The new proposed child protection bill will not serve South Australia’s most vulnerable children and young people to the standard the community expects.
South Australia’s Guardian for Children and Young People, Shona Reid, gave evidence to the Select Committee on the Children and Young People Safety and Support Bill (CYPSS Bill) 2024 this month.
This bill includes far-reaching changes to the way SA’s child protection system operates.
Some of those changes are good, but some are highly concerning as they risk sidelining children and young people rather than meaningfully engaging them in decisions about their own lives.
At the hearing, Shona focused on serious consequences arising from the troubled history of child protection reform in South Australia over the past decade — which has seen laws become out-of-step with best practice and international guidance on promoting children’s rights, safety, and wellbeing.
Shona said the government needs a firm and consistent policy platform for reform, which focuses on the best interests of children and young people.
Shona pointed out serious pressures faced by the child protection and out-of-home care systems, which can be strongly linked to changes to our state laws between 2016 and 2018.
These changes set safety and protection from harm as the paramount principle in decision-making about children and young people’s wellbeing — over and above all other considerations, including their health, development, identity, connection with family and culture, and other aspects of social, psychological and emotional wellbeing.
As a result, there’s been a heavy focus on removing children and young people from their families in South Australia and moving quickly to ‘permanency’ outcomes that keep children in out-of-home care.
These changes have disproportionately impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, exposing them to greater risk of dislocation from protective factors in their lives, including connection to family, community, and culture.
Shona told the Committee, if South Australia was to reframe its laws to focus on the best interests of children it would recognise that child protection work needs to be responsive to individual needs, and consider all aspects of children’s wellbeing.
“While safety is critical, it is only one dimension of a child’s wellbeing,” Shona told the committee.
“The best interest principle, by contrast, offers a holistic framework that considers safety, but also things like emotional and developmental needs, cultural identity, and long-term outcomes,” she said.
Children missing out on important moments
To highlight the very real impacts of South Australia’s current child protection laws, Shona shared the personal experience of those who have missed out on important life events because the current legislation can be impracticable — and, at times, hurtful to children and young people.
She said children, young people and adults with care experience have shared their distress when they’ve been excluded from significant parts of their childhood — like attending school camps, going to friend’s birthdays or even being in school photos.
Some have shared with our advocates stories that other kids don’t want to be friends with them because their parents are constantly being police checked.
They’ve told our office they “are better off not having any friends”.
These experiences are some examples of how the paramount focus on safety can lead to absurd results.
In a letter to the Committee, The Guardian explained:
“My point in raising these examples is not to dispute all the legitimate circumstances where these decisions are and should be made, to promote a child or young person’s best interests, inclusive of their safety and broader wellbeing.
“My point is that the ‘safety as paramount’ framework creates a situation where the same decision may be made even when it is not a legitimate and reasonable approach to the child or young person’s circumstances.”
Children sidelined in proposed changes
Shona went on to share with the committee how the CYPSS bill relegated children and young people’s participation in their case management to the sidelines – in favour of other people with an interest in their lives.
For example, the bill removes the requirement for the annual review panel to notify a child of their review and give them a reasonable opportunity to make submissions.
Meanwhile, a provision has been introduced to the bill, guaranteeing the opportunity for in-person attendance and submissions from carers with whom a child or young person is placed.
Shona argued that children’s rights should be rooted in the CYPSS bill to recognise that children are not just passive recipients of care, but active rights holders.
The right to be heard and to have family connection are just some principles that should be explicitly embedded into the legislation to ensure children’s voices and experiences are respected.
“By revisiting and refining this bill, we can create a system that protects children, supports families, and upholds the rights and dignity of all involved,” Shona said.
The Select Committee will report back its finding next month.
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The Guardian’s full submission on the CYPSS Bill can be read on our website
