A Family Action Plan (FAP) or Family Action Plan For Change (FAPFC) outlines what the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) say they are worried about (what are they worried about?), but should also list your family led goals to address those ‘worries.’
The actions DCJ say you should take to address their worries are written in the FAP. The goal is to eventually close your case with DCJ. You will have a meeting with DCJ to create this plan, and it can involve your child and support people.
The action plan should be developed from your Family Group Conference or family gathering. The goals for your plan should be your family’s, not DCJ’s. These goals should be realistic for you and your family.
It’s a good idea to have a support person, advocate and/or your support service caseworker with you when you have the Family Action Plan meeting. It can be a difficult and even hurtful experience, because even though DCJ caseworkers are not meant to be judgmental and instead should be supportive, this is not the experience of many parents. It’s also a good idea to have a supportive team with you, because there might be multiple DCJ workers in the meeting.
A FAP can be done before or after removal, or with no removal at all.
It should be done after the risk assessment, when is an ‘open case’ with DCJ. A FAP will happen within 15 days of the Family Group Conference (if you do one) if it is deemed high/ very high risk (reviewed every three months).
The FAP should be developed with you and your family, and decisions should be led by your family, because DCJ should be using Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making, as a part of the policy they are required to follow (the Aboriginal Case Management Policy, ACMP). DCJ is required by law to ensure you have participation in decisions about the care and protection of the child or young person (section 12 of the Care Act). DCJ is required to enable self-determination to be able to participate in the care and protection of their children and young persons with as much self-determination as is possible (section 11 of the Care Act).
Families have also experienced not knowing about the FAP, so they didn’t know that there were things they were expected to do, until they asked for it (DCJ is required to send you a copy of the FAP). The FAP can be put somewhere where you will see it often, like the fridge, to remind yourself of the things you need to do.
The FAP is not a ‘legally binding’ document, which means if either you or DCJ don’t follow the document, they can’t take you to Court. But, the FAP does have legal ‘implications’, which means it can affect decisions made in Court if your child is removed.
This is also why it’s smart to have someone or multiple people with you in the meeting, especially if they know how the system works and you feel understood and supported by them.
Aboriginal families have experienced not knowing about the FAP, so they didn’t know that there were things they were expected to do, until they asked for it (DCJ is required to send you a copy of the FAP). The FAP can be put somewhere where you will see it often, like the fridge, to remind yourself of the things you need to do.
The FAP should inlcude your family’s goals to address what DCJ say are risks. They should be made with you and your family, but they often aren’t. They are often based on DCJ’s ‘worries’ instead of your own, not realistic, and not made specifically for your family. The goals DCJ put in the FAP such as ‘address drug use’ or ‘not be in a Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) relationship’ might be the goals for lots of other families, and so instead of you creating your own goals based on what DCJ says are risks, parents end up ticking boxes to try and get their children back home.
The plan might also be focusing on issues that should not be yours, such as a victim/survivor being made responsible for the violence of a partner. Families have experienced goals being put into their plans that are not relevant for their family, such as requiring rehab when they have been sober for years. You can contact a lawyer, advocate, and support service to try and make sure the goals actually reflect your family.
Some people working in Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) also know that the FAP’s are unrealistic or not revelant for families:
“In terms of the Family Action Plan, there are really some unrealistic expectations that mum and dad both need to achieve, and I think there is this idea that mum and dad should be the best versions of themselves at the worst possible time of their lives.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
“The Family Action Plan simply says that she must address her history of trauma, loss, and grief in this amount of time. How would she do that? People can go their entire lives, never actually being able to do that, much less than [a] 19-year-old woman who’s been in care and whose child has been removed from her. So, it is just outrageously unrealistic, and it is not fair for our parents in that space. And the Courts need to do better. And I do think that we need to have a more individualised approach that we can’t put everybody into the same bucket.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
“So they removed my son for suspicion of methamphetamine use. But no drug test. DCJ didn’t drug test me…They instead wrote me a Summary of Proposed Plan and said that, basically, I had a year to do this before they’d look at me.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
Parts of the FAP template DCJ use ties to what they record in their systems (called ChildStory). DCJ caseworkers usually record their ‘case plan’ in the FAP they make. They use this for their own evidence gathering and record keeping, and to monitor what they see as progress. But there is no policy saying that the DCJ template for the FAP needs to be used. This means that other templates could be used. If an alternative template is used, they should then be uploaded as an attachment to DCJ’s system, ChildStory. This should be done so that DCJ has a record of your plan exactly how you made it, in your own words.
If you are working with an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) or Non- Government Organisation (NGO), they sometimes have their own FAP templates they have made. Ask them if you can use this instead of DCJ’s template. Other FAP templates that are not DCJ’s could be more focused on your strengths, which is important. If you have moved from DCJ to another service, you can ask DCJ for your FAP to be rewritten with your new service, because you’re working with new people.
DCJ should be following the Aboriginal Case Management Policy, which says DCJ caseworker’s should be following Aboriginal Family Led Assessments, Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making, and active efforts. So, if a caseworker is following the ACMP as they should be, and you are asking for an alternative FAP template, this change can be made.
These are the actions taken by DCJ to support you, that are quick enough, practical, ongoing, culturally appropriate, and in partnership with your family and community. DCJ are legally required to make active efforts so that your child does not go into OOHC, or to return them home.
Section 12 states Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, communities, and representative organisations must be given a chance, through ways approved by the Minister, to be involved in decisions about where their children are placed and other important decisions about their children under this law.
Workers should make sure that your family and community is participating in decisions and actions affecting them. Ways this can happen include having an Aboriginal Community facilitator, making sure family are key decision-making partners, there are family made ‘family plans’ and follow up efforts. This should happen early on in your involvement with DCJ.
DCJ workers should be prioritising culturally valid assessment tools to identify and clarify the concerns related to the risk
assessment that DCJ does. They should work through a cultural lens and be supported by Aboriginal workers where possible.
DCJ allowing your family to lead assessments and decision-making and make active efforts is written into policy but using the DCJ FAP template is not. However, it is the experience of Aboriginal families that DCJ caseworkers will not offer to use a different template, and they do not routinely inform families that this is possible.
Even when alternative templates are used, DCJ still uses them to enter information into their system, ChildStory. The main things DCJ want from the FAP for their documentation are:
In the FAP, there are ‘worry statements.’ These are meant to be your worries, but they usually end up with DCJ telling you about what they are worried about. Worry statements:
The FAP should clearly tell you what behaviours you need to stop or change that is directly related to the safety of your child. If you do not agree with their worries, Aboriginal parents have said that DCJ can label you as not wanting to work with them (say that you are ‘non-compliant’) or not understanding the situation (say that you are ‘lacking insight’). You can work with your lawyer and support service to remove the worries that are not based on facts, with your own evidence.
AbSec and our partners acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout NSW and their continuing connections to land, waters, and communities. We also acknowledge the lands on which these stories were told, the lands of the Dharawal, Yuin and Wonnarua people.
We acknowledge the Elders, leaders and advocates that have led the way and continue to fight for our children. We also acknowledge the Stolen Generations who never came home and the ongoing impact of government policy and practice on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families.
This website shares the experiences and advice of Aboriginal families involved in the NSW child protection system who participated in the Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research at UNSW. We acknowledge and thank the families who generously gave permission to share their stories.
These experiences reflect what worked for those families and do not constitute advice or views of AbSec. AbSec recommends seeking independent legal advice for your own circumstances.
