1. Hearing the voice of children and young people: Challenges, Best Practice and National Standards for Out-of-Home Care in Australia
Dr Angela Cowan
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this paper are those of the author and may not reflect NSW Family & Community Services or NSW Government policy.
Disclaimer:
Views expressed in this paper are those of the author and may not reflect NSW Family & Community Services or NSW Government policy.

2. CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – principle of participation
Article 12 states children have a right to be heard and to have their views given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity in all matters affecting them (da Fina 2012:2)
Hearing the direct voice of children is integral to participation (Bessell 2011)
Over the last two decades Australia, like many European countries recognised children’s rights. In 1991 Australia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and officially acknowledged the right of a child and young person to participate in important decisions affecting their lives (Australian Human Rights Commission 2012). Article 12 of the UN Convention outlines the principle of participation relative to a child’s developmental maturity (UNICEF 1989, Article 12). Hearing the direct voice of children and young people.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to all those aged 17 and under. Adopted by the UN in 1989, it gives children and young people a comprehensive set of over 40 civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. including specific rights to guarantee children's participation in all matters affecting them. By 1997, every country in the world except the USA and Somalia had ratified the UNCRC, making it one of the world’s most widely and quickly ratified human rights instruments.

3. PARTICIPATION: CHILD PROTECTION & OUT OF HOME CARE
Child Protection systems incorporated UN principles:
‘Participation’ of children & young people in decisions affecting their lives
Decisions about children to be in their ‘best interests’
Empower children and young people
Challenges:
Variation/inequities in policies & practices
Research - many children excluded from decision-making
Voices silenced/reinterpreted through adult perspectives
Australia’s statutory child protection system ( States and Territories) incorporated the Convention’s requirement that best interests of the child are paramount in any decision that is made about the child. The Convention’s principle of participation has also been enshrined in the child protection legislation of all States and Territories in Australia. However, the means by which children are legislatively encouraged to ‘participate’ varies widely amongst the States and Territories, as do the policies that are applied by the various statutory child protection authorities and the actual implementation of these legislative and policy See Childrena nd Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW),
Many children and young people feel entirely excluded from the decisions that are made about their lives, including decisions about where they live, with whom they live and where they go to school
The literature demonstrates the extent to which children and young people in care feel powerless, isolated and often afraid.

4. OUTCOME OF NON-PARTICIPATION
Participation — what happens if it doesn’t happen?
Research findings:
Viewpoints of child and young person not considered
Children and young people feel:
* powerless
* they have no voice
* adults make decisions – no ownership by children
* they have no control over what happens
* confused
Addressing Barriers -Research shows throughout Australia more than 35,000 young people are in out-of-home care potentially facing different types of disadvantage. Current variations between state and territories policies and standards mean young people leaving care throughout receive different types of support (Cashmore & Mendes 2008). Participation involves two-way interaction where children and young people’s views are heard. However, no uniform in-care or leaving-care standards for example The CREATE Foundation reported that, across Australia, only 31% of 605 young people, transitioning from out-of-home, had a detailed leaving care plan (McDowell 2011). Advocacy is important for vulnerable children and young people, including those from cultural minority groups, living in out of home care situations. International research shows benefits from access to an independent advocacy service include children: voicing their views, greater understanding of processes in child protection meeting and children feeling empowered (La Valle et. al 2012). The CREATE facilitates opportunities for their voices to be heard in government and non-government decision-making (Taylor & Ashford 2011).

5. OUT OF HOME CARE: PARTICIPATION
BARRIERS:
Variation & inequities in-care or leaving-care standards
Adult perspective dominates decision making process
Children & young people’s participation overlooked
Aboriginal children doubly disadvantaged
Lack of practical child friendly tools and resources
OVERCOMING BARRIERS:
National out-of-home care policy & practice standards
National benchmarks for best practice
Developing practical child friendly tools and resources
Despite support for children’s participation in child protection matters, evidence shows the direct voices of children and young people are being silenced or reinterpreted through the adult perspectives.
Diversity around the meaning of of participation in practice setting creates variation in practice. Conceptually, participation can represented along a continuum with passive consultation at one end through to direct participation in decision making at the other end (Vis & Thomas 2009). Meaningful participation involves two-way interaction where children and young people’s views are heard and acted on
The eight child welfare departments have their own legislation and policies, and consequently there are no uniform in-care or leaving-care standards, although the national out-of-home care standards introduced in December 2010 suggest a minimum benchmark. For exmaple research by he CREATE Foundation reported that, across Australia, only 31% of 605 young people, transitioning from out-of-home, had a detailed leaving care plan (McDowell 2011).
National standards are being developed under Council of Australian Government’s (COAG) National Child Protection Framework , with a view to ensure that children in Out of Home Care receive the same opportunities as those not in care. the aim for National Standards to address the inconsistencies of state and territory regulations and standards for Out of Home Care, because this will result in all Australian children and young people having consistent access to appropriate support services, irrespective of which state or territory they reside in.
National consistency in child protection decision making benchmarks and access to appropriate services, does not mean creating highly prescriptive ‘one size fits all’ national legislation, policy and procedures that every jurisdiction has to implement in exactly the same way. National Standards should, however, provide national leadership and national consistency around best practice child protection decision making benchmarks and improved outcomes for children and young people.

6. CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION: PRACTICAL TOOLS GETTING IT RIGHT (BERRY STREET)
Participation gives young people a sense of agency, self-esteem and placement satisfaction. The messages from the young people focus almost exclusively on the importance to them of maintaining connections to their family, their community and their culture (Chuan & Flynn 2006). Research shows the importance of young preparing to leave care having access to training programs designed to develop practical and social skills. Advocacy is important for vulnerable children and young people, including those from cultural minority groups, living in out of home care situations .
Practical Tools & Resources In practice professionals face a number of challenges ensuring participation occurs (CREATE 2011). A lack of practical, child focused tools and resources is one reason practitioners find it difficult to involve young people in conversations about to hear their views (Turnell and Essex 2006). Child friendly strategies include: choosing a child friendly meeting place and providing refreshments; ensuring a culturally appropriate advocate, supports the child at meetings and providing timely feedback in plain English (Cavet & Sloper 2004; New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People 2004).
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS – CONVERSATION BUILDERS LETTING CHILDREN KNOW THEIR RIGHTS WHILE IN OUT OF HOME CARE
Having a voice is important for children and out of home care especially minority groups.

7. GETTING IT RIGHT:VACCA
Cultural Resources: Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA)
Getting it Right resource is designed for practitioners working with children in out of home care to inform children of their rights under the Charter for Children in Out of Home Care (Berry Street 2011). Questions, games and cards promote discussion on the charter of rights for children in out a home care. This resource was a collaborative project undertaken by the Victorian Department of Human Services, the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, the Office of the Child Safety Commissioner, CREATE Foundation, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) and Berry Street. Culturally appropriate resources are included explaining rights to Indigenous children and young people in out of home care. Resources include a board game, book, wall chart and posters (Berry Street 2011). GETTING IT RIGHT – RESOURCE
The suite of Getting it Right resources assist practitioners, executive teams and agency boards to embed the Charter for Children in Out of Home Care into everything we do when in caring for vulnerable children and young people, and to engage with and inform children and young people in care about the charter.Berry Street has published three resources in this project:
Getting it Right: A resource for embedding the Charter for Children in Out of Home Care in Practice – Governance, Policy & Procedure level
Getting it Right: Activity Cards 7

8. Strength Based Tools THREE HOUSES
Strengths‐based tools and resources have been shown to promote conversations so the voice of the child and young person is heard (Scerra 2011). Munro (2011) recommends improving practice and use of strength based tools so professionals can effectively communicate with frightened or traumatised children. The Signs of Safety model offers strength-based resources promotes conversations with children and young people (Turnell and Essex 2006). The ‘Three Houses’ tool allows children to engage in a conversation with a worker, about what is happening, their views on what they would like to happen. Munro (2011) notes this tool, through conversations and drawings, provides professionals with graphic insights into what life is like for a child.
Three Houses Tool - The Three Houses Tool is a solution-focused tool developed by Weld & Green (2004) to involve children, young people and parents in child protection planning based on the Signs of Safety model. Weld & Greening suggest steps for using the Three Houses Tool:According to Weld & Greening (2004), the Three Houses is an engagement tool that is "designed to build rapport, and to create a process that includes working with clients and gathering information from their perspective" (p. 34). The tool is divided into three houses:- The House of Strengths: the focus is on identifying what is positive and helps to keep a person safe and well. It gives the individual or family a sense of what is working well, and what they have to build on to strengthen and improve their situation.- The House of Vulnerabilities: identifies factors that make a person at risk of danger or harm. When using this tool with children, the House of Vulnerabilities could be renamed as the House of Worries as this is probably easier for them to understand.- The House of Hopes and Dreams: the focus is on thinking about how a person's world would look if they achieved their goals, and what they would like to be different.Click on the link below for the full article by Weld & Greening, which also outlines the different contexts in which the Three Houses tool can be used: 
* Draw one house on three separate sheets of paper (see Three Houses resource)
* Discuss purpose of interview with parent or carer
* Decide if the parent or carer will be present during interview
* Explain the meaning of each house to child or young person
* If the child is anxious start with house of strengths or ‘good things’.
* Ask child/young person’s permission to discuss child or young person’s view of the factors in the three houses with parents or carers and begin with the House of Good things/Strengths.
The Signs of Safety - A Comprehensive Briefing Paper
Dr Andrew Turnell, December 2010

9. Three Houses for Adolescents
Child Youth & Family Practice Resource

10. Strength Based Tools
The Fairy/Wizard Tool developed by Vania da Paz the same purpose as the Three Houses Tool exploring What are we worried about, What's working well and What needs to happen. Signs of Safety assessment framework evolved, this parallels the Three Houses and Wizard/Fairy tools. Child protection professionals know how important it is to involve children in their work. At the same time research with children themselves, and many inquiries and audits report that the children’s voice is often not sought or captured in the child protection process. There are many challenges in placing the child's voice at the centre of child protection work, possibly the greatest impediment has simply been that frontline practitioners have not been provided with straightforward tools and a clear vision for how to involve children in their work.Of Houses Wizards and Fairies seeks to rectify that deficit providing readily usable tools and interview process that make sense to children and consistently provides workers with a clear understanding of the child's world.
The Signs of Safety - A Comprehensive Briefing Paper
Dr Andrew Turnell, December 2010

11. Strength Cards Strength-based Strategies and Tools
There are a number of tools that can be utilized by caseworkers in Child Protection, Out of Home Care an Early Intervention Programs. The value of taking a strength-based, solution-focused approach in child protection lies in identifying those strengths and resources within clients that can be utilized to modify a problem situation that is negatively impacting on a child (Saleeby 1997; Early & Glen Maye 2000). Solution-focused interviewing is useful strength based practice as workers can:
Find out as much as possible about a problem/s through respectful listening and conversation.
Use exception questions to identify what is working and what are they doing that helps them cope; and setting achievable goals through exception questions.
Discuss small changes and solutions using scaling questions.
Strength Cards

12. STRENGTH CARDS:BEARS Example Questions
Conversations about feelings – family contact visits
Example Questions
Which bear are you (happy/sad) when you visit mum/dad? -
Which bear are you when you get home from visits?
Which bear is – mum, dad, carer, brother?
Can you tell me more about …?
Engaging children in conversation : Contact Visits:
Getting young children to talk about their feelings around contact visits can be difficult.
Bear Cards are a useful tool to initiate conversations with children’s about their feelings.
Conversations with children can help the worker identify and work with the child or young person to overcome:
Barriers or concerns around family contact visits
Feelings and/or concerns after contact visit.
Conversations facilitated by Bear Cards could form the basis of a Words and Picture 12

17. STRENGTH CARDS: ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE IN CONVERSATIONS
CONVERSATION WITH ADOLESCENTS CAN BE DIFFICULT. COMMUNICATION TOOLS:
PICTURE THIS, REFLEXIONS DEEP SPEAK - FACILITATE ENGAGEMENT AND CONVERSATIONS.
PICTURE THIS: has photos that make up Picture This are particularly accessible because they provide slices of both urban and rural landscapes and lifestyles, and are culturally diverse. As a conversation-building tool, Picture This needs minimal introduction. Picture This is a powerfully interpretive tool. Photographs have a unique ability to stimulate the imagination, memory and emotions. They can be catalysts for people to tell their stories and prompt reflection about values and priorities.
REFLEXIONS: use contemporary street and techno style photo collage and graphics to deepen conversations on the issues that concern young people. A single word accompanied by graphics guide participants to identify and name reactions to their circumstances. Especially important for boys struggling to express their emotions
DEEP SPEAK: The suits (Openers, Identity, Relationships, Values, Emotions and Beliefs) are identified by different colours with the name of the suit appearing in small print on the card. Facilitators can use the colour coding to make a quick selection of cards if they wish to focus the discussion on a particular theme.

18. WORDS & PICTURES STORY Turnell and Essex (2006, pp 94-101).
Having a way of making some sort of sense of past and present events is important in the development of children, also adults. The storyboard attempts to create a context in which meanings attributed to events can be shared and a joint narrative agreed, as an explanation of 'How come things are the way they are?' for the child. The emphasis is upon co-constructing a narrative that uses the family's own words, often juxtaposed with professionals' descriptions and explanations. This shared story then creates a firm context for the future. 

Co-creation of the storyboard is a process of negotiation and agreement involving significant people in the child's life. Creating the storyboard helps families talk about and communicate difficult information. It provides a focus for those involved, encouraging them to think about the child's need for a coherent narrative. 'Words and Pictures' also creates a foundation of openness that is essential if a meaningful assessment is to be made. A Words and Pictures tool helps children makes sense of past and present events, particularly areas of confusion or difficult to talk about, using an illustrated narrative for children. Parents, carers, the wider kinship network and professionals can collaborate a tool to help find the ‘right’ words for children. The ‘Words and Pictures’ tool offers a powerful method of creating a meaningful explanation for children and young people in care who are typically very confused or uncertain as to why they have come into the care system. One example of this adaptation of the words and pictures method can found in Turnell and Essex (2006, pp ).
Turnell and Essex (2006, pp ). 18

19. RESOURCE TOOL:ABORIGINAL CARERS
WinangayAboriginalKinshipCareAssessmentTool
Winangay Resources:
1. Clearly worded interview questions for carers
2. Pictorial cards, identify carer strengths & concerns
Aims:
Identify strengths & concerns of Aboriginal carers
Carers & workers collaboratively plan to address concerns & improve outcomes for Aboriginal children
(WinangayResources 2011)
WINANGAY Resources have a new resource to assess and support Aboriginal Kinship Carer. They believe this tool is groundbreaking and redefines best practice as it requires workers to work collaboratively with Indigenous kinship carers to identify their strengths and build their skills and capacity. SNAICC is deeply concerned about the increasing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being removed from their families for child protection reasons and too many of these children are being placed with non- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families,” Ms Wallam said. She said the new culturally-appropriate resources would provide much-needed assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers, many whom live in disadvantage but are willing to share what they have to keep the children connected with their family. Maintain Aboriginal children’s cultural identity and family relationships .

20. Winangay Cards: Conversations strengths & concerns
Conversations identify carer competencies:
Environment and Basic Needs
The Kinship Carer
Kids and Their Wellbeing
Carer’s Actions and How They Work with Others
Cards focus on factors linked to successful care. 
WINANGAY CARDS:Each card is culturally appropriate and focuses on a key factor identified by the research and practice wisdom as key to successful outcomes for Aboriginal kids and kinship carers.  They allow carers to identify their strengths and areas of concern and place them on a continuum from real concern to deadly strength. This forms the foundation of a joint action plan by visually displaying key areas of unmet needs and prioritizing concerns that need to be urgently addressed.
n Australia in the period the use of foster care declined from 53% to 47%. There are more Indigenous (53.4%) than non-Indigenous children (41.9%) in kinship care placements.The practice of assessing Aboriginal kinship carers has been shaped by foster care assessment tools. These tools do not reflect the complexity of Aboriginal kinship care. With the increasing numbers of Aboriginal children entering the care system it became evident that there was a need for a specific tool for Aboriginal carers. So began the WINANGAY project – in the Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) Aboriginal language WINANGAY means ‘to know, to think, to love, to understand’.The WINANGAY Resources adopt a strength based collaborative approach to assessment of kinship care placements. The resources include: a plain English interview process, 4 essential competencies for kinship carers, action plans to address concerns and unmet needs. A series of innovative visual cards with culturally relevant and accessible ‘cartoon style’ graphics is included. Designed to generate a conversation about strengths and concerns and ways in which carers and workers can work collaboratively to deal with those concerns.This presentation will discuss the journey of developing this tool for Aboriginal carers and how this approach has been successfully adapted in the development of an Aboriginal Restoration tool.

21. Can you find one or more cards that shows this?
TALKING UP OUR STRENGTHS:INDIGENOUS STRENGTH CARDS Visual aids to share Indigenous stories to strengthen pride in culture.
Example Questions:
What is the best thing (or things) about being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?
Can you find one or more cards that shows this?
Can you find one or more cards to show your favourite family or community traditions?
They are designed to promote discussion, build self-esteem and help connect community for Aboriginal children and young persons. Talking Up our Strengths ABORIGINAL RESOURCE The 22 picture card themes are woven around our children, identity, knowledge, Elders, connection, celebrations, heroes, our land, colours, language, stories, humour, our men, our women, our mob, music, sport, health, tucker, pride, struggles and our past, present and future.
Our leaders aren’t above us – they are with us, from us, part of our families. So many are, and have been, leaders who never gave up and have taught us that embracing and celebrating our culture is vital to our sense of belonging, identity and social wellbeing.
The cards can be used as visual aids to share our stories together – stories that can strengthen our pride in culture and help us nurture our children to flourish and grow.

22. RESOURCES:INDIGENOUS CHILDREN IN OUT OF HOME CARE
Foster their Culture
A handbook to support non-Indigenous people caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care to foster their culture
The SNAICC Resource Service (SRS)
Culture keeps us strong is a book for Aboriginal children by Aboriginal children. Produced by the students from the Marree Aboriginal School, South Australia.The students from the Marree Aboriginal School, South Australia, used Children’s Self Publishing methods to create a 22 page book featuring their simple, colourfulartwork.The book is based on the lyrics of a song that they created and recorded and the CD of the song is included in the back of the book.
FOSTER THEIR CULTURE
A handbook to support non-Indigenous people caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care to foster and promote enduring connections between the children and their family, community and culture.

23. RESOURCES
Commission for Children and Young People (NSW):
CREATE Foundation (Australia):
Getting it Right – Berry Street
WINANGAY Resources
SNAICC Resource Service snaicc.asn.au/tools-resources/dsp-shop.cfm
St Lukes Innovative Resources - Strength Cards 23