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March 2005

Meeting date: Monday, 14 March 2005

The Child Protection Statewide Partnership Taskforce held its 8th meeting on 14 March 2005 in Brisbane. The Taskforce, chaired by the Deputy Director General, Department of Child Safety and comprising representatives from Queensland Government agencies and the non-government sector, held discussions on matters relating to the child protection system and the Blueprint for reform.

This Communique provides some of the outcomes of these discussions.

1. Recruitment

The interview process for the PeakCare Principal Planning and Partnership Officer position is progressing. The Planning and Partnership Officer positions for the Far Northern, Northern, Brisbane North and Sunshine Coast zones have been appointed and will commence end March 2005. The recruitment for positions in the remaining zones is progressing. An induction for Zonal Planning and Partnerships Officers is scheduled for 6/7 April 2005.

2. Practice manual

Version 2 of the Practice Manual to be completed by end April 2005. This version will cover the minimum in terms of case planning, and will be effective by 30 April. An overview on case planning will be circulated to the Taskforce members for review prior to end April.

Structured Decision Making (SDM™) will be effective by October 2005. The Children's Research Centre (CRC) USA has conducted workshops across the state which have contributed to the draft Tools Manual and Policy & Procedures Manual. Further consultation workshops will be conducted in May, prior to presenting to Cabinet for endorsement.

3. Working group report: Quality Assurance (QA)

The Quality Assurance Working Party members agreed in principle to the following components of a QA Framework:

• Operating principles:
  • client outcome driven;
  • participation;
  • responsibility;
  • accountability;
  • quality improvement focussed;
  • planned, systematic inquiry methods.
• Agreement that a child's safety and well-being would be the two overarching anchor points sitting above the framework.
• There was agreement that the draft QA Framework would consist of three broad components:
  • defining quality (i.e. setting standards);
  • measuring (monitoring) quality;
  • supporting (improving) quality.
• Licensing: The project team staff have completed 25 interviews with NGO's and Community Support Team (CST) Managers. Information obtained for these interviews will be collated into an 'Issues paper' report which will be furnished at the next QA working party meeting. This is the first main milestone of this project.

4. Foster care conference

The 2005 Queensland Foster Care Conference was held on 12 and 13 April and was attended by 240 delegates, of which 40% consisted of Government and non-Government representatives. The theme of the conference was 'Leave no child behind', with keynote speakers being Dr Judith Murray and Minister for Child Safety, Mike Reynolds. The conference launched Foster Care week. The next Foster Care conference will take place in Townsville in September 2006.

Other items discussed

1. QA framework: The Quality Assurance Working Group Report tabled.

Next meeting: Friday, 8 April 2005.

Last updated

30 May 2007