The St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra-Goulburn has joined calls for the ACT Government to improve child protection services for Indigenous children. Source: Catholic Voice.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service Winnunga Nimmityja has called on the territory government to greater priority to implementing the interim recommendations of the Our Booris Our Way steering committee on improving the ACT child protection system.
“The ACT child protection system has failed indigenous families” said Warwick Fulton, president of St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn.
The ACT has the second highest rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in out of home care in the nation. That rate has almost trebled in the last 10 years.
The committee made nine recommendations to improve the child protection system, including Recruiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, increasing the cultural competency of non-Indigenous staff and providing early support programs
“While we understand that some progress has been made on a few of these recommendations it is not clear what progress has been made on others,” Mr Fulton said.
“We call on the minister to outline to the Canberra community just what progress has been made in dealing with these very necessary reform proposals,” said Mr Fulton.
FULL STORY
Vinnies support calls for implementation of Indigenous child protection strategies (Catholic Voice)
