Individual Support Services
The Act for Kids Individual Support Services is a program model involving individual packages of support that aim to support a child who has a complex child protection history with the intensive and holistic support required to improve that child’s outcomes and broader ecological support.
Bespoke packages are delivered on a fee-for-service basis commissioned by Child Protection Agencies according to each child’s specific needs.
ISS adopts an agile model of co-design around each individual child aimed at making their home and environments safer. Home refers to wherever the child is living, whether that is with parents or kin, or in foster care or residential care.
ISS is delivered by a dedicated unit within Act for Kids with teams in Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Brisbane. The program model is consistent across Queensland, with some local variation in implementation based on the nature of the collaborative relationship with the local Child Protection Service Centre, a key condition of the program.
ISS specifically aims to work with:
- children and young people who have experienced, or are at risk of cumulative harm and multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
- children and young people with complex behaviours that are prohibitive to accessing long-term care placements, schooling options, recreational activities, and community facilities.
- high-risk families in contact with child protection services.
- overrepresented groups (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disabilities, parents and carers with disabilities).
What we deliver:
- Stability – Increased stability and improved outcomes for children.
- Individualised tailored approach – Dedicated specialist team implementing therapeutic interventions informed by assessments and evidence-based practice.
- Experienced professionals – Highly experienced multi–disciplinary trained staff.
- Diverse and inclusive – Culturally-responsive packages to increase home or placement stability and improve developmental outcomes for all children.
- Return on investment – Achievement of outcomes offsets the ongoing and increased costs of child protection.
- Flexible delivery – Intervention for any child known to Child Protection Agencies that needs extra support and therapeutic interventions through key developmental periods, at any point along the child protection continuum.
- Comprehensive and professional reporting – Reports are produced monthly. Frequent tracking of changes are reported against an Outcomes Framework.
- Stakeholder training with the aim of gaining service cohesion and quality outcomes for children – Our ISS program manages relationships and communications with all stakeholders. We provide training and capacity-building to caregivers, educators and all relevant stakeholders.
What we do:
Therapeutic In Home Support – working intensively with children and their families to address child protection worries, improve safety in the home, help children and parents heal from trauma and lead happy lives.
Therapeutic Family Restoration/Preservation – working intensively with parents to improve their parenting, address the child protection worries and work towards returning children to the care of their parents. Providing direct therapeutic intervention to parents and children.
Therapeutic Placement Support – working intensively with foster & kinship carers to stabilize placements, increase attachment between carers and child/children, help children heal from trauma and lead happily lives.
Therapeutic Outreach – work therapeutically with disengaged youth, increase safety and transition to a place of safety, improving emotional regulation and help young people to heal from trauma.
For more information, please contact iss.qld@actforkids.com.au
Changing the lives of kids in Australia
Five-year-old Maddie was physically, emotionally and verbally abused by her parents from birth, witnessing severe domestic violence and substance abuse, including Ice.
For the first six years of his little life, eight-year-old Aiden was beaten, burned, threatened, and degraded.