Posted July 14, 2023
The report states that the combination of disability and risk is one of the most explicit forms of discrimination parents with disability face. This is magnified for First Nations parents with disability. The findings indicate that law, policy, practice and funding reforms are necessary for parents with disability to uphold their human rights and look after their children where practicable. Twenty-seven recommendations are made in the report.
Posted June 15, 2023
The Charter was released in February 2023 and aims to improve outcomes for parents and carers with disabilities who come into contact with Child Protection in Victoria. The Charter recognises that parents and carers have the right to a relationship with their children. In this session, Miranda Bain, the Funds In Court Human Rights Advisory Committee Deputy Chair, Susan Arthur, representing Positive Powerful Parents Self Advocacy Group for parents with intellectual disability, Frederikke Jensen, the Advocacy Manager at VALID and Denise Boyd, Executive Officer at, STAR Victoria, discuss the principles and design of the Charter and how it works operationally. Is it effective as an advocacy tool? Does it uphold the rights of parents with disability when they come into contact with the child protection system?
Posted March 31, 2023
“It is criminal. It is so abusive. If you are going to remove a child from care, particularly a child with a disability, you have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the child’s access to support comes with them,” she said.
Posted February 10, 2023
The Charter aims to improve outcomes for parents and carers with disabilities who come into contact with Child Protection in Victoria. The Charter recognises that parents and carers have the right to a relationship with their children. Child Protection has a legal responsibility to promote your child’s best interests’ and safety, and throughout their involvement … Continued
Posted December 2, 2022
Sexual and reproductive health services are often inaccessible to women with disabilities for many reasons, including attitudes from health providers and a lack of physical access. In this story, a woman with disability talks about her experience giving birth and how it drives her activism today.
Posted October 7, 2022
This report highlights implications for improving policy and practice across intersecting disability, child and violence domains. It begins to address one of the evidence gaps identified in the 2020 interim report of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Disability services are regularly and notably absent from cross-sector collaborative responses to domestic and family violence, and a lack of understanding, resources, awareness of or education about people with disability has led to a lack of “disability literacy” among mainstream services. Alongside this, disability services lack expertise around violence.
Posted September 30, 2022
The impacts are immense: there’s up to a year-long wait for support services, with families struggling to find accessible housing or use disability support services while in crisis. Australia’s child protection system is fractured and outdated, experts say, with a focus on reporting and removing children from their homes rather than addressing underlying issues.
Posted September 30, 2022
Around 30 per cent of Australian children impacted by domestic violence have a disability. Australian children with disabilities are experiencing disproportionate rates of domestic and family violence and being failed by support systems, researchers have warned.
Posted August 26, 2022
With the right help, parents with intellectual disability can and do learn what it takes to be a good parent. But their efforts to keep their family together can be undermined by disjointed services and the separation of parenting responsibility from disability needs.
Posted August 19, 2022
Child protection statistics are a sober reminder of the vulnerability these families face if they fall between the cracks of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and mainstream support services. Parenting should be treated as an activity of daily living for people with disability and then supported – rather than ignored – to ensure the best outcomes for parents and children.
Posted April 22, 2021
This guide and the associated decision trees focus on the use of regulated restrictive practices (RRP) with children and young people aged under 18 years who are participants of the NDIS. The resources aim to: promote the rights of children and young people with a disability identify special considerations and relevant safeguards assist NDIS providers to … Continued
Posted April 22, 2021
The CYP guide is based on the conditions outlined in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018 and has been developed “to acknowledge that children and young people with disability require special consideration and safeguarding in order to protect them from harm whilst actively promoting their development and upholding their legal and human rights.”
Posted November 25, 2020
Babies are being removed at birth from First Nations mothers living with disabilities, the disability royal commission has heard. Giving evidence in Brisbane, Ms Schwartz said she had witnessed the removal of Indigenous babies first hand. “I would call it a heinous practice,” she said.
Posted November 24, 2020
“We are among the most seriously disadvantaged members of the Australian community, and are also experts on the impact of policies on us,” says First Peoples Disability Network Chief Executive Officer Damian Griffis. “This week, a number of First Nations people with disability will give evidence about the different racist and ableist systems that harm our children.”
Posted May 7, 2020
Many children have been learning at home during the pandemic. But for parents with children living with a disability the transition has been tough. Some families say they’re exhausting their NDIS funding to pay for support workers, to try to make sure their children don’t fall behind.
