Submissions Library

This submission outlines the difficulty in obtaining support for a child with developmental delays. Despite notifying Child Protection and initiating a referral, it took 1210 days to receive help from a Speech Pathologist. It notes that the lack of timely support for developmental delays is causing lifelong implications for vulnerable children.

This submission highlights that the Kinship Care System fails to address developmental delays in children under 6, relying on the NDIS to be in place prior to needs being met, which cannot happen in the first 5 years of a childs life. It calls for better use of the Special Negotiated Adjustment (SNA) process to meet these needs.

This submission discusses VACCA excluding Kinship Carers from the process of obtaining help through what are known as ‘professional meetings’. It outlines how these meetings are culturally unsafe and lead to placement breakdowns.

This submission states VACCA removed a child from their Kinship Care in 2023 without adequate reasoning.

Jesse Milne is a Waka Waka man who was in and out of foster homes as a child and ended up in residential care. Feeling lonely and abandoned he coped with his pain through drugs and alcohol, which led to a life of crime, violence and prison, starting with juvenile detention from the age of 12 or 13. As an adult, the cultural rehabilitation program Wulgunggo Ngalu helped turn his life around by connecting him back with community and culture. He is now a proud dad himself. Jesse says the child protection system should look to place kids with their families instead of foster homes and residential care.

This submission details a family’s experience of failures and injustice within the child protection system.

Lily Woodward’s submisison describes the abuse and challenges she faced as a child in the child protection system and her subsequent experiences of having her own children removed.

Christina Secombe is a Wotjobaluk woman.

This submission outlines traumatic experiences Christina faced growing up and the impact it had on her later life.

Anita Mobourne is a Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, and Gunditjmara and Wotjobaluk woman.

This submission is a transcript of Anita talking about her family’s experiences, her working life and the importance of connection, culture and identity.