Roger Jaensch,Minister for Education, Children and Youth
The Tasmanian Government welcomes the Performance Review by the Auditor-General into the Strong Families, Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line.
The Advice and Referral Line (ARL) is a core component of the Strong Families, Safe Kids redesign of the Child Safety System and is now the single point of contact for anyone with concerns or questions about child safety and wellbeing.
Together with the broader Strong Families, Safe Kids reforms, the ARL is achieving significant results for children, young people and their families.
The review - Accessing services for the safety and wellbeing of children and young people – the Strong Families, Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line. - found that:"the ARL is broadly effective and has delivered improvements in connecting families to appropriate interventions, whether that be early support for wellbeing concerns, or response action for safety concerns".
It was also noted that liaison officers are "critical to the success" of the ARL, and our Government has supplemented these roles in recent years to now include Aboriginal Liaison Officers and a Youth Liaison Officer.
The review also made several recommendations to continue the development of the ARL. This included recommendations regarding information exchange between agencies, awareness raising regarding the role of the ARL and prioritising the ongoing role of the liaison positions.
The Department of Communities will now consider the Recommendations in the context of the Strong Families, Safe Kids Next Steps Action Plan, as the next stage of reform. The formation of a new Department of Education, Children and Young People, to come online later this year, will also help to address a number of recommendations, particularly as they relate to the siloing of responsibilities for child safety and wellbeing.
The Government thanks the hardworking staff in the Advice and Referral Line and the Department of Communities who have contributed to the successful implementation and ongoing delivery of this important reform.
It is testament to the staff and ongoing reforms that fewer Tasmanian families are now being referred for statutory Child Safety intervention and fewer children are entering out of home care. These are significant achievements.
We know there is more to do and we are committed to providing Tasmanian children, young people and their families the support they need.
