response to Justice Wood’s report, the NSW Government developed a five-year comprehensive action plan Keep Them Safe to reform and improve the child protection system in NSW making child protection the responsibility of everyone government and non-government services and the community.
NSW Keep Them Safe Reform
The NSW Government responded to the Wood report with a $750 million, five-year plan to implement the majority of the report’s recommendations ‘ the Keep Them Safe Action Plan. The Keep Them Safe action plan has 186 proposed actions, some of these recommendations are new initiatives and others are recommendations to modify or to enhance existing programs. The budget allocation includes $300 million to the not-for-profit community sector.
In summary, the objectives of the plan are to make child protection a ‘shared responsibility ‘making it the responsibility of all other relevant government services. Making FACS responsible for responding to cases where there is a risk of significant harm, Child wellbeing units established to assist determining cases of children at risk that warrant FACS intervening. The cases that do not meet the Department identified risk of harm threshold for FACS services will be assisted by other family non-government agencies that receive funding from the Department of Family and Community Services. These changes have resulted in Non – government agencies, expanding and extending their role and responsibilities in the field of child protection.
The New South Wales Council of Social Services (NCOSS) produced a Briefing Paper: What’s good about Woods, in November 2010 and the following recommendations from the Woods report were identified and prioritized. The roll out of Family Referral Services throughout NSW. The transfer of services to the non-government not-for-profit sector included the transfer of Out-of-Home Care and the Brighter Futures program a program for vulnerable young people 9-15. The Income Management recommendation was not supported by NCOSS. More funding for early intervention and Non-government sector workforce and capacity building. NCOSS also sought commitments from the government and the other parties to develop a comprehensive industry plan for the non-government human services sector. In relation to community strengthening and service enhancements NCOSS sought commitments from all political parties to fund programs that strengthen communities and to provide additional supports in the areas of housing, homelessness services, domestic violence, mental health and drug and alcohol services. This reform has been described by The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) as one of the major reforms to the child protection policy and practice in NSW since the introduction of mandatory reportin