KYLIE BECKHOUSE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FAMILY LAW LEGAL AID NSW The Child Protection Roadshow What is happening internationally and what can we learn?

Los Angeles, US

Pittsburgh, US

Multi-disciplinary team approaches

Flint, Michigan

Multi-disciplinary team approaches to child representation Recommendation: In children’s law practices, trial a multidisciplinary team approach to the delivery of child representation services Why? To test whether there are benefits that children could derive from a multidisciplinary team approach To assess whether this approach could be as cost effective as traditional methods of legal service delivery

Professionalizing child protection law

Better links with universities

Recommendation: Forge closer links between children’s legal practices and university law schools and clinical programs Why? To improve the standard of child representation in Australia To encourages good lawyers and social workers to specialise in this area Let’s professionalise child representation, so that it develops into an area of legal expertise

Training and support Recommendation: Dedicate funding and resources to supporting, monitoring and training child representatives so they can deliver higher quality child representation services Why? Investing resources in effective monitoring processes, training and supervision improves the quality of child representation services. There is a connection between the resourcing of child protection and family law legal systems and the quality of legal services delivered.

Hearing the voice of the child

Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Court in Los Angeles

Child centred facilities at courts

Children’s involvement in court processes Recommendation: That Children’s Courts and the Family Courts develop principles to guide decision making about the participation of children in legal processes including judicial interactions with children. Why? To inform decision making and the participants To articulate appropriate processes and procedures To ensure that judicial meetings are conducted in a safe, transparent and child inclusive manner.

Charters about participation

Feedback tools Recommendation: Introduce a system-wide feedback mechanism for child representation services in order to elicit the views and perspectives of people across the system, including children Why? To ensure child representatives are meeting the needs of the children they represent and the family law system To improve the performance of child representatives To monitor performance and assess whether skill levels are appropriate

ouse KYLIE BECKHOUSE – AUGUST 2015 THANKS TO THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA AND LEGAL AID NSW