Smart Justice for Young People

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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we operate, the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation. We extend this acknowledgement to all First Nations’ Peoples and pay our respects to their Elders past and present and acknowledge sovereignty was never ceded.

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Domain 5

Children, Families and Their Communities

Unsupported people living with untreated complex trauma can struggle to maintain a safe home for children and people needing their care. Children in these households absorb the impacts of parental and intergenerational distress.

Rather than supporting care givers to address their own trauma needs and to support their children, our current system removes children from these complex situations and places them in out-of-home care. 

Complex trauma and toxic stress are associated with emotional and behavioural dysregulation, attachment disruption, lack of impulse control, difficulty with attention and problem solving, and high-risk and challenging behaviours.

Next steps

To end over-representation in the criminal justice system, we are asking the government to act:

Ask thirty-seven

Led by DFFH, the development, adoption and resourcing of a Child Wellbeing Strategy (to complement Victoria’s new Youth Strategy) underpinned by a whole-of-government Child & Youth Wellbeing Outcomes Framework that refers to and works alongside the Ending Over-representation Whole of Government Framework. A Child Outcomes Framework will outline what children and their families need and want to be well and thrive in life, what government needs to do to enable this, and how the community sector can contribute to this vision.

Ask thirty-eight

Extend portfolio responsibility of DFFH to include coordinating the implementation of the Childhood Strategy and Outcomes Framework, and consider dividing DFFH into early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence and young adulthood to support effective implementation of both this strategy as well as the Youth Strategy.

Ask thirty-nine

DFFH fully implement and evaluate the Framework to Reduce Criminalisation of Young People in Residential Care 2020 (the Framework) to improve outcomes for and reduce the criminalisation of children in residential care.

Ask forty

Amend the CYFA to acknowledge the systemic and intersectional drivers of the over-representation of particular youth cohorts in the criminal justice system, including children in out-of-home residential care and require decision-makers to take active steps to redress and reduce this over-representation when exercising its powers in relation to procedural and substantive matters.

Ask forty-one

DFFH resource: • Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to support cultural plan development and implementation. • Aboriginal specific family support programs and voluntary programs providing families with flexible and practical supports, respite, and brokerage to opt into prior to child protection referrals or mandates.

Ask forty-two

DFFH ensure exit planning exists for all children and young people exiting care at any point in time and full resourcing for the plans to be enacted in harmony with ask.

Ask forty-three

Strengthen the child and family services system.

Ask forty-four

Invest in training and funding youth workers in community settings, to take a strengths-based, relational, holistic approach to supporting young people to deal with issues in their lives, and re-engage with their families, school and community. They can also forge trusted referral pathways to other services as needed. Deloitte analysis shows a return on investment of at least $2.62 for every $1 invested in youth work programs, which are proven successful in diverting young people from youth justice.