The current child welfare system is designed to be reactive. The threshold for services is
often for families to be in some level of crisis. In acknowledging the limitations of this system,
our Law will support our families in preventative and strength-based planning for their children.

We see this type of process already at work in our communities as godparents, grandparents,
aunties and uncles are stood up by parents (sometimes through ceremony) to indicate their
willingness to support a child if anything were to happen to the parents. Due to this process
being already evident in our communities, it is the foundation upon which we developed the
concept of a Child Plan.

In our new system, parents will be required to complete a Child Plan for each of their children indicating important family members (or other adults) in a child’s life and the roles and responsibilities the individuals identified hold towards the child. A Child Plan is intended to be a flexible and living document that gives power back to families to identify the kinship network around their child(ren) who can be contacted to act as supports if needs ever arise. While families will have the flexibility to identify as many or as few individuals as they would like within their child’s Child Plan, they will need to identify individuals to fill two very specific roles in their child’s life (which we expand on below): (1) A Family Head and (2) a Receiver.

(1) A Family Head: This is a person the family identifies as having the responsibility to bring a child’s family together to reach a consensus about a particular issue or work that needs to be addressed for a child and their family. Given that we have many children who might have a family head on their maternal and paternal side of their family, two family heads may be listed for a child.

(2) A Receiver: This term comes from the title given to the individuals who stand with (and ‘receive’) an individual on the floor when a child receives a name. It is culturally understood that in doing this, these people are accepting the role to be like ‘second parents’ to a child if anything were to happen to their parents. Some families use the term godparent to convey a similar role in a child’s life. In a Child Plan, the person the family identifies as their Child’s receiver is responsible to assume the obligations of the Child’s parents if the Childs parents become unable to care for the Child. By identifying a Receiver in the Child Plan, Parents retain decision making authority (authority to decide who will be entrusted to temporarily care for their Child) even when they are unable to care for the Child themselves directly.

There will be support for families to fill out these Child Plans if they require. These Child Plans will be stored securely within SIIA’s server network and will only be accessed when required to coordinate service to a family. See below for a DRAFT version of a Child Plan (still subject to change)

SIIA DRAFT
Child Plan/Family Governance Plan