Page 1137 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
A Step Up for Our Kids—Out of Home Care Strategy Update—April 2019—Ministerial Statement.
A Step Up for Our Kids—Snapshot Report, 28 February 2019.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the papers.
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (10.54): I thank the minister for the update she has provided. I certainly welcome the good news that the number of children entering out of home care in the last six months of 2018 was lower than the number entering care in the same period in the previous year. Of course, I will need to see these numbers in context to have a greater sense of what the trend might be. I also welcome the news that permanency outcomes, after being appalling low for so long, may finally be on the increase. Information about the early successes of family group conferencing is likewise hopeful and strongly suggests that this government should be wisely investing to make access to these kinds of intensive family preservation supports more universal.
Despite the modest amount of good news in the minister’s statement, all is not well in this government’s care and protection system, as revealed by those who know it best—the children and young people in the system. The CREATE Foundation, the national body representing those in care and protection, has recently released a comprehensive survey report subtitled Children and young people’s views after five years of national standards. This survey has been endorsed by academic experts across Australia as solidly researched.
Like the minister’s statement, the survey has some bright spots, but it is also full of worrying results. Former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope recently worried aloud that people in Canberra do not seem to be aware of or care about serious failings in this government’s child protection system. Today, I wish to say on record that I and the Canberra Liberals care and that I am aware of what is going on.
Let me quickly list some concerns from the CREATE survey. Of all jurisdictions in Australia the ACT has the lowest mean stability in placements and the highest number of young people unhappy about how many placements they have experienced. The ACT, by a long way, has the nation’s highest rate of young people removed from placements against their wishes and at the same time the lowest rate of such young people who report being consulted in relation to removal.
Unwanted removals in Canberra are more than double those reported for either New South Wales or Tasmania and nearly double those reported in Victoria. Children here are 25 per cent more likely to report being taken from a placement against their wishes than they are in the Northern Territory, which experiences the second highest rate. Young people in the ACT are the least likely in the nation to report that they agree or strongly agree that they feel safe and secure in their placements. They also report greater unhappiness with their current placements.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video