Addressing child protection challenges in a low socio-economic community: Ensuring youth and community voices in local government planning

High rates of child protection reports in a regional local government area provided impetus for seeking better engagement with youth and community that would inform the council's youth strategic plan and community responses. This approach was seen as a step to address social issues relevant to youth and reduce child protection demand in the area.
The regional local government area was created in 2016 through merger of three smaller disparate local government areas. High needs, low socio-economic status, increasing child protection service demand, and limited cohesion and coordination due to previous funding arrangements based on past local government boundaries, were identified as contributing factors to youth issues in the area. The council was identified as key stakeholder and lead organisation by the state child protection agency. The council sought to enhance its coordination role with community agencies and build a more cohesive service network across the various communities. The state child protection agency was working with council to enhance local responses to identified needs, including targeted child protection, family support and youth services. To achieve this the council sought to undertake an independent consultation process that would engage with community, services, and importantly youth, to inform future planning and improved responses to youth needs.
This presentation will discuss the consultation and youth engagement process used and key findings that informed local government and local service strategic planning. The lessons from this process may be relevant to other regions in the development of youth strategic/action plans and community responses where high rates of child protection issues have been identified.