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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Tuesday, 17 August 2004) . . Page.. 3677 ..

the young people in Quamby, and for youth justice services, including custodial services, should be maintained within the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support.

That body does not have a very good track record in a number of other areas. I would hope that they have the opportunity to improve their services in this crucial area. I would like to thank my colleagues on the committee and I would like to thank Jane Nielson, our secretary, for the work put into this. I too commend the report to the Assembly.

MS TUCKER (10.57): I will speak just briefly to this. Obviously, I have not read the full report but we will not have another opportunity in this term. I want to commend the committee on their work, and on the recommendations in this report. When I look at it, it seems a bit sad that we still have committees making these recommendations about an integrated approach to case management for people who, for various reasons, are struggling in our community.

Once again, a number of the recommendations stress the need for good relationships and communication between the various agencies supporting, in this case, young people in Quamby. There are a couple of recommendations about how those matters could be improved. I note that there is reference to the Turnaround program which, as I understand it, is working very well in providing that case management model, making sure that the young person is not seen as a young person in a particular physical location and therefore having a different set of circumstances and case management around them depending on where they are, but having the person as the centre of interest regardless of their physical location—whether they are in Quamby, out of Quamby, doing a community service order or whatever. As I understand it, the Turnaround program is being conducted with quite a strong evaluative process, which I think will be very useful for future decision-makers in deciding how best to bring about an integrated approach to service delivery.

Accommodation comes up once again. A big issue is exit options—that comes up over and over again. It is all about having supported accommodation as well as affordable housing. I am pleased that the committee recommended that there be a new detention facility built with a new name, separate from any adult correctional facilities, on a new site. I do not know about the new name, but certainly the feedback from the work I have done in this area would support that recommendation. I am also pleased to see the recommendation that responsibility for youth justice services, including custodial services, remains within the Office for Children, Youth, and Family Support. I certainly support that recommendation.

I notice that recommendation 2, regarding continuity of care, was in previous reports of this committee into the rights and interests of young people. Even though my recollection of the revised government response to that recommendation of the previous committee’s report was not positive—it was in disagreement—I am interested to see that the committee is still stressing it as an important aspect of support. It links with the other comments made about having an integrated approach from the various service agencies, as well as the need to bring in service standards and performance standards, which is something that has come up often in committee reports. I commend the report and hope this is something that is picked up in the next Assembly with enthusiasm.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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