Page 3131 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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On the surface it would appear that much of the funding has been directed into government front-line services. While they are important, the ACT Greens feel that there does need to be a bit of balance here. There is a lot of change and reform happening in the youth sector at the moment and there are organisations and their workers who are feeling anxious and uncertain about the future. So it was disappointing to see there was not additional investment being allocated to the community sector, particularly the community youth sector. We are again asking services who are already stretched to try and deliver more service.
Within the Community Services Directorate the supporting children and youth at risk package is a large initiative that we sought more detail on through the estimates process. This budget includes $2.2 million over four years to support children and young people in out-of-home care arrangements.
We know that staffing and a massive investment in the tertiary interventions dominate the agenda for spending in the out-of-home care area. However, future spending should also be directed towards reorienting practice towards primary prevention. The Greens acknowledge the great work being done by the child and family centres and believe these do act as hubs for community support and should be supported with a range of other community initiatives that encourage families to seek help at an early stage.
We are pleased to see an investment of just over $2 million to assist young people cared for by kin and foster carers through a new case management service for young people transitioning from out-of-home care to independent living.
We are also happy that supports will be extended to young people beyond the statutory age of 18 to up to 25 years. It is of critical importance that children and young people who have come into the care system must be afforded the security of knowing that they have the support of the community beyond their 18th birthday. The Greens have been working for some time on increasing awareness about the needs of this group. We released a discussion paper on transitioning out of care that recommended increasing the age of support to 25 years and a post-care support service. I am pleased to see that these have been taken up.
From the estimates process we understand that four positions are to be created, two which will be within government and two in a non-government arrangement. Within this arrangement it is important that there is a collaborative relationship between the workers where the best interests of young people is the shared goal.
The rationale given in estimates about placing workers in a government and non-government setting was that this option would provide young people with choice. The Greens do have some concerns about the mechanics of these relationships as history has demonstrated that people can get lost between systems.
To ensure that young people are not falling through the gaps it is going to be necessary to develop tools that set out agreed ways of working and MOUs and so forth, because it really is important to ensure that we support these young people.
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