Child protection has long been featured in the news for various negative reasons. There have been in excess of 50 enquiries, reviews, commissions, etc. since the turn of the century. The vast majority of outcomes have promoted early intervention and diversion where possible and even now Queensland is again making significant changes with the Enhanced Intake and Assessment roll-out, marking the 3rd significant change this century. There is chronic government under-staffing, challenges recruiting and retaining staff. Nongovernment agencies are now also experiencing staffing challenges and some non-government services are handing back their contracts in the early intervention and fostering services.

My presentation will focus on my lived experiences as a child in care, a kinship carer, foster carer, and as a professional in the sector for the past fourteen years; highlighting my unique perspective of the various challenges and strengths within the child protection system. Many children, parents and extended family members that come into contact with the different services provided by child safety have negative experiences. Whilst our family had several challenge experiences themselves, overall, I believe our family situation is better as a result of the different departmental interventions. I will then propose my learnings from practice, highlighting the best ways of working with families and working with the challenges facing the system. It is my hope to bring a spotlight to success, failure and the need to change the way we respond to issues of child protection to make children, families and communities safer.

My aim is to address these three questions: How do we work with an ‘inadequate system’ to achieve the best outcomes for individuals and for families? How do we seek to address, and treat the issues of child maltreatment? How do we stop inter-generational trauma from continuing from generation to generation?

Parenting kids with big emotions and who have survived trauma that mirrors your own as a child, is an exhausting and overwhelming challenge. Any healing you have worked on so hard, can quickly fall to the wayside as you see it replayed in the heart, or hearts, that are beating outside our own body. 

As you all know, breaking this cycle is harder in reality than in concept; and while it is still a system of awareness and productive rest to manage the triggers of my own trauma, this is a goal I have achieved in my own family - raising my children with principles of neuroscience and attachment from their early childhood trauma into beautiful, kind and brave young adults. 

My kids, and the children, teenagers and families I have been honoured to work with over the years have inspired me to be an advocate for child, adolescent, and parent, especially maternal, mental health. Every year I could see this crisis worsening. Through the privilege of my education, I was aware there is so much preventative work that could be done to turn this around, and wished I’d had a community applying these ideas while I’d been struggling with this across my children’s early childhood. These experiences inspired me to build a connected community where parents have a safe space to not only work through their own triggers and healing; but also learn sustainable science-based strategies to help their children grow into happier, healthier, more helpful humans. A system of strategies I learned through direct, lived experiences, and by working with many, many families with similar experiences of trauma and challenging emotions. I’d love to share with you my story of triumph, and how this connected community has brought healing for me and many others. 

As a mother who has navigated the child protection system, the experience felt akin to Alice in Wonderland tumbling down the rabbit hole.

This journey was merely the beginning, revealing a profound passion for children's rights and trauma-informed approaches while working with children and families. 

Emma observed the necessity for interdisciplinary, objective, evidence-based, child-centered assessments. The existing system relied heavily on children verbally expressing their experiences, which often leads to their failure. Instead, children consistently communicate their experiences through their arousal states, behaviors, play, social interactions, health/medical histories, and learning abilities.

Emma created a child-centered framework that aligns with the Convention on The Rights of the Child. This framework was developed from her observations of the gaps in the system that hinder children's voices and expressions from being acknowledged and valued. It encompasses a holistic approach, integrating feedback from children, parents, teachers, experts, and her experience as a trauma-informed pediatric occupational therapist.

Child protection must adopt a rights-based approach to ensure children's safety. The primary framework should be the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). A comprehensive interdisciplinary approach is essential for effective child protection, as the current outdated system is failing the children.

Emma intends to propose the implementation of mandatory trauma training and the use of the Trauma Expression and Connection Assessment (TECA) in educational settings across Australia