Page 969 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2018
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In addition, I note a recent sharp increase in the number of young people in detention that occurred between December 2016 and June 2017 and has since remained well above the 2016 numbers. This is something I noted in announcing the establishment of the blueprint taskforce, and we believe that this development requires close monitoring to determine causal factors and whether this is an episodic fluctuation or an emerging trend.
To address these challenges, evidence supports well-designed early intervention to promote the wellbeing of children, young people and their families. The early intervention by design project currently being undertaken by the human services cluster of directorates aims to establish a more sustainable, flexible and responsive human services system that identifies vulnerabilities, responds early and effectively targets resources based on need.
Over the next phase of the blueprint, I want to ensure that we prioritise early intervention approaches and continue to draw on evidence about what works, including from the experience of other states and territories. In that context, the blueprint taskforce will, of course, consider any relevant recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.
We will also learn from our own experiences. As the progress report makes clear in the section entitled “What did we do?” there is significant ongoing reform across government and in partnership with the community. This reflects our commitment to ensuring that we continue to improve outcomes for children and young people who are at risk of involvement with youth justice or who come into contact with the youth justice system.
In the “What are our emerging challenges?” section, the report also highlights work to test new approaches and develop new related strategies. The Community Services Directorate’s pilot of family group conferencing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families is part of our commitment to embedding restorative practice across the child and youth protection system. ACT Corrective Services has co-facilitated the Shine for Kids program at the Alexander Maconochie Centre and parenting programs to help to address the particular challenge of intergenerational transmission of criminal offending. At the same time, the Yarrabi Bamirr justice reinvestment trial, being conducted by the Justice and Community Safety Directorate in partnership with Winnunga Nimmityjah, is supporting at-risk families to co-design family plans to become self-managing, healthy and safe. The government is also committed to the development of a disability justice strategy to ensure that people with disability, including young people, are treated equally before the law.
The blueprint taskforce will use this progress report as the basis for gathering further research and evidence, including through consulting with key stakeholders in the community to confirm our key challenges and priority areas for work over the next five years of the blueprint. I anticipate that the blueprint taskforce will report to me in mid-2018 with their advice, and I look forward to updating the Assembly on the outcomes of this work in due course.
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