Jannawi acknowledges that child protection cannot be undertaken in isolation. Staff are involved in complex and stressful situations, which prioritises the needs of the child, but recognises the professional and personal challenges of child protection work, and provides appropriate supervision and support. It is also acknowledged that families experiencing child protection issues need secure and consistent access to service providers.

The Family Program Team is multidisclipinary and includes:

Family Program Manager

Two Family Counsellors (FC)

Early Childhood Teacher (ECT)

Child Development Worker (CDW)

All current staff hold tertiary qualifications- The Manager and Counsellor positions are currently filled by Social Workers, and the ECT and CDW staff are Early Childhood Teachers.

Each family has an allocated Family Counsellor and Child Development Worker, but in an emergency, or if a worker is on leave, other team members will respond to the family as required. The family is engaged with the team, and knowledge gained by any individual worker from the family is shared with the team.

All families are reviewed fortnightly in the team case plan meeting. Generally significant decisions such as admission to the program, case management and completion with the program will be reviewed at this meeting. Decisions are also made about details of service delivery, such as provision of transport or advocacy. Decisions are generally made by consensus, but where agreement can’t be reached, the Program Manager holds this responsibility. Significant decisions about a family are never made in isolation. If circumstances dictate that a decision must be made quickly to make a significant direction in work with the family, and it cannot wait until the review meeting, this must be reviewed with the Family Program Manager.

The Family Program team is supported by the Management Team which includes the Director, Centre Administrator and Family Program Manager.