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The South Australian Sibling Connection Practice Guide offers practical suggestions and guidance for caseworkers and carers supporting children and young people in the out-of-home care system.
While this resource was created in partnership with South Australian young people with a care experience, CREATE in SA and the Department for Child Protection, the guidance it offers can be applied universally so we invite all jurisdictions to look to this resource for information on maintaining and promoting sibling connections and relationships for children and young people in out-of-home care.
This Practice Guide aims to build awareness and knowledge of the importance of sibling connection
and provide strategies to initiate, support and maintain connection. These include:
• Engaging with children and young people in relation to their sibling connection.
• How to support connection time as a carer and as a caseworker.
• How to initiate sibling contact, including with a cultural sensitivity lens via engagement with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations.
• How to support and maintain contact for young people and their siblings.
• Planning and decision making.
CREATE would like to acknowledge the contribution and support of the following individuals:
• The young people who shared their time and expertise to inform the practice guide; and
• The carers and caseworkers who supported children and young people to participate.
Through the voices of young people at our 2019 Voices in Action conference, we put together two Best Practice Guides to help inform organisations, workers and carers of the best ways to engage and support the young people in their care.
The first Guide on Complaints, outlines the principles involved in creating accessible, easy to understand and child-friendly complaints systems. The second, our Guide on Participation, outlines the principles involved in meaningfully engaging children and young people in decisions about their own lives. Take a look at the resources below.
At CREATE, we believe that listening and responding to the views of children and young people in out-of-home care systems is essential for best practice.
A well-functioning child protection system is underpinned by an independent, transparent, child-and-young-person-friendly, accessible and responsive complaints mechanism.
A common theme in CREATE’s research reports is that complaints systems are not user friendly, and that children and young people feel like their voices aren’t heard or they do not know who, or how, to make a complaint. In 2019, CREATE’s Voices in Action (ViA) conference brought together young people, carers, service professionals, and decision-makers to learn from each other and workshop key issues to improve the lives for children and young people with a care experience.
Our Best Practice Guide on the topic of Participation – “Encouraging Participation in Out-of-Home Care” – is an evidence-based guide that outlines seven principles to support young people as decision-makers in their own lives. CREATE advocates for children and young people in care to be supported in exercising their right to be meaningfully and genuinely engaged in decision-making processes. This right is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), Article 12.1. It is also promoted through the National Standards for Children and Young People in Out-of-Home Care and in each state and territory’s Charter of Rights.
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This website was built in consultation with children and young people with a care experience. Thank you to all the young people involved in providing feedback and sharing your insights throughout this process.
CREATE acknowledges the Traditional Owners of lands across Australia. We pay respects to Traditional Owners and Elders, past and present. We celebrate culture and community and we celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.
National Office – Sydney
Suite 6.01, Level 6, 80 George St
PARRAMATTA NSW 2150
Phone: (02) 9267 1999
Email: create@create.org.au
ABN 69 088 075 058
