It is just three years since childcare court proceedings were opened to public scrutiny through a new initiative, the Child Care Law Reporting Project. Its findings revealed for the first time the issues that lead to State intervention in families. A year later the law was further changed to allow media representatives attend such proceedings and report on them, while protecting the anonymity of the parties involved.
These developments have brought greater transparency to some of the most difficult and sensitive cases in our courts; where the difficult task of balancing conflicting rights can only benefit from greater scrutiny and public discussion.
The final report of the Child Care Law Reporting Project, published this week, draws together the information gathered in its first three years and reveals statistical trends and insights from individual cases. It identifies a disproportionate representation of children from migrant families and of parents suffering from intellectual disabilities, mental health problems and addiction. It finds services available to such families are inadequate and lie outside the responsibility of the Child and Family Agency. And there is inadequate provision of mental health services and appropriate care for children suffering from behavioural problems and mental health difficulties.
The report makes more than 20 recommendations, ranging from legislative change in the planned review of the Child Care Act to improved co-ordination between services impacting on child welfare, including those for vulnerable parents. The recommendations should pave the way for future reform of the childcare process. This will be enhanced by the next phase of the project which will examine exceptionally difficult cases.
One of the main recommendations is for a dedicated family court to hear both private and public family law. Work is well advanced in the Department of Justice on the necessary legislation and it should be enacted speedily. It is to be hoped too that the transparency brought to the childcare system by the Child Care Law Reporting Project will be a feature of all its proceedings.