Page 3178 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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special grandparent-grandchild relationship? According to those who know, being a grandparent is a great job. You can spend quality time with your grandchildren, spoil them rotten and hand them back to their parents to be reprogrammed. But grandparent carers of grandchildren are robbed of that relationship. I have focused my comments largely on grandparents as carers, but the same applies to other kinship care arrangements.
But, Mr Speaker, why are the grandparents and kinship carers association describing their treatment at the hands of the department as institutionalised abuse? The starting point is the 2008 election commitment—a promise made of $800,000 over four years to support grandparent and kinship carers. The purpose of this promise was outlined as follows:
ACT Labor will create a dedicated service run by a non-government organisation to provide information, advice and support to grandparents and kinship carers who are caring for children. This new service will help grandparents navigate the service system across governments and across the community sector.
The first tranche of $200,000 was provided in the 2009-10 budget. It was welcomed, but where did it go? Twenty thousand dollars was provided to Marymead; $60,000 was ripped out of the commitment to non-government organisations and put into the department to pay for a liaison officer who does not even work full-time on grandparent and kinship carer issues. In effect, 10 per cent of the first allocation has been provided to an NGO to support grandparents—not another dollar.
What happened to the remaining $180,000 for 2009-10—and it is $180,000, because I believe that the $60,000 for the departmental liaison officer should be found within the department’s budget and not taken away from the NGO support. The minister cannot or will not give a commitment that this money will be set aside for grandparents and kinship carers in an NGO. That is one reason why the grandparents and kinship carers describe the government’s treatment as institutionalised abuse.
The other reason—and the main reason—that they used this description was the lack of support they received from the department. Let me summarise some of their allegations. There is inconsistency in the advice that carers receive from the department as to their entitlements, the decisions they can make as carers and the help and support that they can ask for or accept from other people. There is inconsistency in the material and equipment that the department provides for the care of children and grandchildren.
There are instances where grandparents and kin have been called at extremely short notice to collect babies or children and take them into care. There is a lack of information flow to carers as to the status of children and young people in the justice system. There is a lack of planning and care arrangements. There is a lack of mental health support. There is a lack of consultation between the department and the carers, and there are no post-care transitional plans. These are some of the other reasons why the grandparents and kinship carers association described the treatment as institutionalised abuse. There are plenty more.
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