Supporting cutting edge child protection – Practice First NSW

Changing child protection practice

Practice First, is a new model for child protection service delivery in New South Wales. Since March 2012, the Practice First model has been operating in Bathurst-Mudgee Community Service’s Centres and the results so far have been positive:
• Fewer children removed from their families
• Caseworkers are spending significantly more time undertaking home visits
• Caseworkers reporting they are more satisfied with their work and feel better supported in the management of risk
• A decrease in staff sick leave

From November 2012, the Practice First model will be trialled in 16 CSCs and one Child Protection Adolescent Team across the seven Community Services regions. The trial sites are: Bathurst, Mudgee, Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, Albury, Deniliquin, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Muswellbrook, Gosford, Ingleburn, Liverpool, Hawkesbury, Penrith, Sutherland, Eastern Sydney and the Met West Child Protection Adolescent Team.

The Practice First skills development training that is 4 days in total comprises of:

• Day 1 – Introduction to Relationship Based Practice, delivered by casework specialists and internal psychologists
• Days 2 and 3 – Motivational Interviewing, delivered by internal and external psychologists and social workers. Eighteen of the 22 workshops will be delivered by a team of trainers working for HMA. We have eight people on our delivery team.
• Day 4 – Practice First – Working with Children, delivered by our current pool of Workforce facilitators (internal and external)

We have just completed the first two weeks of the five week delivery window and at this point we are achieving a good engagement with the ideas which will form the basis of best practice for child protection work. We are really pleased to support this forward thinking and innovative project designed to enhance the  safety of children.

Comments are closed.