Caseworkers use tools to decide if they should support restoration. These tools look at information and the views of people involved in making decisions. The information they look at should be current and up to date. Before DCJ and the Court make a decision on restoration, they will do a formal restoration assessment.
This can be DCJ, the Children’s Court Clinic, your child’s OOHC agency (ACCO or NGO) with case management, or an independent person.
This depends on what Court orders your child has, either interim orders or long-term orders. If you are on interim orders, a restoration assessment has to happen at least every 90 days, looking at how much change you have made in that time (Page 31, DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024*).
*DCJ document not publicly available.
The assessor should be considering all information they have and be checking that their thoughts and decisions are not biased. They should also be questioning if the information they have is biased.
It’s the experience of other parents that getting a restoration assessment done by DCJ is harder when on final orders instead of interim orders.
Aboriginal parents have also said that getting an independent Aboriginal assessor made a big difference in how their family was understood and was helpful for restoration.
Standard 6 of DCJ’s Practice Framework Standards says they need to have evidence in restoration of “copies of assessments were provided to the child and family, or if assessments were made verbally, a rationale for this is recorded.”
If DCJ are not respecting or understanding your family, community, or culture, you can remind them that DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024* (page 16) says “When thinking about children returning home, understanding cultural traditions, roles, parenting views and family strengths can help you see how children may be supported, and how families may respond in challenging times. A collective community focus on child rearing helps children. Interdependence, group cohesion and community loyalty are key features of Aboriginal family and community life, where raising children is a shared responsibility of all community members.”
*DCJ document not publicly available.
DCJ should be doing a restoration assessment at least every 90 days after your child comes into care. The assessment can be done more than every 90 days, especially if things have been going well for you. This is so that DCJ can tell the Court what the case plan goal should be to the Court (coming home or staying in care). DCJ and your service provider can do the assessment together.
DCJ might also ask the Court for a parenting capacity assessment by the Children Court Clinic (CCC) to help them make a decision about restoration.
DCJ’s decision about restoration is found in the Care Plan they file for your child. They might sometimes let you know sooner when they make a decision and include that information in earlier material they file, but the Care Plan is the decision and the information that the Court has to consider.
It’s not very common to have a case plan goal change to restoration instead of long-term care when your child is on long- term orders, but it can happen. DCJ, or the agency that has case management, are required conduct a case plan review every 12 months, but this does not always include a review of the case plan goal. Your OOHC agency can also be a part of that case plan review and should be letting DCJ know if they support a change in case plan goal.
For the case plan goal to change, caseworkers should be looking at whether the placement is still meeting the needs of your child and if there have been big changes in a parents circumstances.
Your agency and support services can advocate to DCJ that the case plan goal should be changed, and they can start to do restoration work when DCJ agree to change the goal. However, they can only increase family time significantly towards restoration if a Section 90 has been given (filed) to the Court, and the Court supports family time that is working towards restoration. It’s the experience of parents that casework that supports the connection and contact between you and your child will also be casework that is helpful for restoration.
A child or their parent can ask for a restoration assessment to be done. The assessments for long-term orders include the CCC, an independent assessor, or the agency with case management. They can do these assessments when the Court case is still on foot or a Section 90 is being applied for. If DCJ supports restoration from long- term orders, they will usually use the Structured Decision Making (SDM) restoration assessment tool, or an alternative tool. This is done before the Section 90 application.
If your child is on guardianship orders, it’s you or your child who starts the request for restoration. This is usually done by the CCC, or a specialist endorsed by the Court. If DCJ is applying for a change in final orders to guardianship, it is important to know that they are required to re-affirm to the Court why restoration is not realistic, so must consider restoration again. They have to look at the parents circumstances at the time of the application, rather than just repeating the old reasons they said your child could not go home.
This is the most common restoration assessment tool used by DCJ. It can be used by DCJ and the OOHC agency/support service together. If the OOHC agency/support service has case management, they are the ones to do the SDM assessment. DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024* (page 8) says the questions included in this assessment are:
Designed to be used for a child on long-term orders, but there have been big changes in their life. It can be used as well as the SDM tool. The assessment ends in Worry Statements (about what DCJ say are risks).
A parenting capacity assessment is very similar to a restoration assessment. A parenting capacity assessment considers if a child can safely be cared for by a parent. If the Court has not yet made final orders, any person involved in the Court case (party to proceedings) can request an assessment to be done. If final orders have already been made, only DCJ can apply to the CCC for a stand-alone assessment. The Children’s Court will decide if a CCC parenting capacity assessment is the right thing, after hearing from everyone. Other parents have said that doing the CCC parenting capacity assessment was harmful to them and their case.
“…she [assessor] thought that I would be more harmful towards my children right now because of my mental health, which is just ridiculous. I’m this way because of what I’m going through [child removal]”.
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
An agency can contract (and pay for) a qualified independent clinical psychologist or specialised assessor to do a parenting capacity or restoration viability assessment. This can occur during initial court proceedings, or either while they are considering a case plan goal change (to support the change) or after the change has been made. Independent assessors who are Aboriginal and view restoration from an Aboriginal worldview have been helpful to other families going for restoration.
Your service might have other restoration assessments that they use. Discuss your option of restoration assessment with your caseworker, advocate or lawyer.
The following information is from DCJ’s ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024 , which DCJ caseworkers should be following.
“Complete the Restoration Assessment Approach for single or multiple children (from the same sibling group), a parent seeking or being assessed for restoration, two parents who are seeking or being assessed for restoration together. If two parents are seeking restoration independently, you must complete separate assessments.”
It is important to consider the impact of family and domestic violence when considering what type of assessment to use, and how separate assessments should be undertaken.
“Before starting the assessment, organise a family meeting with the parents and family. The family meeting has two purposes: To review parental progress towards the Restoration Family Action Plan goals and to seek child, parent and network perspectives on restoration, including the quality of family time.”
A family meeting will also assist DCJ and an assessor about what kind of support you and your child’s family or kin network can provide to the restoration.
“To inform the assessment, use information collected over the preceding 90 days of restoration casework, intervention, engagement with services and conversations with the family and their network. Consider the views of parents, children, family and network, as well as perspectives and information from non-government organisations and out of home care service providers where relevant. This includes a review of:
*DCJ document not publicly available.
DCJ are required to use Aboriginal family-led assessment and Aboriginal family-led decision-making under a policy called the ‘Aboriginal Case Management Policy.’ This means DCJ should be led by your family in assessments and when making decisions, but it is the experience of families that this is not always happening. You can remind DCJ of their own ‘Interim Restoration Assessment Approach’ manual 2024*, which says examples of family-led assessment looks like:
*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.
