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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.
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.
Voice of Parents: A Model for Inclusion
Introduction
Preliminary Documents
Charter of Parent Participation
- Charter of Parent Participation (Universal version)
- Charter of Parent Participation (Plain English version)
Parent Participation Model
- Parent Participation Model (Universal version)
- Parent Participation Model (Simplified version)
- Parent Participation Model (Plain English version)
Parent Participation Framework
- Parent Participation Model & Framework (Universal version)
- Parent Participation Framework (Plain English version)
Toolkit of Resources
For Parents –
- How to make the most of your meetings
- What does it mean? Child protection, child and family services, and Courts
- Ten tips for working with services including child protection: For birth parents
- Ten tips for supporting birth parents: For friends and family
For Practitioners –
- How parents want to tell their stories
- Supporting parent participation from the first point of contact
- Supporting parent participation in child protection investigations
- Supporting parent participation in Court
- Supporting parent participation when their child is in out-of-home care
- Ten tips for working with birth parents: For practitioners
For Organisations –
- Planning engagement with parents to support service delivery
- Embedding parent voice in design of services
- Feedback and complaints for [template]
- Listening to lived experience voices, including birth parents (for boards)
For everyone –
Further Resources
Relevant articles:
- Literature Review on Participation Frameworks
- Survey Report on Child and Family Service Worker Experiences of Engaging Birth Parents
- Overview of Compliance Frameworks
- 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
