Family Group Conference: make a family plan to keep your kids safe

A Family Group Conference is a meeting where your family makes a plan (called a Family Plan) to keep your kids safe and well.

It’s a way to get your family together to hear everyone’s thoughts, hear about the help available and decide on a way forward.

An Aboriginal facilitator leads the meeting to make sure:

• it’s a culturally safe space
• your family’s decisions are respected
• everyone’s voice is heard, especially the kid’s
• your business is private.

Your case manager at Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS) might suggest a Family Group Conference because you know your kids and your family best. Your family can choose whether they want to try it.

You can also ask for a Family Group Conference if you’d like to try one.

Family Group Conference facilitators

If you decide to try a Family Group Conference, one of the independent Aboriginal facilitators will call you to explain how the meeting works.

They’ll be your facilitator before, during and after the meeting. You can contact them any time with questions.

Your facilitator is not a case manager. They do not get much information about your family. And they cannot make decisions about your kids.

Your facilitator’s job is to:

• make sure your family knows the reasons for a family group conference
• ensure your family’s cultural needs are met
• invite your family, community members and support workers to be involved
• help everyone prepare for the meeting
• support you during the meeting
• make sure you feel safe and respected.

Getting ready for the conference

Your facilitator will ask you and your kids:

• what you’d like to happen at the meeting
• who you want to have at the meeting
• if there’s anything you’re worried about or questions you have.

They can help with any struggles you have coming together.

Who can attend

Your facilitator can invite anyone you want who supports you or your family. This could include:

• kids and young people
• parents and care givers
• extended family
• community members
• support workers, youth workers or counsellors
• CYPS managers.

They can also invite workers from agencies who will give you information on how they can help.

At your conference

The meeting has 3 parts:

1. Sharing the Story, where everyone meets together for about 1 hour
2. Family Yarnin, where your family meets privately
3. Moving forward with your Family Plan, where everyone meets together again.

Your facilitator will lead the meeting and make sure each of the 3 parts happen.

Part 1: Sharing the Story

This is when you, your kids and anyone else your family invited can talk about:

• the reasons for the conference
• what your kids need to stay safe and well.

Support workers, youth workers and counsellors who attend will:

• explain what help your family can get and how it works
• give you a brochure or some information you can look through during the next part of the meeting.

Part 2: Family Yarnin

This is when you, your kids and your family can talk together privately about what everyone said in Sharing the Story.

Together you can:

• work out solutions
• decide if and how the workers can help
• put it all in a Family Plan.

Your case manager and other workers are not part of this. They are not family, and they are not part of making these decisions.

Part 3: Moving forward with your Family Plan

This is when your family shares your Family Plan. You’ll show your plan and your family’s decisions to your case manager.

Everyone who is part of your Family Plan will agree to make it happen. Each Family Plan is different and respects your family and your kid’s needs.

After your conference

You and your family own your family plan. You have made the decisions in your Family Plan and now it’s time to put it into action.

Putting your Family Plan into action

This is when you do everything you decided to do that is in your Family Plan.

You and your family are responsible for your Family Plan. It is up to you to follow the Family Plan.

You can contact your facilitator or case manager if you need any support.

Reviewing your Family Plan

After 3 months, you’ll come back together to check your family plan is meeting your kid’s needs.

Your facilitator will be at the meeting to help you.

You don’t have to wait for 3 months to review your Family Plan. You can reach out for support if things have changed before then.

What you can expect

Privacy

Anything shared at your conference stays private. Everyone will sign a confidentiality agreement that says they cannot share your business.

Cultural safety

Your facilitator will know about your culture and make sure your conference is a safe space for you and your family.

Respect

You’ll be respected and heard. You have a right to be involved in decision-making for your kids. You can express your thoughts and wishes. Your kids can talk about their worries and what they want.

Aboriginal facilitators

Belinda

I am a Gomeroi Yinnar from Moree NSW, who has resided on Ngunnawal Country for over 20 years and I am passionate about working with community and sharing culture and knowledge.

I joined the Family Group Conference team as a Facilitator in July 2020, before transitioning from the Cultural Service Team and previously as an Indigenous Education Worker in ACT Education.

I like working within the FGC team seeing the opportunity it brings for families to have a say and develop their own Family Plan on how they can keep their children safe, happy and healthy.

I am about positive outcomes. I have learned the FGC is the key to self-determination. This allows families to identify their own solutions to challenges they are faced while parenting, and prove they are the expert in their child’s life.

At the end of a long day at work I just like to lounge around and chill with my 4 big boys… and can’t resist my cheeky chocolate poodle – Coco!

In my spare time I enjoy the creativity with cooking and weaving for myself and my family.

I am a Dhungutti women, a Doyle. My connections being to South West Rocks, Burnt Bridge and Pelican Island. I’ve lived, worked, and raised my children on Ngunnawal Country since 1988.

I have been working with the FGC team since December 2021, though I have been a passionate supporter and advocate of Family Group Conferencing for many years.

FGC is modelled on our ancient and traditional Aboriginal practices of coming together into a Yarning Circle, as a family and as a community to discuss problems and to support one another moving into the future.

The FGC model reflects our traditional practice of children being at the centre of our communities, and it encompassed our traditional values of Respect, Love, Trust, Dignity and Courage.

It’s basically a model that our ancestors historically practiced before European settlement. An ancient tradition that we had lost, but for which we are now rediscovering and putting back into practice in the child protection space.

The most important thing to know about FGC is that its a family led decision making process that helps to rebalance the power imbalances in the Child Protection landscape.

Working in FGC I have learnt that hope springs eternal.

At the end of a long day of work I hit the backyard and hang with my family, dogs, chooks and veggies! And paint, of course.

The music I listen to Gustav Holst, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, The Doobie Brothers, Rimsky-Korsakov, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin…a wide variety.

My name is Jo and I am a proud Wiradjuri woman from Western New South Wales.

I started with the Family Group Conference team in late January 2023.

I joined the team as I have always believed families have the right to be involved in decision making around their children… after all, families are the experts when it comes to their kids!

At the end of a long day, I go home, chat to my daughter, dog and two cats, then cook dinner and read before bed.

When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with my kids and grandkids, swimming, kayaking, bushwalking and travelling.

Contact us

To find out more, contact your case manager at Child and Youth Protection Services.