We should not be punished for having a disability: Recommendations for reform to child protection, family services, and disability systems for parents with a disability

This report has been created for groups associated with the Family Inclusion Network Australia (FINA) including FIN Townsville, FIN Southeast Queensland, FIN Victoria, FIN Western Australia; Positive Powerful Parents Self Advocacy Group (PPP); Family Inclusion Strategies in the Hunter (FISH); the Reily Foundation in South Australia; and, parent co-researchers involved with the University of Sydney with assistance from Dr Kate Fitt and Dr Christina David of RMIT University. The purpose of this report is to highlight key problems and share ideas from parents and their supporters with the Disability Royal Commission about what might work to better support parents with a disability and their children in contact with child protection and welfare systems. FINA and PPP gathered feedback from their members and associated groups and gave reports documenting key issues with these systems and recommendations for reform, based on their lived experience, to Drs Fitt and David to analyse and to help write this report. This report relies heavily on direct quotes from the consultations to ensure the voice of parents and their supporters remain at the centre of the discussion of what is needed to make services systems fairer and more supportive and safer for parents with disability. All quotes included in this report are formatted in italics. The feedback reports from the organisations did not identify which comments were from parents or supporters however we are aware that the majority of respondents are parents living with disability and the majority of quotes are from parents with disabilities that include physical, neuro-developmental and intellectual disability. Many of these parents are experienced in making public response about the issues faced by parents in the child protection context. Whilst this report focusses on recommendations for change to reduce discrimination, systemic violence across the Child Protection system, and to promote rights based and family centred reforms, it recognises that the issues do not begin nor end with that system. The types of neglect, violence, abuse or exploitation outlined in this report and to which we are responding are difficult for others to understand and respond to because they are pervasive, systemic, and are often invisible to those who are not impacted.