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Voice of Parents: A Model for Inclusion
About the Voice of Parents project
The Voice of Parents project is a two-year project led by the Centre, supported by Gandel Foundation and Equity Trustees – The Arthur Gordon Oldham Charitable Trust.
As an ever-increasing number of Victorian parents are engaged with the Child and Family Services System, and the impacts of COVID-19 set to create even more pressure, hearing parents’ voice and embedding a model for parents’ participation is critical to improving outcomes for families and enabling children to thrive.
The Voice of Parents project will develop a framework for parent voices to be heard through a Charter of Parental Participation, an agreed principles that can be applied across organisations and programs in the child and family services sector, and a Parent Participation Model (with a practical tool kit of resources). These resources will be used by government and the child and family services sector across Victoria for the inclusion of parents’ voice in their work.
Benefits
The Voice of Parents continues the Centre’s commitment to promoting client voice and learning from those with lived experience to achieve better outcomes for children and support parents in their critical role in their child’s life.
Anticipated benefits of the project include:
- Parents will be provided with opportunity for their voice to be heard and for greater awareness of their experience in the critical touch points in the child and family system. This will inform the development of a systemic approach to parental participation through resources such as the Parent Participation Toolkit and the Charter of Parental Participation created through the project.
- The project will develop a model and supporting resources to establish and embed parent participation in organisations in the child and family services sector. This will enable organisations to effectively design and deliver services that best meet the needs of children and families experiencing vulnerability who are accessing their services.
- The project will drive sector collaboration in bringing together a broad range of stakeholders in the design of an effective model and encouragement of implementation.
- The project will develop an evidence base of international and national participatory programs that will build on the limited existing knowledge of parental participation
Get involved
In order to develop a sustainable, effective, practical model, the Voice of Parents project requires support and input from all the child and family welfare sector, including adjacent sectors such as legal and health. Opportunities including surveys, workshops, and individual consultations will be critical.
Should you be interested in how you can support our work and/or opportunities to participate, please email Paulleen Markwort at paulleen.markwort@cfecfw.asn.au
Project Publications
The Voice of Parents is committed to ensuring that relevant research on parental participation is available, to address the limitations of existing knowledge on parental participation.
Survey Report on Child and Family Service Worker Experiences of Engaging Birth Parents
The survey asked professionals a range of questions about their views on how birth parents are currently engaged with child and family welfare organisations in Victoria. The findings add to the growing body of evidence on engaging with birth parents in the child and family service sector, providing further context to the barriers and facilitators of effective engagement for Victorian parents, practitioners, organisations and service systems.
Literature Review on Participation Frameworks
This review, undertaken in partnership with the University of Melbourne, sought to identify key strategies for effective parent participation whilst understanding the barriers that impact, and in effect, compromise meaningful engagement with services.
Overview of Compliance Frameworks
The Victorian Government has several frameworks that support organisations in their consideration and implementation of a client participation process. This document explains how these government frameworks support organisations in embedding the client voice in practice, as well the opportunities and challenges in these frameworks for participatory processes.
Further resources
Relevant articles:
- Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare
- Engagement of birth parents involved in the child protection system: A scoping review of frameworks, policies, and practice guides
- Independent review of Victorian Legal Aid’s Independent Family Advocacy and Support (IFAS)
- Parents and Family Members Matter: A Charter of Rights and Responsibilities for Parents and Family Members with Children in the Care of Child Protection Services in Australia
- Rebalancing the Scales: Access to Justice for Parents in the Tasmanian Child Safety System
- Shared Strength: Families Taking their Place at the Table
- Trial of Contact Program for Children in Long Term Care having Supervised Contact with their Parents
Contact
If you would like to learn more about the Voice of Parents project or have a query relating to any of the information above, please contact Paulleen Markwort at paulleen.markwort@cfecfw.asn.au
