NT Legal Aid Commission calls for reform following coronial inquest into 9-year-old’s suicide

Calls to reform the treatment of NT children have been met with denial, minimisation and deflection following suicide of a nine-year-old girl in care

CALLS to reform the treatment of Territory children have been met with denial, minimisation and deflection following the suicide of a nine-year-old girl in care, according to legal experts.

The Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission has savaged the implementation of the recommendations from the 2017 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children, following an investigation into the passing of nine-year-old ‘Sammy’ while in foster care in March 2020.

In November Coroner Elisabeth Armitage handed down her findings which condemned the Department of Children and Families for ignoring repeated warnings from case workers for therapy and pleas from the family for kinship placements.

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage .

The NTLAC said the “challenging and distressing” inquiry needed to go further to ensure Territory children were protected while in care.

“The Sammy inquest exposes a litany of systemic failures, poor decisions, unsatisfactory delays and ineffective practices,” the NTLAC said.

“The Commission is concerned that the Sammy inquest will, like so many other reports into the Northern Territory child protection system, be shelved and, in due course, be forgotten.”

“Sammy’s inquest illustrates that denial, minimisation and deflection of responsibility for systemic failures continues.

“The Sammy inquest does not refer in any detail to the steps considered, proposed, committed to or taken by Territory Families to reflect on Sammy’s death.”

It said critical recommendations to help families mediate issues with Territory Families were not implemented four years on from the Royal Commission.

The NTLAC said delays in dealing with Sammy’s family, ignoring appeals for kinship placements and her placement with non-Aboriginal carers was part of an “ongoing and common systemic issue”.

“The inescapable inference to be drawn from this disturbing account is that the delays and hurdles are the product of a system in which racism is embedded,” it said.

Territory Families said 152 of the 218 Royal Commission recommendations had been implemented, with 63 still underway.

Territory Families Minister Kate Worden said the recommendations from the Sammy Inquiry were accepted, and the recent coronial inquiries had led to the establishment of the Multi-Agency Community and Child Safety framework and teams across the NT.

“We have implemented numerous reforms and new programs to the child protection service system...(including) a new focus on family-led decision making, strengths-based approaches and a focus on early intervention, family support and multi-agency collaboration.”

The NT News is awaiting data from the Department of Territory Families Housing and Community regarding the number of suicides and attempted suicides among children in their care.

A spokeswomen there was no centralised data used to track this, saying data regarding rates of attempted suicide could not be “extracted for reporting purposes” and would have to be manually investigated.

This is despite two children in the care of NT Government dying by suicide between 2017-2021.

Originally published as NT Legal Aid Commission calls for reform following coronial inquest into 9-year-old’s suicide