010/2011 financial year, regarding how

these groups are conducted in forward planning.

The Child FIRST North East, Hume Moreland,Western

and Brimbank Melton catchments have been actively

involved in the revised Child Protection and Child FIRST-

Family Services State-wide Agreement (Shell Agreement)

that articulates relevant legislative requirements (what the

law permits/prescribes), policy requirements (how the

system works) and high level processes and procedures

(how these are to be implemented) between child

protection and Child FIRST-family services. VACCA Child

FIRST was an active participant in advocating on behalf of

Aboriginal families when submitting recommendations

which will assist Child FIRST to provide a better service

to our complex Aboriginal families.


Child FIRST ALW Consultations

North East

Hume Moreland

Brimbank Melton

Western

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

5.2 Eastern Child FIRST

The ALW role commenced January 2009 and has since

been well established in the Eastern Metropolitan Region

providing a valued liaison service to the Inner East and

Outer East Child FIRST catchment and the integrated

family services sector.

The Outer East has developed to be our busiest

catchment with 15 families being referred for support

closely followed by Inner East catchment receiving

12 family referrals.





Quarter Outer East Inner East

1 77 episodes 44 episodes




Outer East

Inner East

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

4th Qtr3rd Qtr2nd Qtr1st Qtr



and assessment.

• Outer East – 377

• Inner East – 142

5.3 Southern Child FIRST

The ALW commenced December 2008 and has since

established its role the Southern Metropolitan Region

providing a valued liaison service to the Inner Middle and

Frankston, Mornington Peninsula Child FIRST catchment

and the integrated family services sector.

The Frankston Mornington Peninsula Child FIRST has

developed to be our busiest catchment with 23 families

being referred for support followed by Inner Middle

catchment receiving 6 family referrals.





Outer Middle

Frank/Morn Pen

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

4th Qtr3rd Qtr2nd Qtr1st Qtr

Quarter Inner Middle Frankston Mornington







and assessment.

• Inner Middle – 310

• Inner East – 427

6. COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICE PROGRAMThe Community Support Service (CSS) Program was a

new initiative implemented at the beginning of 2009/2010

financial year with the Community Support Service

Officer’s role to offer information, support and advice to

Aboriginal clients requiring a range of services and

support across various sectors.

The first CSS position was not recruited to until

December 2009 and began taking referrals in February

2010. Since this time CCS has met 49% (65) of the

allocated targets for the 2009/2010 year.The CSS

program has a presence at Hume Global Learning Centre

at Broadmeadows each Monday to promote the program

and increase client numbers in the Hume region.

Community Support Service Officer is implementing

strategies such as the usage of the CSS Consult Register,

seeking promotional opportunities (3KND, Universal

Children’s Day), and commencing discussions about a

presence at Victorian Aboriginal Health Service as

recently identified in order to increase our opportunity

to meet targets for the program.

The program anticipates referral numbers will improve

due to close monthly monitoring and further promotion

and a strong presence at the venues previously identified.

7. BARGOONGAGAT INDIGENOUS CASE CO-ORDINATION PANEL

This panel consist of Mainstream and Aboriginal Welfare

Agencies that can offer guidance, support and resources

to help support complex families.There is a core group

of approximately 16 members from family support, drug

& alcohol, education, health and Aboriginal community

controlled organisations that are committed to meeting

and providing a care plan for families referred to the

service.The panel is expected to be convened once a

month with a 50/50 ratio of Aboriginal and non-

Aboriginal members.The panel met 9 times over the

2009/2010 financial year with 3 cancellations due to

conflicting events such as NAIDOC and SNAICC

Conference in 2010.

The Panel completed 75% of the targeted meetings for

the 2009/2010 financial year.The program continues to

experience difficulties with regular attendance from core

members (particularly representation from Aboriginal

agencies due to competing commitments) as well as

limited referrals from other agencies. VACCA continues

to promote the importance and benefits of the panel

with agencies and is in the process of developing new

strategies to address both the limited attendance and

minimal referrals for the 2010/2011 financial year.

8. ABORIGINAL SPECIALIST SERVICES8.1 Aboriginal Family Decision Making

(AFDM)

The primary purpose of AFDM is to provide for the

protection of Aboriginal children and young people

through the involvement of family, culturally relevant

practice and the promotion of community connections.

AFDM is a process that enhances but does not replace

the family’s participation and self determination in the

decision making process about their children.

The commitment of families and individuals to AFDM is

supported by identifying concerns, solutions and

responsibilities to promote and achieve safety for the

child.AFDM recognizes that families are often the best

resource when developing a protection plan ensuring the

safety of the child.

AFDM supports traditional approaches of decision

making and involves Elders in the AFDM process,

encouraging the involvement of wider family networks.

AFDM recognizes, seeks and takes into consideration the

views of young people involved in the child protection

system and actively seeks to encourage the child or

young person’s involvement in the decision making

process.The AFDM process focuses on the strengths of

family members.

AFDM in the N&WM region has been funded to provide

a service for 30 Aboriginal families (per financial year)

involved in the child protection system.The target group

is Aboriginal children or young people who are current

clients of child protection in the N&WM region and:

• Have been notified to child protection and the

matter has been substantiated

• Are subject to a protective intervention

• Are on an interim or final protection order

• Are in out of home care or at risk of entering out of

home

For the 09/10 financial year there have been 37 pre-

referral consults and a completion of 22 targets this


indicates an increase from the previous financial year.

Every AFDM client should receive a minimum of 20hrs of

service delivery in this program. However given the

complex issues that some families experience the hours

of service provision per client exceed program

specifications.

Whilst AFDM fell short of meeting the yearly targets, it

was largely due to the excessive hours delivered to

families in the program and the DHS co convenor

vacancy (as identified in 08/09 AGM).AFDM is working at

70% capacity as it relates to individual targets.The

VACCA Co-convenor has continued to deliver a service

and work toward meeting identified targets.The DHS co

convenor vacancy continued to impact on VACCA

meeting the service targets. DHS has recently filled the

co convenor vacancy this will have a positive effect on

meeting this financial years targets.

AFDM successfully recruited a 1EFT leaving a residual

vacancy of 1EFT.There have been many positive

outcomes for families in the AFDM program this year,

with the program receiving positive feedback from the

meeting evaluations.

Community education was also a focus of the program in

the past year and has been delivered by an AFDM

Community Convenor, in conjunction with the DHS Co-

Conveners at both Footscray and Preston DHS offices.

Convenors will continue to facilitate community

education sessions throughout the year.

8.2 Cultural Support Planning (CSP)

CSP is a new program initiative funded by DHS. CSP will

sit in the AFDM program and is funded for a .7EFT, this

position is a new role and is currently advertised.The

primary responsibility of this role is the development of

Cultural Support Plans (CSP) for Aboriginal children /

young people in out of home care (OOHC), who are

subject to a Guardianship to Secretary Order or Long

Term Guardianship to Secretary Orders.This is a

legislative requirement as part of the Children Youth &

Families Act 2005 (CYFA 2005), ensuring all Aboriginal

Children in OOHC remain connected to their culture,

spirituality, country and community.

CSP is the process of gathering cultural Information for

Aboriginal children and young people and commences at

notification and investigation phases in the life of a child

protection case. First joint home visits and consultations

occur in partnership with ACSASS and Child Protection.

ACSASS service provides the cultural starting point in the

life of a child protection case.ACSASS workers are

consulted at the commencement of a CSP, it is not their

role to develop the CSP. However ACSASS contributes to

the content of the CSP.

Key Duties

• To establish working relationships and work in

partnership with Child Protection ,ACSASS,

Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations,

families, Children/Young people and extended

families,Aboriginal Elders & community and

Community Service Organisations to develop CSP’s.

• To develop CSP’s for Aboriginal Children/Young

people who are in OOHC and subject to

Guardianship to Secretary Order or Long Term

Guardianship to Secretary Orders in line with the

legislative requirements.

• To jointly undertake regular reviews of the CSP, in

line with the Best Interest Case Planning of Child

Protection

• To work collaboratively with ACSASS, Families,

Children/Young People, extended family, Elders,

Aboriginal Communities, CSO’s, care givers and

Child Protection in developing the CSP.

• To work with Child Protection in to ensure CSP

commitments to the child/young person are met.

Therefore keeping a living document that grows and

develops with the child.

• Engage and educate families and community about

the purpose of the CSP, encouraging active

participation by extended family, kinship groups and

community in maintaining a child’s cultural

connection and self identity.

9. FAMILY VIOLENCEThe current priorities that relate to the delivery of a

Family Violence service at VACCA include the:

• Implementation of an integrated service model that

addresses the needs of women and children affected

by FV as well as other complex problems.

• Assertive engagement of chronic and complex

families.

• Accessibility to a continuum of services for

supporting Indigenous families but predominantly

women and children.

• advocacy regarding impact of family violence on

women and children

• community education programs to support family

but predominantly women and children well being

• partnerships with other service providers

• Intensive case management and case work service

response

• Case planning approach

• Active approach to referrals


The integrated approach that VACCA takes will assist

women and children experiencing family violence to

access as a priority all these programs as well as

accessing therapeutic input through the SAAP funding.

The following specific family violence services will be

offered as part of the VACCA integrated model:

• Information & advice regarding family violence

• Linking and referring to other specialist family

violence services

• Legal and Court support

• Casework/case management

• Family Violence counseling

• Family Violence group work

In the 2009/2010 financial year the Family Violence

program worked with 51 families, which consisted of

2432.5 hours of service delivery.This number equated to

91% of targets required for the financial year which

included 10 targets that were required from the previous

financial year.Without the addition of the previous years

target the Program would have exceeded expectations,

working at 110% capacity.

Throughout the year the program also delivered a 6

week group called Koorie Women Know Best.This was

attended by 6 EI&FS clients along with 2 clients from

Elizabeth Hoffman House. Overall the program was

successful and feedback was positive.

Five staff members completed the CRAF – Family

Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management training

which is attended by all services across the Victorian

Family Violence sector. Extensive work has occurred in

the development of the program’s documentation

strengthening the relationship between VACCA and the

funding body. VACCA has been successfully recruited a

Senior Therapeutic Counsellor to work with Aboriginal

families.

CONCLUSIONGoing forward the program will focus on recruiting staff

and the promotion of the program within the community

and local service sector.The program will be promoted

across media outlets including the local newspapers,

Koori Mail and 3KND.The key to the uptake and success

on the program is the ongoing focus and promotion of

family violence services and the strong government push

to develop collaborative working relationships with

service providers.

I would like to thank the staff in the program for their

hard work and commitment in working with our children

and families. I also extend my thanks to the Executive, and

particularly Connie and Muriel for their support.

Kerry Crawford – Executive Manager


INTRODUCTIONLink-Up Victoria, established in 1992, plays an important

and special role in the lives of many Aboriginal people

who are looking for assistance in searching for their

family whom, through Government policies, have been

forcibly removed or separated from their family.The Link-

Up program works with Aboriginal people over 18 years

of age.The Link-Up program assists Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander people to trace and reunite with their

families.

Link-Up Victoria assists clients to search for their families

and in accessing their records.The Link-Up program

assists clients to obtain any relevant files and manage the

ongoing work of our clients’ reunions.The Link-Up

program provides support to the client and the client’s

family.Apart from assisting Aboriginal people with

reunions, the program provides a referral service to

support services and practical support wherever possible.

STAFFING Our staffing now comprises of a Program Manager;

Coordinator of Casework, Supervision and Group Work;

four Caseworker/Counsellor positions; Coordinator of

Administration; and a Receptionist/Administration Officer.

Two Caseworkers have completed their first year of

study for the Diploma of Narrative Approaches for

Aboriginal People.We are also currently in the process of

advertising for a part-time Project Officer for a 12 month

period. Over the past financial year we have had 2

vacancies for the caseworker/counsellor positions but the

team has done a fantastic job even though being short

staffed to reach targets and continue their excellent work.

PROGRAM OVERVIEWLink-Up Client Services:The program provides:

1. Guidance and Support: file search, supported

reading of personal files, general information,

listening, demonstrated understanding of their issues,

and open and honest discussion with clients

regarding family concerns.

2. Counselling:This aspect of Link-Up’s service has

increased significantly and the program now offers

one-on-one counselling, group counselling and access

to healing programs developed for clients of the

service in Victoria.

3. Referrals: Link-Up has a strong network of supports

and will refer clients where professional or specialist

counselling may be required. Link-Up has well devel-

oped networks from which referrals are received

and actioned in a timely and professional manner.

4. Reunion Service:The reunion process for Link-Up

is quite involved and is classified in three stages: pre-

reunion, reunion and post-reunion. Coordinating a

reunion requires a lot of time, effort and

understanding.

Link-Up currently has over 96 clients that we have

worked with over the past financial year.This figure

comprises of the following breakdown.

Male Female Total

First Generation 18 28 46

Second Generation 4 4 8

Third Generation 0 0 0

Other Aboriginal

and Torres Strait 9 32 41

Islander clients

Non-Indigenous clients 0 1 2

Total 31 65 96

Description

First Generation: those clients who were removed from

their families and communities.

Second Generation: those clients whose parents are first

generation members.

Third Generation: those clients whose grandparents are the

first generations members.

Other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients: those

clients who were not removed from family, but are

searching for family members who were removed.

The Link-Up Program also has a responsibility to report

to OATSIH on outcomes achieved in accordance with

contractual requirements as well as acquit the funding

allocated to the program.

OUTCOMES & ACHIEVEMENTSLink-Up Victoria has successfully met all targets for the

year.This is an enormous achievement due to the commit-

ments of the Caseworker/Counsellors to meet study

requirements as well as community outreach and client

commitments. As well as not having a full team on board.


LINK-UP VICTORIA – AGM REPORT 2009/2010

We must be mindful of our budget and ensure that we

submit applications for additional funding as required to

ensure that we are able to provide a quality service to all

clients.

Community Events

Link Up has organised a calendar of activities for their

clients that ran over the last financial year.The team with

their clients have been to Corranderk, Mia Mia Gallery,

William Ricketts Sanctuary, Melbourne Museum and

Koorie Heritage Trust just to name a few.The activity

days are greatly supported by our clients and these days

assist the Link-up team to keep clients connected with

each other and the community.

Training

Two of Link-Up Victoria’s Caseworker/Counsellors have

now completed their first year of study for the Diploma

of Narrative Approaches.The Diploma is nationally

recognized and will equip staff with the skills required to

support our clients in the area of counselling.We also

had a staff member finish her Vocational Graduate Training

in Bereavement Counselling and Intervention.

Relocation of Program

The Link-Up Program has relocated to Wurruk Avenue,

Preston.These new premises are able to accommodate all

staff of the Link Up Program.The team believe we now

have the space to create an environment to run group

work and for clients of Link Up to be able to come and

have a coffee with staff in a warm and welcoming

environment.

National Link-Up Conference

Link-Up Victoria attended and presented at the National

Link-Up Conference and Coordinators meeting in

Queensland in May 2010.

BTH Forums

Link-Up Victoria attended two Bringing Them Home

Worker state-wide forums in Albury/Wodonga and

Healesville.

Sorry Day 2010

Link-Up Victoria was proud to host Sorry Day 2010 at

the Aborigines Advancement League (AAL). Special guests

and entertainment included Richard Frankland and the

Charcoal Club, Kutcha and Mick Edwards, and the well-

known Archie Roach.The day was a huge success with

over 200 people attending throughout the day.There were

many positive comments and fantastic feedback. Service

providers were also invited and enjoyed the event.

1800 OUR MOB

Link up Victoria has secured a free call 1800 number –

1800 OUR MOB or 180 687 662. Link Up Victoria

recognize the importance of creating easier access to our

service, particularly for those people outside of

metropolitan Melbourne.We hope this new number will

encourage community members, current and potential

clients to contact our service.

Website

Link Up Victoria has completed its website and it is now

up and running (www.linkupvictoria.org.au).We encourage

everyone to have a look and we are able to advertise our

program and activities online.

SIGNIFICANT CHANGESFUNDINGLink-Up Victoria is funded to provide family tracing and

reunion services, as well as to provide counselling

services to clients.To ensure that a quality service is

provided Link-Up staff must assess eligibility of applicants;

allocate a Caseworker/Counsellor to support the client,

research their background and search for their family

members; and coordinate reunions including travel,

accommodation, activities and budget.

FUTURE DIRECTIONSThe key priority for the future is the implementation of

the Service Development and Reporting Framework and

the program’s operational plan.

This means the program will, as an example of work

proposed:

1. Strengthen its partnerships and coordination of

services to members of the Stolen Generations

2. Improve the program’s website and develop further

promotional activities

3. Continue to undertake public voice and community

engagement activities

4. Develop policy and procedures manual and program

standards

5. Develop a group healing program for program

clients

I would like to acknowledge all the staff of the program

for their dedication and commitment and thank also the

Board, Connie, Muriel and the Executive staff of VACCA

for their support over the year.

Sue-Anne Hunter – Manager



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