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Home > Chapters > 4. Ongoing intervention > 4.17 Completing the family reunification assessment tool

4.17 Completing the family reunification assessment tool

Purpose

This procedure outlines the process for completion of the family reunification assessment as part of the review of the case plan for a child when all children in the household subject to ongoing intervention are not living in the home.

Responsibilities

  1. CSOs are responsible for completing and recording the family reunification assessment.
  2. Team leaders are responsible for approving the family reunification assessment.

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Reunification

Reunification is not just an event defined by the child’s actual return to their family. Reunification is a dynamic process that begins as soon as the child is placed in out-of-home care and ends when the child returns home and is no longer in need of ongoing intervention.

Reunification principles

The Child Protection Act 1999 outlines the following principles that relate to reunification of a child with their family:

The welfare and best interests of the child is the paramount consideration in any decision-making about a child (Child Protection Act 1999, section 5). Reunification with family is the preferred permanency outcome for children placed in out-of-home care, however, in circumstances where there is a conflict between the welfare and best interests of the child and the interests of an adult caring for the child, the conflict must be resolved in favour of the child. This includes the child’s right to stability and security.

Criminal convictions preventing reunification

The family reunification assessment will not be completed in circumstances where the child's parents have a conviction for any of the criminal offences listed in the 'List of Criminal Offences Preventing Reunification', as the goal of the case plan will not be reunification. A recorded conviction for any of the listed offences will mean that the goal of the case plan will be to pursue alternative long-term stable living arrangements for the child.

However, where only one of the child's parents presents with a conviction for the above-specified criminal offences (specified conviction), the family reunification assessment will be completed and the goal of the case plan may be reunification with the parent without a specified conviction, where:

A thorough assessment of all the circumstances is required, including what knowledge, if any, the parent without a specified conviction has of the other parent's conviction, to determine that work towards reunification will not pose a risk to the safety and well-being of the child.

Where the department obtains information about one parent's conviction and the second parent has no knowledge of the conviction, the CSO will not disclose the specifics of the criminal history to the second parent, unless the parent with the specified conviction provides written consent for the CSO to share relevant information.

Conducting criminal history checks on parents

When investigating an allegation of harm or risk of harm to a child, or assessing a child's need for protection under the Child Protection Act 1999, section 14, the CSO may seek the CSSC manager's authority to request a criminal history check on the child's parents (including a parent's partner) under the Child Protection Act 1999, section 95(3).

When a decision is made that a parent's criminal history is required, and it is not currently known to the department, the CSO will:

The purpose of the family reunification assessment

The decision about when to return a child to their family can be a very difficult decision. The family reunification tool reassesses family risk, evaluates the parent-child contact and reassesses child safety. The purpose of the family reunification assessment is to assess the progress made towards the case plan goal of reunification and guide a CSO through to one of three following permanency plan recommendations.

  1. Reunification.
  2. Continue working towards reunification.
  3. Stop working towards reunification - pursue alternative long-term, stable living arrangement for the child.

When to complete the family reunification assessment

The family reunification assessment informs the review of a case plan and is completed:

The family reunification assessment tool is not used for children:

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Structure of the family reunification assessment

The family reunification assessment tool has six sections:

Not all sections are completed for every family reunification assessment. The steps for completing each section are outlined under the appropriate section headings below.

Practice considerations and appropriate completion

The following information guides the completion of the family reunification assessment.

1. General completion information

2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

The recognised entity must be provided with an opportunity to participate in the completion of the family reunification assessment for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child. The recognised entity will not be required to participate where the parent's conviction for a specified criminal offence prevents the reunification of a child.

Supporting documents

3. Substance misuse by the parents

Where a parent has a history of serious and persistent substance misuse, contributing to a child being in need of protection, the CSO will consider whether to request the parent's participation in substance testing for a specified period following the reunification of the child.

Procedures
Supporting documents

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Parallel planning/permanency planning

Parallel planning begins when a child is removed under a child protection order. For each family reunification assessment that recommends that reunification will continue, parallel planning should intensify.

The CSO needs to be aware of the timeframes within which reunification must occur, before a long-term stable out-of-home care placement is pursued. When a child is aged under three years, a long-term out-of-home care placement will be pursued when:

For children aged three years and over a long-term out-of-home care placement will be pursued when:

The timeframes outlined above do not prevent a decision being made at an earlier point of departmental intervention, to pursue an alternative long-term stable living arrangement for the child. This decision will still be subject to ongoing case planning, implementation and review, in order to provide adequate evidence to the Childrens Court, in support of an application for a long-term child protection order.

In circumstances where a parent has a conviction for specified criminal offences, the department must cease working towards reunification immediately, upon receiving written advice of the parent's criminal history. The decision and the reasons for the decision will be recorded on the case plan for the child.

In addition to parental convictions for specified offences, other factors may lead to a decision earlier than indicated by the above-mentioned timeframes, to not work towards the reunification of a child. For example, an early decision not to work towards reunification may be appropriate where a parent has consistently demonstrated serious and persistent substance misuse.

Supporting documents

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Completing the family reunification assessment tool

To complete the family reunification assessment, the CSO will work through the six sections outlined below, which include specific steps for completing and recording each relevant section. In completing the tool, the CSO will refer to the detailed definitions provided for each section as outlined in the 'SDM™ tools and definitions - family reunification assessment'.

Section A: Family reunification risk re-evaluation

The family reunification risk re-evaluation is similar in structure to the family risk evaluation and assists the CSO to evaluate changes to the household risk evaluation. It scores and reassesses the probability of future abuse and neglect incidents, based on the information gathered since the last review of the case plan.

The tool will indicate a reduced level of risk when the family has made significant progress under the case plan. Regardless of the parent/s progress, a lower risk level will not be achieved if there has been a new substantiated investigation and assessment since the last review of the case plan.

To complete section A, the CSO will undertake the following steps.

  1. Respond to the following three questions (R1-R3) to determine the 'scored risk level':
    • the risk level from the most recent family risk evaluation undertaken at the completion of the investigation and assessment;
    • an evaluation of the family's progress with the case plan; and
    • whether there has been a new substantiated investigation and assessment about the household since the last review of the case plan.
  2. Select a policy override, which changes the risk level to ‘very high’ (regardless of the score), if during the current implementation period:
    • sexual abuse is substantiated;
    • a child under three years of age has received a non-accidental injury;
    • a parent has caused severe non-accidental injury to a child; and
    • a parent has caused the death of a child due to abuse or neglect.
  3. Consider whether a discretionary override is applicable, to increase or decrease the risk level by one level.
  4. Seek team leader approval for use of a discretionary override, if considered applicable.
  5. Record the rationale for use of the discretionary override, if used.
  6. Record the 'final reassessment risk level'.

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Section B: parent-child contact visit plan evaluation

The parent-child contact visit plan evaluates contact between the child and the parent/s with whom reunification is intended. The tool does not evaluate the child's contact with other family members. One document is completed for each family, with space provided for each child. The assessment considers:

The following table will guide the CSO in evaluating the parent-child contact:

  Quality of parent-child interaction Supervision status and location Type of contact Participation
Excellent Consistently* Unsupervised and overnight in the home environment Face-to-face visits and other forms of contact (such as, phone or letters) No missed visits or rescheduled in advance with legitimate reasons
Good Often* Unsupervised in the home or, moved from supervised to unsupervised in the home during the review period Face-to-face and other forms of contact No missed visits or rescheduled in advance with legitimate reasons
Fair Occasionally* Supervised or unsupervised, not in home Face-to-face and other forms of contact Occasionally missed visits without advance notice and/or without legitimate explanation
Poor Seldom* Supervised, or moved from unsupervised to supervised during review period; not in home Face-to-face and other forms of contact Frequently missed visits without advance notice and/or legitimate reasons
None Rarely/never* Supervised, not in home or moved from supervised to suspension of contact during review period Face-to-face and other forms of contact Parent refuses or makes no attempt to engage in meaningful contact with child

*Demonstrates effective behaviour management strategies; identifies and responds to child's physical, developmental and emotional needs; demonstrates a child focus in their preparation for visits and during interactions; conducts themselves appropriately during visits.

The visits are assessed as 'excellent', 'good', 'fair', 'poor' or 'none' (refer to the 'SDM™ tools and definitions - family reunification assessment' ). If the 'final reassessment risk level' is 'low' or 'moderate' and the contact has been evaluated as 'good' or 'excellent', the CSO will proceed to section C. If the risk is assessed as 'high' or 'very high' or there is either no contact plan or parent-child contact has been assessed as 'fair', 'poor' or 'none', the CSO will proceed to section D.

When evaluating the parent-child contact for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, the following factors will be considered:

Note: some of the above factors will also be relevant to non-indigenous families.

When the risk level has changed from a previously completed family reunification assessment, the level of contact between the CSO and the family will change in line with the 'minimum departmental contact requirements'.

Procedures

Section C: reunification safety assessment

Section C is only completed if:

The vulnerability of each child needs to be considered throughout the assessment. To complete section C, the CSO will undertake the following steps:

  1. Assess whether there are any immediate harm indicators currently present in the reunification household and select any applicable indicators.
  2. Review the safety assessment that led to the removal of the child, review the resolution of immediate harm indicators since the last review and include any immediate harm indicators that have not been resolved.
  3. Where immediate harm indicators have been resolved, record briefly how they were resolved. If children were removed at different times, the CSO is required to include all immediate harm indicators that led to all removals.
  4. Where there are no immediate harm indicators identified, proceed to the 'safety decision'.
  5. Where there are immediate harm indicators identified, identify the appropriate safety interventions that can be put in place to protect the child in the home. These interventions must be addressed in the case plan and recorded as part of the case plan for the child, if reunification is to occur. The presence of an immediate harm indicator does not mean that reunification cannot occur, however, the safety interventions must be a key element of the revised case plan.
  6. Where there are immediate harm indicators identified and no appropriate safety interventions that can be put in place, the outcome of the assessment is 'unsafe'. In these circumstances the child cannot return home and the out-of-home care placement is to continue.
  7. Record the safety decision, either 'safe', 'conditionally safe' or 'unsafe'.

If any child is recommended for reunification by the CSO, but the household is assessed to be 'unsafe', the rationale for the decision must be documented and approved by a team leader.

Procedures

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Section D: permanency plan recommendation guidelines

The 'permanency plan recommendation' guidelines contain two decision trees that determine one of three permanency plan recommendations. One decision tree is provided for children aged under 3 years and one for children aged three years and over. The use of two decision trees recognises the rapidly changing needs of young children and the importance of attachment and permanent stable care for these children.

The questions in the decision trees are based upon the outcomes of the risk, contact and safety assessments in sections A-C and will recommend reunification when:

Alternatively, the family reunification assessment will not recommend reunification when:

To complete section D, the CSO will refer to the 'SDM™ tools and definitions - family reunification assessment' and undertake the following steps:

  1. Answer each question in the appropriate decision tree for the age of the child until a permanency plan recommendation is reached.
  2. Record the permanency plan recommendation in section E.

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Section E: Permanency plan recommendation summary

The 'permanency plan recommendation summary' records the permanency plan recommendations from section D. To complete section E, the CSO will undertake the following steps.

  1. Complete this section for the oldest assessed child. If there are two or more children with different permanency plan recommendations in section D, then complete additional summaries for each child.
  2. Consider whether an override is required to change the final permanency plan recommendation for the child, from section D.
  3. Seek team leader approval for the use of a discretionary override, if applicable.
  4. Record the rationale for the decision to use a discretionary override, if applicable.
  5. Where an override recommends reunification, complete a safety assessment, and where required, a safety plan prior to returning the child home.
  6. Record one of the following three final permanency plan recommendations:
    • Reunification: based on risk reduction, favourable progress with parent-child contact arrangements, and a safe or conditionally safe home environment, the recommendation is to re-unify the child.
    • Continue reunification services: maintain the out-of-home care placement and continue reunification efforts with the assessed household.
    • Stop working toward reunification - pursue alternative long-term stable living arrangements: this recommendation does not mean that the child will cease contact with their family, but prompts the change to the case plan goal.
  7. If the decision is to stop reunification services and pursue alternative long-term stable living arrangements, determine and select one of the following out-of-home long-term stable care options to be pursued:
    • long-term guardianship to a relative;
    • long-term guardianship to a suitable person;
    • long-term guardianship to the chief executive;
    • parenting order about with whom the child should live, through the Family Court of Australia;
    • adoption (Adoption of Children Act 1964); or
    • other.

Once a decision is made to pursue an alternative long-term placement for a child, it is not appropriate for a child to remain on a short-term custody or guardianship order. When it is determined that a child protection order is the most appropriate option, the CSO will apply to the Childrens Court for a child protection order granting long-term guardianship. Where the child is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, further consultation with a recognised entity will also be required

In some cases, where the child is currently placed with a kinship carer, the CSO will consult the senior practitioner to determine whether an application to the Family Court of Australia (by the kinship carer) may be appropriate. The senior practitioner will consult with Court Services Unit in relation to this matter.

Procedures

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Section F: current case status

To complete section F, the CSO will undertake the following steps:

  1. Apply this section to all children, however, where there is a different case status for different children, complete section F separately for each child.
  2. Choose the following four options about whether an ongoing intervention will continue or whether the case will be closed:
    • case remains open with at least one child in an out-of-home care placement;
    • all children reunified and case remains open for ongoing intervention;
    • permanency plan achieved and case closed; and
    • other, specify (for example, seeking an order from the Family Court of Australia).
  3. Submit the completed family reunification assessment tool to the team leader for approval.

Detailed definitions for each section are outlined in the 'SDM™ tools and definitions - family reunification assessment'.

Resources

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Last updated
18 September 2009