“[Child] herself, self-placed this year… She’s been very vocal about wanting to come home since the day she was removed…On her lunchbreaks she was going into the library and finding out her own rights. She was ringing up about her rights… She ended up just staying… She knew that the police would do nothing because she was safe. She was just about to turn 12… She was a couple of weeks off her birthday, but she knew her rights and she knew what would happen and so she knew that she could do it.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
– Parent, BTHKTH research
This is when a child who is in out-of-home care (OOHC) chooses to leave their placement, which often includes returning to their family home, against the NSW Department of Communities and Justice’s (DCJ) opinions or directions. This usually happens when a child is in their teenage years and DCJ has less control over their living situation than they would like to. A child that has self-placed sends a powerful message about their wants, needs, hopes and wishes, which should not be ignored by the system. It is not uncommon for children or young people to self-place due to negative experiences in their placement home, or simply because they want to go home. One parent said:
“I just thought, the kids will come home one day. Surely but slowly they did. The oldest kids made their way home. The department couldn’t do anything about it because they self-place them.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
It is technically ‘illegal’ for a child to be living with their parent if you have gone to Court and the Court has made a finding that there is ‘no realistic possibility’ of restoration. This does not mean restoration cannot be achieved, because you can apply for a Section 90, and your child self-placing could prove a clear decision or ‘voice of the child.’ It is important to know that the police can come into your home without a warrant. That is, they can use their emergency powers and use ‘reasonable force’ to forcibly remove your child, however in most cases they do not.
One mother and her child said:
“My daughter started running away and I had police come here, I had DOCS turn up. They threatened with search warrants and kicking the door in…”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
“They were screaming at my mum from two doors down.;. Mum’d say fucken come on then. Come through my door and see what fucken happens. So they didn’t – they never did. They never did come through the door and they never got a search warrant, they just left.”
– Young person, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
There is no legal issue for your child to be living with you if the Court has said there is a realistic possibility of restoration, and there is a restoration plan in place.
When there are no current safety concerns, DCJ have the ability to transfer your case to the Family Court. To do this, DCJ gives a letter of consent. This is most likely to happen if there are two parents involved with the child and DCJ believes there are no safety concerns for either parent.
In a Family Court case or Children’s Court case, the Court does not allow the parents to speak to their child about the other parent in a negative way, no matter the circumstances. Parents are also not allowed to try and sway outcomes of the Court case, such as telling your child to come and live with you. DCJ would also view this negatively. This situation can be difficult when both the child and the parent want the same thing. That is, to live together at home.
If your child has self-placed, the agency with case management should be immediately considering restoration and working out a plan to show how this is realistic and in the best interests of your child. You can ask them to get an Independent Aboriginal Assessor to assess the viability of restoration, which can be very helpful. The service should be quickly arranging for you to speak to a lawyer about putting in a section 90 application and gathering evidence to do this. Children and young people should be included in these decisions, and their voice should be taken into consideration by DCJ. If your child is over the age of 12, they can go back to their previous lawyer or seek out a new lawyer to get advice from and instruct. Standard 3 of the Practice Framework Standards, which DCJ Caseworkers must follow, says caseworkers need to ‘regularly seek the child’s views about their life, goals, experiences and how you partner together.’
Standard 5 of DCJ’s Practice Framework Standards says they need to have evidence in restoration of “the child was asked their view about how connected they feel and who they want to be connected to.”
DCJ should be getting evidence of their “strategies to connect and hear the child’s views were considered” and “the child’s views about decisions were sought, in ways that responded to their needs” in restoration (Standard 1). A child choosing to self-place sends a clear message to everyone involved about what they want.
“Eleven or 12, she ran away… run straight to me… Then they come back and said that she – they come around and seen me and said that she shouldn’t have run off or something like that. Something to that effect. I said, well too bad… I know now that she’s 12 years old, there’s nothing you can do so either you help support her being here, I said, or fuck off.”
– Parent, Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research
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.
