Dalwood Parents Action Group

... working for the country kids of New South Wales

Welcome to DPAG web site

 

  The Dalwood Parents Action Group (DPAG) web site was set up in June 2010 in an effort to inform and coordinate the response of the DPAG and other interested parties, to oppose the fragmentation and loss of services that Dalwood Assessment Centre and Palm Avenue Residential School provide to rural and remote children of New South Wales.  These children suffer from a wide range of learning disorders and require the unique services housed at Dalwood to develop and maintain the necessary educational skills that the current State Government believe do not matter to children form regional and remote NSW who suffer from learing challenges.

  This State Government until recently looked intent on closing the facilities at Seaforth with no provisions in place to provide any support to regional and remote children and their families.

  Continued action from DPAG, Isolated Childrens and Parents Association (ICPA), the State Liberal/National Coalition, Greens, Independents and other interested parties have so far brought a stay of execution, but unfortunately no long term guarantee is available from the State Labor Government for the continuation of this vital service.

  It is the aim of DPAG to see the continuation of Dalwood and Palm Avenue so as they may provide the best possible services to the learning and behaviorally disadvantaged children of regional and remote New South Wales.

  Please feel free to comment on various news articles and press releases that have been added to this site. In addition utilise the various pages above, such as Forum and Guest Book to make your self heard and hopefully add your voice of disapproval to the fragmentation and loss of such vital services.

 

  

   Dalwood Home, Seaforth (Manly Daily Scott Howlett 17/11/09)                  Patrick Bolte Dumping Books at State Parliament

                                                                                               (Katana Smith ABC 12/11/2009)

 

This weeks sad face goes to the extremely quiet Carmel Tebbutt. Someone within the DOH may like to wake the minister and adviser her that she is jointly responsible for implementing the new Three Tiered Model to our children.

 

This weeks smiley face goes to Verity Firth for expanding some aspects of this vital service … the new Three Tiered Model if incepted will go some of the way to maintaining smiles on our children’s faces after the sudden abandonment of Dalwood Assessment Centre and Palm Avenue Residential School.

 

This week also sees the puzzled face making a debut. The puzzled face goes to the people of NSW. They are sitting back wondering how a government that failed to maintain 1 specialist school can ever hope to coordinate 4 separate facilities under a complicated Three Tier Model.

 

Quote of the Week

"... the Panel was itself strongly representative of those with a stake in the outcome of any improvement to the service."  (Joint Chairs, Brian Smyth King and Cathrine Lynch, Foreword, Expert Advisory Panel's Advice to Minister of Health in NSW and Minister of Education and Training in NSW, July 2010)

 

The advisory panel did not consist of any parents with children currently within the DAC or PAS programs, nor was there a specialist staff member from the old DAC or PAS. This was not a panel representative of all stake holders.