Delivering care to an Aboriginal child in Victoria’s out-of-home-care system requires an awareness of these 2 base components…
- Looking After Children - approach in service delivery
- Care Teams - the people collectively responsible for providing this care
This section breaks down these two components and how they connect with each other.
1. Looking After Children (LAC)
Looking After Children (LAC) is an outcomes-focused approach for collaboratively providing good care for children in out-of-home care. It provides the practice framework for considering how each child's needs will be met. This is done across 7 key developmental domains which include:
- health
- emotional and behavioural development
- education
- family and social relationships
- identity
- social presentation
- self-care skills.
To learning more about the ‘Looking After Children’ approach, follow the link below. It provides more details on the 7 domains and information on the records that need to be kept to ensure progress is being made.
2. Care Teams
A care team is the group of people who jointly look after a child while they are in care. Every child in care, has a care team (except for permanent care and adoption placements).
The CSO (Community Services Organisation) or ACCO (Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation) providing the placement or kinship care case contracting is responsible for establishing, leading and bringing together the care team.
The members of the Care Team are jointly responsible for determining and doing all the things that parents ordinarily do for their children. For Aboriginal children, maintaining cultural connections is an additional layer of care that needs to be considered and planned for. The key members of the care team will generally include:
- The lead (convenor) - usually a CSO or ACCO staff member
- The child’s primary carer/s
- A worker from either child protection, a CSO or an ACCO supporting the carer and placement
- Other adults who play a significant role in caring for the child (e.g. disability support or house supervisor for young people in residential care)
By working collaboratively, Care Teams create stability, uphold cultural connections, and provide the best possible support for Aboriginal children in care. For more information about Care Teams, consider the following links:
- Care Team - Procedures (cpmanual.vic.gov.au) - A breakdown of key care team members and their responsibilities
- Care Team - Advice and Protocols (cpmanual.vic.gov.au) - Guidance on how best to work with care teams.