Last month the department’s chief executive, Cathy Taylor, accompanied the Minister for Child Protection and sector representatives on a study tour in the UK, meeting with more than 15 child protection experts, academics and service providers.

A number of their conversations held particular relevance to South Australia, including the benefits of trauma-informed care, the use of family group conferences, the importance of early wrap-around supports for families and the value of working closely with education colleagues to improve outcomes for children in care.

The study tour met with representatives from Westminster City Council who discussed the positive results of early engagement via their “Early Help” team, which provides a holistic approach to supporting families in a centralised location. The council further highlighted their focus on identifying risk among vulnerable sections of their community, and putting culturally sensitive supports in place.

The study tour also met with Leeds City Council, which celebrates one of the lowest rates of statutory child protection intervention in the UK thanks to their Child Friendly City model. Leeds is now an example of best practice in relational social work, with an emphasis on family-led decision-making.

The group was excited to connect with family group conferencing coordinators and participating families in Leeds. This timely session provided them with learnings and insights that directly relate to the planned roll-out of family group conferences in South Australia in 2020.

We recognise that the insights from this study tour are relevant to the entire child protection sector, and want to support positive discussions about best practice models. As such, we are currently planning a joint sector briefing where we will share more about what we learned, and how this can inform our work in South Australia – stay tuned!