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FIN Report

FIN is a representative grouping of practitioners, academics and parents with children in care seeking to advance practice and policy in working with parents of children and young people in the statutory child protection system. While it started in Queensland, FIN has also developed in New South Wales and Western Australia as considerable interest exists in those jurisdictions in working to improve outcomes for children and young people through more effective work with parents and other family members. Work has also taken place in the ACT. There is a developing interest in all Australian jurisdictions in the importance of this work. Queensland has, however, been the forerunner to national efforts.

This report has four main sections:
1. An introduction to FIN, the FIN Project and the research methodology underpinning focus groups conducted in Townsville and Brisbane in 2006
2. Key themes and issues emerging from research with parents and significant others, non government workers and child safety officers
3. Recommended strategies, solutions and tools for working more effectively with parents and families of children in the child protection system
4. A focused literature review which provides the evidence base for the work undertaken by those involved with the project.

Underpinning this report are the research findings extrapolated from a series of focus groups held with parents with children in care, workers from the non government sector and child safety officers (CSOs). A total of 139 people participated in the focus groups providing a mixture of perspectives according to their background and role in child protection system.