Care arrangements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

To understand how care arrangements may impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is essential to respect and acknowledge their history and lived experiences.

This includes policies of forced removals and racial assimilation, along with socially sanctioned racism and violence. This and grief over the loss of land and culture have all contributed to intergenerational trauma. (Refer to the practice kit Safe care and connection.) 

To effectively support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care, we must be aware of and understand our own judgements, biases, and place of privilege. 

‘Many Australians assume that to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, a person should look or act a certain way. There’s also an assumption that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are dysfunctional, dependant on welfare, violent or addicted to alcohol.

These are stereotypes. They are not only extremely hurtful, but they also contribute to the confusion about who Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are. Racism comes in many forms, and is often subtle and covert, sometimes presented from a place of naivety and sometimes from a place of hurtfulness.’ (Australians Together (a)).

Over representation

Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children are substantially over-represented in child protection and care services compared to non-indigenous children. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). This pattern is linked to the legacy of colonisation, poverty, assimilation policies, intergenerational trauma, and discrimination. Cultural differences in child-rearing practices and family structures also contribute to this over-representation.

Connection to Country

For Aboriginal and Torres strait islander peoples, connection to land is fundamental to identity and strengthens ties to family, kin, and culture. When children are placed in care away from their country, they may experience a sense of loss and disconnection, impacting their wellbeing. This system-induced trauma highlights the importance of maintaining cultural and community ties.

Some strategies practitioners can use to support a child’s connection to culture while in a care arrangement are:

• placing a child with kin and community
• supporting early reconnection and reunification options
• developing strong and meaningful cultural support plans
• supporting the carer to have an active role in supporting and developing the child’s cultural connection
• prioritising kin and community connection.

Cultural safety

Cultural safety, for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care, means providing the child with a safe, nurturing and positive environment where they are comfortable with being themselves and expressing their culture, their spirituality and belief systems, and are supported by the carer and family.

Supporting care arrangements to be culturally safe

Safe care and connection is a practice approach that supports the care arrangements of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children to be culturally safe. The Child Protection Act 1999, section 5C, provides legislative support for this approach and:

• recognises the right of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples to self-determination
• considers the long-term impacts of decisions on a child’s identity, connection with family, culture and community
• includes the five elements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle in all components of our work – prevention, partnership, placement, participation and connection.

The Child Protection Act 1999, section 83(4)-(5) requires that priority be given to placing an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child with their family, community or clan where possible when deciding where and with whom the child will live.

When seeking information from family members, be mindful of potential mistrust or past experiences with government systems. Approach these conversations sensitively, explaining why the information is needed and how it will be used. Families are more likely to share information when they see it will help secure a culturally safe care arrangement for their child. Engagement strategies need to come from a place of authenticity and collaboration.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle outlines five core elements to be considered in all our work that relates to choosing a care arrangement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people—including one specific element that is participation.

Culturally safe participation is vital for engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and includes the following actions:

• Draw on family knowledge of culture, strengths and risks.
• Use family-led decision making processes. (Refer to Procedure 5 Refer the family for family-led decision making.)
• Support the family to access advocacy services and legal representation.
• Find and include kin and community members and widen the child’s circles of safety and support.

Consider the following example questions to help frame your conversations with family to be culturally safe:

Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship care arrangements

The most appropriate care arrangement option for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child is with their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander family members. Family supporting children is a common and expected kinship structure in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children may have many aunts, uncles, mothers, sisters and cousins. When a family member becomes a kinship carer, it is the role of the practitioner to help the kinship carer adjust to being both a relative and maintain their role in their family, and a kinship carer working in partnership with Child Safety.

There are many benefits to kinship care. There are also many potential barriers to safely supporting the kinship carer and the children in care. For example:

• The relationship between the kinship carer and the family may deteriorate and this may impact the safety and support network for the child.
• Family members may not like that the kinship carer receives a foster carer allowance for caring for a child when there are many informal care arrangements in the community where family members don’t get an allowance.
• Family members may see the kinship carer working with Child Safety and exclude the kinship carer from family events.

Drawing on the kinship carer’s strengths to overcome their concerns will contribute to their sense of control and power of the situation, as well as reinforce that they are the decision maker in their own life (rather than thinking Child Safety is ‘taking over’).

Family contact may happen naturally when kinship carers, parents, and extended family members have good relationships. Talk to kinship carers about whether they are open to having family members visit the child in their home, attend family events together, and support regular phone calls between the children and their family. If there are any safety issues, discuss the ability of the kinship carer to supervise the child during family contact. Explore a range of ‘what ifs’ to come up with a safe contact plan, if required. 

Care arrangements with non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander carers 

Placing an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child with non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers should only be considered after all other options have been extensively explored.  

Prior to placing a child, practitioners need to ensure proposed non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers are committed to:

• facilitating connection between the child and their family members, within any restrictions that have been imposed under the Child Protection Act 1999, section 87
• helping the child to develop and maintain a connection with their community and language group
• helping to maintain a connection with their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture
• preserving and enhancing the child’s sense of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander identity
• implementing any actions required of the carer within the child’s cultural support plan.

This will include continuing to support the child to visit their parents, siblings and extended family, to attend events of cultural significance and participate in daily activities and rituals which the family hold as important to help develop and nurture the child’s connection to culture and community. 

The carer needs to be supported to seek out and continue learning culturally specific information in relation to the child, their family and community, which can be provided to the child as per advice and guidance from the child’s family.

Care arrangements with non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers need extra support to ensure they are culturally safe. Some of the ways to support care arrangements to increase cultural safety include to:

• Develop informed and culturally safe placement agreements and cultural support plans that include
  • what contributes to the child’s cultural identity, how they can feel culturally safe, and any languages they may wish to speak
  • how the carers can support the child’s connection to culture and country
  • the carer’s negotiated undertakings for family contact arrangements
  • training or educational information for the carers to learn about the child’s culture
  • who in the community will contribute to the child’s connection to culture and how
  • visits to country (if not placed on country)
  • who in the family is responsible for teaching the child about their culture. (For example, the uncle teaches the nephew to fish rather than the father.)
• Talk to the child, parents, family and support network to find out what is important in relation to specific cultural protocols for children and their family. 
• Have the parents and extended family members
  • actively participate in the child’s daily activities such as schooling and doctors’ visits
  • work in partnership to co-parent the child and actively participate in the safety and support network.
• Use the following when talking to the family to find out what child rearing practices are important for the family to continue with the child while in care
  • strengths cards (Refer to Resources for engagement.)
  • storytelling
  • The Three Houses Tool.
• Have carers and the family members regularly meeting to share stories about the child and seek the family members’ input into the child’s routine, learning and connection to culture. As part of this, the carer
  • can meet with the family before and after family contact to develop a relationship
  • facilitates regular family contact
  • invites family members to doctors’ visits and school events and to their house for special occasions.

How to support differences in child rearing practices

Being aware of, and integrating, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ child rearing practices helps children and families feel that they belong and supports important cultural practices. Understanding and embracing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child rearing strategies is crucial in ensuring continuity for children between home and care arrangements. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family structures and child-rearing practices have at times been mistakenly perceived as ‘unstable’ or ‘dysfunctional’, so the ability to apply a cultural lens is necessary to be able to appropriately assess and support the child and family. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family structures and approaches to raising children can be a source of cultural strength rather than a source of dysfunction.

When an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child is in care, it is important to find out what child-rearing practices are important for them to experience while they are in care. Mechanisms you can use to help explore child-rearing practices with the family include:

• strengths cards
• storytelling
• The Three Houses Tool (completed with the parent about their worries and what their dreams are for the child’s care arrangement)
• parents and extended family members actively participating in the child’s daily activities such as schooling and doctors’ visits
• parents and extended family members working in partnership to co-parent the child and actively participate in the safety and support network.