building and protecting futures Tough going: Children with Disability in out of home care, family services and applied education settings: Can we build better futures? by Gaye Mitchell and Michelle Van Doorn

building and protecting futures OzChild  OzChild has been caring for Victorian children for 160 years.  Multi disciplinary and Culturally aware programs to strengthen the potential and life opportunities of children/young people  All services to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child along with evidence of what strengthens healthy Child Development.

building and protecting futures Introduction  Why we undertook this project  Outline of the project  Focus of this presentation – Reporting findings of the first two parts of the project, i.e. – Data collected on all children in all participating programs; and – Additional data on a sample of 38 children (a sample of 20%).

building and protecting futures What OzChild programs were involved. Home Based Care Kinship Care Family Services Community VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) Registered Training Organisation (RTO) Certificate in General Education

building and protecting futures Summary of the Project  Spreadsheet data on all children in all participating program. 40 items on each child.  Sample of 20-25% of children with a disability. Data on nature of disability, challenges, barriers, & outcomes  Case study of 5 children with the most serious disability in each program area.

building and protecting futures Focus for the Presentation  Major Findings  Ramifications for - Practice - Program design and development - Policy

building and protecting futures Finding 1

building and protecting futures Finding 2

building and protecting futures Finding 3

building and protecting futures Ramifications of these findings  Our program models are a bit rigid – children with disability appear in every program, not just Disability Services  Ramifications for staffing – having the knowledge about disability  Programs aren’t resourced for this high level of disability

building and protecting futures Finding: a huge array of types of disability Type of disability CVCALRTODisability Services Family Services Home Based Care Kinship Care Total number of children Commun- ication difficulties Intellectual Disability Autism Develop- mental delay ADHD

building and protecting futures Finding: a huge array of types of disability (2) Type of disability CVCALRTODisability Services Family Services Home Based Care Kinship Care Total number of children Speech Delay or Disorder Autism & ID Complex physical disability & ID Mental illness Cerebral Palsy

building and protecting futures Policy, program and practice ramifications of the array of disabilities Develop knowledge about disabilities in the context of the child’s other needs. Professional development for staff. Share knowledge and skill across programs and across the agency. Flexible and responsive access to knowledge and skill for staff has to be funded.

building and protecting futures Finding: co-morbid presentations

building and protecting futures Finding: Many of the children were in families where other family members also had a disability

building and protecting futures Finding: the contribution of poverty & marginalisation in creating disability in Family Services Clients 13 out of 22 children in 9 families, or 59% of the children had multiple family members in at least two generations who also had a disability

building and protecting futures Finding: problems with educational achievement for children with disability

building and protecting futures Finding: many children are not achieving in the class they are in

building and protecting futures Children failing in their year level and unequivocally needing an aide

building and protecting futures Most frequently identified service gaps

building and protecting futures Service gaps and other difficulties Case planning failures Insufficient time (given existing caseloads) to meet the needs of children and carers Service systems that don’t quite meet and children and families falling between the cracks Inability of school, cultural and recreational activities to cope with children with disabilities

building and protecting futures What can we do better – practice, program, policy and sector Extra funding / reduced case loads to meet the needs of children with a disability Develop interventions to improve educational achievement and community connection More targeted approach to families with multiple and complex needs More support for carers of children with serious disabilities

building and protecting futures Much to be done, but much to celebrate! In 34 of 38 cases, intervention was rated as highly or moderately effective Barriers and challenges were consistently tackled through case work and case management Success is achieved with even the children with most serious disability

building and protecting futures Discussion Discussion of these or other ways to do better at Practiceand Program Policy and Sector levels to build better futures for children with a disability in our services Contact: