Page 1742 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 June 2021
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The decisions that bring children and young people into child protection are never taken lightly and they are decisions of last resort when children and young people are considered to be at risk if they remain at home with their families. So the statistics on education are likely, to a certain extent, to always reflect the complexity and the challenges that already exist in the lives of these children and young people upon entry to the system.
The statistics in the motion are generally national data on the outcomes experienced by children and young people in out of home care, and that is really important in informing our investigation of local issues. As Mrs Kikkert touched on, the KPMG interim evaluation of A Step Up for Our Kids also reflects those educational outcomes not being on a par with the broader community but, as I have said, multiple factors go into that.
It is not necessarily that a child that was on a trajectory to an equivalent educational outcome with the rest of the community goes into out of home care and then suddenly they are not on that trajectory. They probably were on that trajectory in the first place, but that gives us an opportunity when those children and young people come into out of home care—whatever form of care they are in—to support those children and young people to improve their educational trajectory. Of course, that is what we want to do.
I expect that my colleagues the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister Davidson will talk in greater detail about the fantastic work of the staff at our public schools, including Murrumbidgee Education and Training Centre at Bimberi and the staff at Bimberi, in supporting young people. From my own perspective, I assure the Assembly that Child and Youth Protection Services is committed to working with ACT Together and with public and non-government schools to establish the safeguards to ensure that no child in the care of the Director General is educationally disadvantaged because of living in out of home care. Indeed, we see an opportunity to improve the educational trajectory of children and young people.
As I am sure the Deputy Chief Minister will mention, it is the role of the education system to support the educational needs of all children and young people no matter what specific challenges they face. However, I recognise that all people who have a caring role in a child’s life play a supporting role in that child’s educational journey. I am really pleased that Mrs Kikkert has been talking to youth workers in this space, particularly those in residential care.
I caught up recently with the Australian Services Union, who represents those workers, and had a really positive conversation about the need to continue to improve the professionalism and skills of residential care staff. They play a vital role in the lives of the 30-odd children and young people in residential care who are not in a semi-independent living placement. That number for the ACT is quite a small number of children and young people in residential care who are not in semi-independent living in our community adolescent program.
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