ARACY’s Post

After many months of illness and everyone being above capacity, the wheels are starting to turn in earnest at The ANPA. We have new volunteers; systems in place; we are a breath away from deductible status. So much paperwork, argh 😢 But we are pushing on. This week, we were able to equip two members of our board with laptop computers so they could participate more easily. And a computer for one of their children, so he doesn't nick hers, and get his studies done! A new phone for someone else, who has been out of contact due to their phone breaking, and having no money to replace it. Tools. Tools that connect us to the world; allow our voices to be heard. Allow us to regulate, be with community, break isolation. We receive emails from social workers asking us for insights and links to information and support for Neurodivergent mothers they are in contact with. We are able to send these resources back and make general recommendations, like funding assistive technology for rapid relief - such as automatic noise-cancelling headphones. ACN technology is out of reach for so many ND mothers, who generally live in poverty and are invisible in the community - up until they come into the view of child protection. Neurodivergent mothers are also unlikely to access the NDIS - only 20 per cent of those with a psychosocial disability who apply are accepted. That's if they can manage the forms and remember to attend appointments. Many don't. Every crack in the system opens up for us like a chasm; a lack of support for our invisible disabilities, the darkness that sucks us down. So many of us never emerge. Today, though, a worker told us she could purchase a pair for a mother they support and would, based on the advice and information we had sent her. What a moment. (Our Prez may have ugly cried in her bathroom.) Goosebumps for us, hearing that. This is what activism and advocacy is all about. It is deeply meaningful because we are not pen pushers. We are late diagnosed broke mums, many of whom have survived contact with child protective services - which lit the fires of The ANPA to begin with. We didn't exist a year ago; we were just a sparkle in the eyes of the collective. And now, here we are, speaking change and practical aid into existence for our kin, by working together; and being very resilient about it, I might add! It is not an easy innings, but we are at bat anyway. We have to be - things simply cannot continue as they have been for too long for us all. Making a practical, tangible difference feels so incredibly...purposeful. We are determined that for families from our community, new pathways will open; new futures may be written. Futures not limited to removal, trauma, harm and death. We will stand up, and keep standing up, for Neurodivergent parents. Until we all have what we need to keep our families intact; according to our rights under Article 23 of the UNCRPD. It is a bloody good reason to get out of bed every day.

🟢The human impact of the NDIS cuts on Neurodivergent families: (Trigger Warning: Infant Removal | Distressing Content **Please exercise caution before watching the video linked below if you are a parent who has lived experience of child removal. This content may be deeply distressing and cause you psychosocial harm. We advise you strongly against watching it.** Please know that the mother depicted, Keira Kronvold, has given full informed consent for this video to be shared and wishes for it to be shared widely. We would not share this if we did not know that Keira wants people to see it.) ---- The video below shows the removal of Keira Alexandra Kronvold's baby on November 7th, 2024 - just over a month ago - after Danish authorities deemed her parenting unfit. Kronvold, a Greenlandic mother, was subjected to standardised parenting tests widely criticised for cultural and systemic bias. Despite no evidence of harm to her child, her baby was taken two hours after birth, underscoring how systemic racism and bias pervade child protection systems. This brutality mirrors experiences faced by Disabled parents, particularly those with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, worldwide. Standardised risk and safety assessments — still a cornerstone of child protection work in Australia—disproportionately disadvantage Disabled and Indigenous parents. Parental behaviours, often misunderstood or pathologised, become the basis for removal. So too does poverty, and Neurodivergent parenting styles. Disabled children are often removed because parents are unable to provide them with enough support, due to resource constraints, or because CP don't agree with the kinds of supports being provided. Kids are also taken because of the way standardise assessments automatically conflate disabilities and risk in parents; an issue laid bare by the DRC parents report. What keeps children safe at home, together with family, is a robust, well documented, protective layer of support. Child protection assessments weigh the supports available to parents and children. When those supports are stripped away—as we risk seeing with NDIS cuts—families become more vulnerable to removal. This is not just a policy failure; it’s a systemic removal of safety nets that disproportionately harms Neurodivergent and Indigenous parents. It is how NDIS changes will devastate our community. This is what we have been shouting about since the reassessments began: the way the scheme, and supportive scaffolding, interlocks with child protection assessments at the State level. If we strip supports, we are funnelling mothers directly into the firing line of what our sister Keira experienced below. We must demand better. A system that upholds human rights starts with providing support. We must ensure it stays in place until the back up lifeboats arrive for a safe transfer. This pain is preventable. #ChildProtection #NDIS #DisabilityRights #IndigenousRights #ParentingSupports

The NSW Department of Communities and Justice has been working with the sector over the last two years to redesign the Family Preservation service system in NSW to improve the outcomes, experience, suitability, and accessibility for families who want to access and would benefit from working with a Family Preservation service. This newly released summary report outlines the final foundational design elements required ahead of procurement, drawing on submissions and consultations based on the discussion paper released in April. The primary objective of Family Preservation is to keep children safe at home with their families, and prevent removal, placement in out-of-home care (OOHC), and future contact with the child protection system. Family Preservation also aims to support children, young people and families to achieve wider social benefits, including better educational attainment and improved health and wellbeing indicators. Playgroup NSW looks forward to continuing to work with the Hon Kate Washington MP, Minister for Families and Communities, and Minister for Disability Inclusion to advocate for strong, safe and supported families, as well as for children in out of home care settings or alternate family arrangements to access the benefits of playgroups. Read the summary report here: https://lnkd.in/guEWJKve Read the discussion paper here: https://lnkd.in/gdA8gAjd

The Independent NDIS Review recommended a new service system be established to improve community supports: Foundational Supports. It was a valuable opportunity for EarlyEd's CEO, Kerry Dominish & EarlyEd's Board member, Associate Prof. Christine Johnston to share our perspectives about supports needed for children & families at a Sydney face-to-face Foundational Supports Consultation session. Our common understanding of what is recognised internationally as best practices in early childhood intervention highlights: - the needs for services to be available early in a child's life to support a child's development - & be family-centred in order to meet the needs of their families. Cordinated by The Social Deck on behalf of the Department of Social Services. It's inspiring to meet up with service providers & agencies taking part in the forums, all committed to sharing ideas & increasing our understanding of each other's perspectives. https://lnkd.in/gPtmVkm7 Foundational Supports can fill in the gaps in services, for children with developmental delays & disabilities. A strong focus, by the sector, on how to achieve this, is the building of collaborative community & government partnerships. There are multiple ways people with a disability, families & providers can share their experiences & ideas about how it should look. https://lnkd.in/gSym58FT Separate sessions for families & carers, & the sector have been published on DSS Engage with dates, times & links provided. https://lnkd.in/gRYhthMQ. Questionnaire: https://lnkd.in/gHnGszk8 Ideas wall: https://lnkd.in/gDGVTpyj You can post your ideas in writing, upload pictures or link to a video or comment on people’s ideas & discuss with other participants. #NDIS #FoundationalSupports #ChildrenWithDisabilities #Families #DevelopmentalDelay #FoundationalSupportsConsultations #EarlyChildhoodIntervention

Audre Lorde said, "The Master's Tools will never dismantle the Master's House." What does this mean for the Neurodivergent community in the last week of the NDIS Bill Amendment consultation? Which falls in NAIDOC Week. It means that the tools that we might use—if we were able— to dismantle this bill are inaccessible to ND folks. We struggle to use them/don't use them. It means that the most disempowered sections of the Neurodivergent community, those who are the most silent - mothers, particularly Aboriginal mothers who are broke and stuck in poverty - are also the most in need of NDIS plans. They are the least supported to speak on the Amendment, make a submission, post on social media, or be out in front of a media pack; talking about their desperate need for support. The tools of the Master's House are inaccessible - and dangerous to deploy. They are inaccessible because these Disabled people are exhausted. These Disabled people are starving. Covered in high-needs kids. Have no access to a computer or phone. Have no money for petrol. Are immersed in DV. Are institutionalised. These tools are dangerous because they are frightened to speak for fear of probable policing by Child Protection. After all, any contact with the government carries with it the very real threat of Intervention. You don't speak about the desperate situation of unsupported Disability while you are still living it: because they'll come and take your kids away. That is the last thing you do. You hide it, try to get through it, try to survive. Of course, you'd survive better if you had access to the NDIS. Your capacity to parent would expand. Your children would be safer. You would be safer. But you can't reach for those things because the very act of reaching may result in contact with family preservation. The truth is: The people who need the NDIS most do not get it. The people with the power to ensure they do, lack the life experience or care to commit to advocating for them. They have no idea what our lives are like. None. So, the cycle of inaccessibility is writ large, drives our systems, and exists without disruption. If the NDIS Amendments are passed, they will pass because institutions are self-reinforcing. It is their nature to be so. However, disruption is possible, and change IS inevitable. It is not impossible to tear ruptures in the fabric of cycles that, at first, may seem wholly impenetrable and inevitable from a distance. It is not impossible to change this story. The question we could all ask ourselves is: how? What do we know about change? How is it made? What lessons can we learn from other situations in which disempowered groups rose, took back power, and re-distributed it? Because this does happen, of course. Though we must take care to attend to the nuances of history (strategy transfer is ineffective if not done well) - We must know that change and rupture *do happen*. They do. To whatever extent we can, we must play our part.

Today's report on the out-of-home care system in NSW highlights critical issues that are a stark reminder of the challenges faced by vulnerable children and families. We thank Hon Kate Washington MP, Minister for Families and Communities, and Minister for Disability Inclusion for initiating this report so that we have clarity on the path forward for better outcomes for children and families.   Key findings from the report include: - the out-of-home care system in NSW is not fit for purpose and fails to meet the needs of children and young people, - the system is overly complex, fragmented and slow to respond in the best interests of children and young people, - there is significant variation in practice with some pockets of excellence and innovation, however positive examples are undermined by several system failures and barriers.   The report includes 13 recommendations ranging from addressing workforce challenges, to integrated approaches, and greater engagement of the voices of young people and families.   Our CEO, Emily Caska, gave the following comment following the release of the report – “Playgroups play a vital role in keeping families together and building family capacity and resilience. This continues to be a principle that we strongly support and invest in as we work towards our vision for all children to thrive. This is ideally achieved by families being supported to remain together, however, we want to ensure that the power of play and the important role of playgroups in early childhood development and community connection are also accessible to children in out-of-home care.”   Playgroup NSW looks forward to engaging with the Department of Communities and Justice as a key stakeholder in redesigning the ecosystem to ensure that all children have the best start in life.   See the report here 👇  https://lnkd.in/gtdZ9W2S

Governments are working together to design and deliver additional supports for people with disability in the community. These are known as Foundational Supports. Foundational Supports are specific supports that would be outside the NDIS to help people with disability, and their families and carers.  The Department of Social Services (DSS) is leading consultations and inviting parents and carers to have their say about Foundational Supports for children under 9 with developmental concerns, delays, and disabilities, and their families, carers and kin. You can register to attend an online workshop for families and carers living in New South Wales on Thursday 14 Nov, 7-9pm AEDT. What to Expect: Join the discussion on how to enhance supports for children and families. You’ll have the opportunity to share your thoughts on current services, barriers to accessing supports, and ideas for new initiatives. Feedback will help shape future supports outside of the NDIS. https://lnkd.in/gWgAUHcX For more information about Foundational Supports, please contact foundational.supports@dss.gov.au. 

At the Elfrida Society we are delighted with the publication of this insightful new research. The report highlights crucial evidence on the experiences of parents with learning disabilities or difficulties whose babies are involved in care proceedings. The findings underscore the need for early identification and tailored support, which can significantly improve outcomes for these parents. It's disheartening to see that in this day and age, parents and their children are being neglected so severely. One in three parents at risk of having their babies removed have learning disabilities or difficulties, yet this often goes unidentified until court proceedings. This neglect underscores the urgent need for systemic change. We invite you to read the report https://lnkd.in/ePPE2jST. and join our efforts to advocate for better support and early intervention. Visit our website to find out more about how we can assist parents through child care and child in need processes: https://lnkd.in/eSjXEsRS Together, we can make a meaningful impact and ensure that all parents receive the support they need to thrive. #InclusiveParenting #SupportParents #LearningDisabilities #Autism #Equality #ParentingSupport #EarlyIntervention #ChildCare

Further update: Friday afternoon this young girls plan was restarted Update: The NDIA has been in contact with me this afternoon and working closely with us and hopefully will have a positive result within the next 24 hours. Thank you to everyone who who has reached out Today one of my Support Coordinators received a call from the Complaints Officer at the minister's office regarding a 16 year old participant with very high complex support needs and behaviours of concern who has no funds left. This has been escalated numerous times through LACs, NDIA, Feedback email, CEO and the list is enormous. This young girl has multiple disabilities with over 9 different diagnoses. They have been without any funding for 2 months now. We have even exhausted any mainstream supports in the Logan community in Queensland including Child Safety, MASS, Carers Gateway, Carers Qld and Child and Family Connect. All fruitless and unable to provide this single mum any support. Mum is now subjected to physical abuse from her daughter, but this has been classed as a non-critical abuse situation. Do we chance Logan Hospital as a social admission which then we are placing this child at risk of self-harming or hurting sick patients in hospital. Multiple high-level escalations by this young lady have resulted in her starting to hit out at inanimate objects/furniture. This includes walls, benches and household appliances. She struck items and her mother with a rolling pin then pushed an air fryer off the bench due to her meal not being ready fast enough. She continues to hit, punch and pull her mother’s hair regularly. She also when in the vicinity continually taps and hits her mother on the back and shoulders.  These escalations have caused her school to question the origin of the self-harm bruising which are being documented by the GP. It is not acceptable that a parent has go through this unnecessarily. This mum loves her daughter so much but when is it okay for the agency and the delegates to completely ignore the pleas for assistance. A young person with disabilities is being further disadvantaged and her evidence not being considered during a time of crisis and is at considerable risk of social admission to hospital or relinquishment.  This situation is critical and I fear of a catastrophic event should there be further delay to supporting her disability needs appropriately. If someone could please intervene who actually has some push in the agency please contact me directly on 0481 171 519. This is not what should be occurring within the agency. The only action that is needed for this young girl and her mother is ensuring that a new plan is issued. We have already had meetings with the LAC in May but still nothing. The complaints officer said we needed to do a plan review which we already have. BTW I am sure he is getting paid for his work which is great but we have been working with this family for quite a few months with no pay.

Here's an important article based on Munazza Tahir's Ph.D. thesis. Child Protection Workers work really hard for their clients with intellectual disabilities.