Family contact and reunification
Family contact
Children and young people tell us that continued contact with their families impacts positively on how they see themselves.
Continued contact with their biological families is fundamental in maintaining a sense of self value and identity. It has significant effects on their emotional and physical development and can help them deal with the grief and loss they experience when they leave their family and enter out-of-home care.
A child or young person's contact with their family includes contact with their parents, siblings, extended family, community members and people of cultural or ethnic significance, and other people of significance in their life.
Besides face-to-face visits, family contact includes a range of direct and indirect contact with family members such as telephone calls, SMS messages, letters and emails.
The specific purposes of family contact may change over time, depending on the child's or young person's emotional and developmental needs, their wishes and circumstances of their family and carers.
Maintaining positive family contact is a major component in working toward family reunification. The frequency and reliability of family contact must also occur for the child to spend less time in their placement and more time with their family before returning home permanently.
Child safety officers and carers encourage contact with family and other significant relationships. We achieve this by identifying the relationships that the child or young person values and working to develop these as a source of support and belonging that will continue throughout their childhood and adult life.
Reunification
Reunification is not just defined by the child's actual return to their family. Reunification is the process of reconnecting children and young people in out-of-home care with their families by providing services and supports to the child, their family and their carers.
It is a dynamic process that begins as soon as they are placed in out-of-home care, and ends when they return home and the family is no longer in need of ongoing intervention.
The Child Protection Act 1999 outlines the following principles that relate to reunification of a child or young person with their family:
- A child's family is the preferred permanency option wherever possible.
- Most families can care for their children if assisted.
- Reunification requires collaborative case planning by the department working with the child, family members and other persons, such as Recognised Entities, approved carers, and other government and non-government agencies.
When reunification is not possible, stable long-term placement options for the child need to be identified in a timeframe that considers the child's age and needs.
- Last updated
- 3 August 2007
