The Act will come into effect from 1 July 2024.
The Statement of Recognition Act 2023 introduces several amendments to the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, including:
- A Statement of Recognition by the Victorian Parliament formally recognising that the child protection system played a key role in the dispossession, colonisation and assimilation of Aboriginal people. This also includes eleven accompanying principles which child protection and community services must have regard and give effect to when making decisions and taking action when working with Aboriginal children.
- Expansion of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle (ACPP) from ‘placement’ to include the additional elements: prevention, partnership, participation and connection.
These principles aim to support child protection and community services to approach their decisions and actions through an Aboriginal lens to protect and connect Aboriginal children to culture, family and Country.
Implementation is currently underway to strengthen existing systems, policies, and practices to support the introduction of the Act and accompanying principles.
Online information sessions on the Statement of Recognition Act 2023 will be available to funded organisations in the coming months.
To support relevant staff with this Statement of Recognition Act 2023, further communication and materials will be made available on the Funded Agency Channel website and newsletter to funded organisations later this month, as well as in the next edition of Agency Monitoring News.