Gaye Mitchell and Ozchild staff. Ozchild

1. building
and
protecting
futures
Doing better with children
with a disability in family
services and out of home care
by
Gaye Mitchell and OzChild staff

2. building
and
protecting
futures
OzChild
 Caring for Victorian children for 160 years.
 Multi disciplinary and culturally aware programs
to strengthen the potential and life
opportunities of children/young people.
 Informed by the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child and evidence about what
strengthens healthy child development.

3. building
and
protecting
futures
OzChild’s Locations

4. building
and
protecting
futures
OzChild programs involved in
the research project.
Home
Based
Care
Kinship
Care
Family
Services
Community
VCAL
(Victorian
Certificate of
Applied
Learning)
Registered
Training
Organisation
(RTO)
Certificate in
General
Education
Disability
Services

5. building
and
protecting
futures
Method
 Snapshot examination of all caseloads in six
program areas January – March 2012.
 Spreadsheet – 42 questions – on all children with
a disability.
 Sample of 20% of these children: data on nature
of disability, challenges, barriers, & outcomes.
 Total of five case studies of children with the most
serious disability in five program areas.

6. building
and
protecting
futures
Outline of presentation
 Brief summary of research findings.
 Findings about environmentally-based
disabilities.
 Discussion.

7. building
and
protecting
futures
Research Findings
200 out of 475 children (42%)
had a disability.
 Kinship Care: 29%
 Family Services: 29%
 Foster Care: 44%

8. building
and
protecting
futures
Huge array of types of formally diagnosed
disability – 4 programs
Type of
disability
Disability
Services
Family
Services
Home
Based
Care
Kinship
Care
Total
number of
children
Communication
Difficulties 30 4 12 8 54
Developmental
Delay 4 4 16 9 33
Mental Illness
3 2 9 3 17
Intellectual
Disability 32 1 12 2 47

9. building
and
protecting
futures
Huge array of types of formally diagnosed
disability – 4 programs (2)
Type of disability Disability
Services
Family
Services
Home
Based
Care
Kinship
Care
Total
number of
children
Autism 30 3 6 2 41
ADHD 6 1 16 5 28
Speech Delay or
Disorder
0 3 9 8 20
Autism & ID 18 0 2 0 20
Complex physical
disability & ID
14 0 5 0 19
Cerebral Palsy 11 0 3 1 15

10. building
and
protecting
futures
More Research Findings
 81% of children had a formally diagnosed
disability.
 Half the children had more than one
disability.
 56 of 200 children were not achieving
educationally.

11. building
and
protecting
futures
Further Research Findings
 57% of children had family members with a
disability.
 49% of the children in out of home care had
experienced placement breakdown.
 In half of these cases, disability was a factor
in the placement breakdown.

12. building
and
protecting
futures
Findings about
environmentally-based disabilities
40-50% of the children
in
Family Services, Foster Care
and
Kinship Care
had environmentally-based disabilities.

13. building
and
protecting
futures
Proportion of environmentally-based
disabilities in 3 program areas
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Family Services Foster Care Kinship care
Other children with a
disability
Informally Diagnosed,
Environmentally based
Formally diagnosed,
Environmentally based

14. building
and
protecting
futures
To prevent environmentally-based disability
Focus on families with intergenerational
involvement in child protection.
• Social security, affordable and secure housing,
education and training, and opportunity to earn
income.
• Program models specifically designed for their
needs.
• Program models with greater length of time and
intensity of service.

15. building
and
protecting
futures
When prevention has failed
 Intervene early and effectively to reduce
environmentally-based disabilities and their effects.
 Allow workers more time for children and families
with disability.
 Provide more funding for children with trauma-
induced disabilities.
 Provide more funding for children with a disability
in Kinship Care.

16. building
and
protecting
futures
Discussion
 How to do better for children
with a disability in our services.
Full Research Report and Policy Briefing Paper
http://www.ozchild.org.au/research
Also see published article:
Children Australia / Volume 39 / Issue 02 /
June 2014, pp 107 – 118