“…they expect you to keep jumping through more hoops and more hoops and more hoops and more hoops. But you’ve already jumped through that fucking hoop. You know what I mean? I jumped through enough to the point where they tried making me do stuff, I’d be like, but I’ve already done this. I’ve already done that. Or you said that I only had to do this. Just write everything down. Keep a whole journal of what you do, child courses, everything. Note spoke to this person, house visit this day, urinalysis this day, just keep on top of it.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
– Parent, BTHKTH research
If there is a Court approved restoration plan, a child can legally be returned home before the final 12 months of the restoration date, and you shouldn’t have to wait until the end of the time DCJ holds parental responsibility (commonly 2 years) if you are ready (section 136 (3)(b) of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998). Even if you are ready for restoration within the timeframe, it’s the experience of parents that DCJ and OOHC agencies drag it out unnecessarily. Within the restoration plan, it should be clearly outlined when, where, and how often unsupervised visits and overnight stays should be happening. If DCJ try to drag out the amount of time it takes to restore your children:
It’s the experience of other parents that even though DCJ are required to communicate clearly what parents need to do to work towards restoration, they don’t always do this.
One parent said:
“I never had no indication of what I needed to do, how I could go about getting restoration of my kids. It was basically I was never told what I needed to do or how I could go about getting restoration of my kids. I basically had to do it all by myself. I shut down, I worked on my mental health, I done drug and alcohol counselling, I done trauma counselling, I’ve done over seven parenting courses and the last two years I’ve put myself through uni.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
Participants have experienced not being told about their Court dates and not getting given their documentation for their case plan and restoration goals.
Your child’s attachment to their carers is commonly used as the reason for not giving your kids back. It is also common for parents to have new children who are not removed, but also their older kids are not given back.
“I want to know if you are going to be involved with the baby, then I’m just going to have an abortion because I can’t go through this shit again. They said no, no, we’ve got no concerns and we’re not going to – interested. Like nothing. I’m thinking, well hang on a minute, you’ve got two of my girls in care but now you’re saying that if I have another baby, you aren’t going to be around? How the fuck does that work? That’s not right.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
Whilst your child is in care, even though DCJ are required to, they often don’t support your connection with your child. This is a barrier to restoration, especially because increased family time is usually the first step in working towards restoration.
“…what would have been helpful was a better understanding by DOCS about what was going on. I had no one tell me what my child had been doing or what had gone on with my baby while they were in care. I was given a note by one of the carers which was helpful, but that was pretty much it.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
The system impacts on your relationship with your child through not enough quality family time because you are being watched by DCJ, children can be placed off Country, there can be big distances to travel, siblings can be split up, or family time being planned at a time inconvenient to carers and their families, or at a time that does not work for parents or extended family of your child.
It depends on the caseworker
Even though the number one thing DCJ should be focusing on is restoration, it’s the experience of parents that this actually depends on the attitude of your caseworker and the local community service centre (CSC). This means that getting restoration often depends on whether your caseworker decides to support you in that or not. Knowledge and practices are not consistent across the system. This makes things really confusing for families, trying to navigate a system that already isn’t clear about how it all works.
“So I went to a rehab and I was there for a month and… the new worker after he left, got in contact with me and said look, it doesn’t – it’s not going to matter how long you do there, we’re not going to restore the kids. So I got up and left. I just thought well I was there for my girls. I was only 20-something years old and I’d – I wasn’t an alcoholic, I wasn’t a drug addict, nothing.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
Aboriginal parents have said that way the system assesses restoration and how a parent has changed often looks at the negative things rather than the positive. This is because the system focuses more on finding the reasons for removal, rather than your strengths or the support you need.
You can remind DCJ that they are required to follow their ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ Guide* 2024 which says “while the dangers and risks that led to a child needing care and protection and entering care need to be resolved, parents do not need to have completely resolved all of the risk issues for a Restoration Order to be made.”
In looking at strengths within a family, particularly willingness and capacity to make change, DCJ can make better decisions about what might be achievable in the future.
*DCJ document not publicly available.
Parents can have up to two years after removal to show that they are completing the goals in their restoration plans (NSW DCJ, 2020). The Court usually expects DCJ to be considering all of their options at the same time (referred to as “concurrent planning”). If you don’t look like you are making progress to them, they can also be planning long- term care with someone else, like your child’s carer.
The Court expects to know what the alternatives are if they make the decision restoration is not possible or realistic.
If the Court has approved a restoration plan, the steps and phases of restoration, and everyone’s responsibilities, should be written in the Care Plan. It should talk about your strengths, what changes you need to show as you progress through the restoration (the goal posts), how you will maintain the changes you have made, and the support that your family needs. It should also talk about DCJ’s responsibilities in facilitating the phases of restoration, like increasing family time and going to unsupervised or overnight visits. The Care Plan should also include clear timeframes for when phases of restoration move forward.
Restoration doesn’t happen as much as it should, and there are not many real-life examples of it happening well for Aboriginal families. But there are common things parents say are helpful, that caseworkers can choose to do. Ask your caseworker to do these things if you want to.
The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle
DCJ are legally required to follow the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle in all decision-making and every course of action, but this does not always happen. The genuine implementation of the five elements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle—prevention, partnership, participation, placement and connection—will support a family to get restoration, led by the child’s family and community (SNAICC, 2019).
If DCJ are saying you need to go to a service, like rehab or counselling, they can request priority access to that service or program for your child or yourself if they have assessed that your child is at risk of significant harm (Section 17 and Section 18 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998). These are the same services and programs that they will require for restoration.
Increasing contact is an important first step in working towards restoration. This could be the focus for up to two to three months before applying for a Section 90. If a parent currently has no contact, this should be worked towards before filing for a Section 90.
“…it’s got a lot better, the last four months… they called me and they know I’m working for a Section 90 and they’re like, are you happy with the visits. I was like, I would like more visits, I’ve told you always I’ve wanted more. They go, yeah well that’s what we’re going to look at and I was shocked because I thought, okay they came to me like it was their idea, do you know what I mean, I’d been pushing that whole time.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
Within a restoration plan, it should be clearly outlined when, where, and how often unsupervised visits and overnight stays should be happening. If you increase your time with your child you are better positioned to continue your relationship with your child, and have what DCJ calls good ‘attachment’, which makes restoration more possible.
DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024 (page 26) says “If children are transitioning towards restoration, consider how to gradually increase family time in preparation for a child going home. The case plan should clearly outline how this will happen. This will let you know if you need to offer further supports before the child is returned home.”
You can remind them of this. To increase family time, you can apply to attend mediation and try to negotiate an increase in time. Mediations are often considered a good first step towards restoration because your child could be legally represented in a mediation. This is where everyone involved meets to try to come up with contact changes you all agree to. If you come up with an agreement, the new orders can be registered with the Court as a ‘contact variation agreement’ (in accordance of section 86A of the Care Act).
If you are unable to come up with an agreement at mediation you can include the fact that you attempted mediation in your Section 90 (although you cannot discuss what was said during it), or you can put in a Section 86A application.
People who can apply for the Section 86 application are parents, your child, DCJ, and sometimes the carer or guardian. Section 86(1A) of the Care Act says an order can be made by the Court to set minimum requirements for how often and how long a child or young person must have contact with his or her parents, relatives, or other persons of significance to the child or young person. It’s important to get legal advice about what application to make.
*DCJ document not publicly available.
“When you’ve got family support workers, you don’t have kids in your care so you’re not eligible for any kind of support like that. But my parents, as carers… they’ve always been supportive of restoration and they were able to get a family support worker – they had an Aboriginal family support worker… and so she was supporting my parents and she was able – because my parents were supportive of me, she was able to support me because there’s no conflict of interest.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
“I feel like that meeting had a big part in it, because they didn’t want to give the kids back in that meeting even… My uncle, he knows international law. There was a lot of people [ACCO workers]. Then my uncle was like, how can youse do this and this? It doesn’t make sense. Why is she being held accountable for everything? Go hold the men up accountable, don’t just hold her up accountable. Then he goes, how do you know that she’s going to fail when youse haven’t even given her a chance? Youse haven’t even given the kids back. They didn’t say anything for a couple weeks after that. Then they were like, we’re going to give the kids back early. Because anytime you go in there, it was like speaking to a brick wall. It wasn’t any good. Most of the meetings that we had, we just had no outcomes.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
DCJ need to make Active Efforts
Active efforts are the actions taken by DCJ to support you, that are quick enough, practical, ongoing, culturally appropriate, and in partnership with you, your family and community. DCJ are legally required to make active efforts so that your child does not go into OOHC, and to return them home if they are taken from you. Active efforts will look different for each family because each family’s strengths and needs are different. If there is a restoration plan in place, active efforts could look like supporting and increasing family time.
DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024 (page 10), which DCJ should be following, says “active efforts include providing, facilitating or assisting with access to support services and other resources, and if appropriate services or resources do not exist or are not available – considering alternative ways of addressing the relevant needs of the child or young person and the family, kin or community of the child or young person, and activities directed at finding and contacting the family, kin and community of the child or young person.” This is a part of the law (Section 9A(4) of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1988, without limiting subsections (1)–(3)).
*DCJ document not publicly available.
What do DCJ say about restoration?
DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024* (page 20 & 21) acknowledges that “restoration is not always smooth”.
It lists a number of factors that might influence it:
DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024* they say two things help with restoration:
1. “Parental behaviour change and the circumstances of the child entering care: Successful restoration requires families to actively address the child protection concerns that resulted in the removal of the child and work towards case plan goals. This process can be enhanced by actively involving children, families and networks in developing goals, as well as ensuring that families understand the purpose of these and how these address the child protection concerns. Restoration assessments should contain thorough analysis and clarification of exactly what needs to change before restoration can occur, as well as look for opportunities to build on existing parent and family strengths.”
DCJ say they focus on the reasons a child entered care, but it’s the experience of families that once their child is in care, DCJ move the goalposts and find other things to focus on to build their evidence for Court. Families also are not clearly told the reasons a child has entered care, or what they need to do to get them back. If this is happening to your family, organise with DCJ exactly what you need to do, with the help of your lawyer, support service, and advocate.
2. “Quality and experience of connections, relationships and family time: Consistent, meaningful family time between children and their parents during the period of out of home care is strongly associated with earlier restoration, and regular, meaningful family time is a critical element in successful restoration, with the quality of these interactions mattering just as much as their frequency. Where possible, family time should include not just parents but also extended family, kin, mob and network to provide additional emotional support and stability for children and ensure that cultural views, practices and traditions are respected and valued.”
Aboriginal parents have said that this can be hard for families to do when DCJ or carer’s block family time, make it more difficult, or won’t increase it. See here on how to try and fight against this.
*DCJ document not publicly available.
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.
