I think Victoria is one of the best in
the world in terms of protecting
Children at risk and that is because we
Implement research in our day-to-day
practice my name is Angela and I've been
with Department of Health and Human
Services now for over 25 years some
things stay the same we must always
protect children they must always come
first but what has changed is the way
that we work with the
community because the community is more
conscious of Children at Risk they are
more willing to make reports and should
that child actually come in we've got
the specialised staff there to meet
their needs child protection here in
Victoria has always been looking at ways
to improve a child's life in 92 93 Child
Protection started a pilot program
called family group conferencing it's
all about empowering families to make
decisions if you provide family with all
the information that you work
transparently with them they will always
make better decisions than what we ever
could we are exposed to many cultural
groups every family is individual and
every family is complex a family needs
to see that you are interested in them
that you aren't judging them and that
you are respecting their story you are
not working with the child in isolation
you are working with the
community for me a career path isn't
just progressing up it's also about
moving horizontally and I made a
conscious decision that I wanted to lead
practice by working directly with staff
and that that's where my skill set was
best
placed so to be a good child protection
practitioner for me is a number of
things the ability to be flexible
assertive be passionate confront
challenges head on knowing that the child
is your client first and foremost and
you are there to to serve them and to
protect them
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