Module 3: Parenting and caring 2015
Department Of Community Services
Name: Aseel Esttaifan
Due: 18/06/2015
Content page
Department Of Community Services
A) Name and definition of the service?
The New South Wales Department of Community Services (DoCS) is the largest child protection agency in Australia. DoCS main work is to protect children such us neglect and abuse. In order to maintain their vision and aim, DoCS operates within the legal framework set in the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, the Community Welfare Act 1987 and the Adoptions Act 2000. It also offers early intervention and prevention strategies that support the parents …show more content…
DoCS assist children and their carers through the provision of a range of support, care and services. DoCS main function is to protect children, provide them with foster care, and to provide a range of services for the carers. Their main functions also include:
Protecting children
One of the most important concerns of any community is the health, safety and well being of its children. However, carers are responsible for the safety and welfare of children in their care, and home. Protecting children from abuse and neglect is the responsibility of the whole community. DoCs have an important role in keeping children safe from harm and arranging care for those who cannot live at home. If the child or young person is at risk of significant harm, DoCS try to work with the carers, other agencies and professionals to make sure they are safe. If DoCS think a child is in immediate danger, they will move the child to a safe place. Also, DoCS ensures children are protected by instilling mandatory reporting of any of child abuse ‘or signs they may suspect leads to child abuse’. Mandatory officers include: teachers, doctors, social workers, childcare workers, who need to report to the service if they believe that the child is in danger. These members need to make a claim through the DoCS Help line, whose number is 132 111. The staff investigates to see how serious the claim is, how serious the abuse is and usually make house-calls5. Thus, the Department …show more content…
Some children cannot live with their parents because of abuse or neglect, or because their parents might be unable to care for them. They are placed with relatives as well as kinship care, especially for Indigenous children, foster parents, in residential care or independent living arrangements.
The decision to remove a child is not an easy one and DoCS must have sufficient evidence to satisfy the court and be acting in the best interests of the child. As well as working to ensure children can remain safely with their families, DoCS is responding to this increase by expanding out-of-home care. DoCS have increased funding to the non-government sector to manage a greater share of placements. Planning is underway for the gradual transfer of more responsibility to NGOs – outlined in Keep Them Safe – and dependent on factors like sector capacity, funding reviews, workplace recruitment and