Page 1281 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 2021
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carer receives to provide for a 17-year-old, and is less than what a carer receives to care for a baby. Nonetheless, it certainly helps.
It should be pointed out, however, that according to the government’s own strategy, this extended subsidy was never intended to be universally available but only available in “select cases”. It should also be noted that ACT Together provides a select list of other services to care leavers up to the age of 25, including help with housing applications, driving lessons and counselling. These are all good things. The question that now arises is whether this old policy meets today’s challenges. I believe that it does not. I have twice asked the minister for data relating to the wellbeing of care leavers.
In the first instance when I asked about homelessness, I was told that this government does not collect territory level data on the housing circumstances of young people after exiting care. When I sought data regarding education and employment, I was told that the Community Services Directorate does not routinely keep data on young people who have left care. To me, it is irresponsible for the government not to have this data. How can we improve old policy when it does not know, for example, how our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander care leavers are going? Without data to provide information and insights, the government is blind, wandering through child protection like a kangaroo in the headlights. This is astounding.
Under ACT law, the legal parent of a young person in the territory’s care and protection system is the ACT government. But the government does not know anything about its kids once they turn 18. Can you imagine any other parent, who, when asked how their young adult children are going, where they are living, if they are working or studying and so forth, would say they simply do not know? This is the case for the ACT government at the moment. This is clearly something that needs to change to meet today’s challenges. I sincerely hope that those opposite agree.
A 2018 discussion paper written by the ACT Community Services Directorate repeatedly states that data collection on young people who have exited care is absolutely necessary to review the progress and impact of recent policy and legislative changes to transition support. “This data-driven evaluation,” the paper goes on to state, “will enable the development of evidence-based policy to improve outcomes for young people leaving care and ensure the best start towards independent adulthood.” In the absence of this data, we are left with anecdotes.
In preparation for this motion, I have spoken at length with stakeholders, service providers, Aboriginal elders, former care and protection workers and young people who have exited care. The consensus is that we are failing kids and carers and clearly not doing enough. One stakeholder noted that current policies have not been fully implemented and that there are still too many barriers to outcomes being realised. Another stakeholder used the word “roadblocks”. One young person who recently aged out of the system but could not stay with his carers reported sleeping in bus interchanges and pedestrian underpasses, in addition to a youth refuge and on mates’ lounges. He still does not have stable accommodation. I share this information to bring clarity and to improve our capacity to support all care leavers.
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