Page 2251 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
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and the collaborative approach that underpins this work, including linkages with specialist care and protection services.
It is quite extraordinary that at a time when it is well recognised nationally and internationally that early investment in the health and physical, social and emotional wellbeing of children is vital to their success as adults and to their ability to participate as citizens the Liberal Party would walk away from such a discussion after taking the churlish view that they did do want to talk about this. There are lots of things in parliament that we do not like to talk about, but we have got to because we are elected representatives and we have got to engage in the discussion. Clearly, that is not something that the Liberal Party is prepared to do today. I would say that it is a cowardly act on the part of the Liberal Party, an absolutely cowardly and childish act.
Mr Speaker, this government’s investment in early childhood development, in putting the child first, goes much further. It is worth highlighting to members the outstanding outcomes being achieved by our professionals in disability and therapy services in the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services. Again, this is an area in which it would appear the Liberals are completely uninterested.
These services are increasingly coordinated, both within the department and with other government agencies and community-based organisations. In 2004, the gap in service provision for children who have a disability was highlighted in the Vardon report, which in part reviewed the safety of children in care in the ACT. Perhaps this is the reason the Liberal Party is not interested in discussing these issues. It is not interested in talking about the fact that in government they completely failed to provide for the safety of children in care in the ACT, which led to massive investments by this government to address that issue.
Three divisions of the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services respond in some ways to the needs of children with disabilities. Disability ACT provides respite services, Therapy ACT provides therapeutic intervention and the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support intervenes when care and protection issues are identified. For most children the responses are effective and appropriate. But for a very small number of families caring for children with high and complex needs, these responses still require more work.
For a variety of reasons some families have felt they have no option but to relinquish the care of their child to the government. Most of the children who fall within this category have a combination of disability and other issues, including challenging behaviours that place themselves, their siblings and their parents at risk of harm.
In 2005-06, the ACT government allocated $1.7 million over four years to establish a new response to family need. This is known as the family-centred flexible intensive response model. The model was developed by a steering committee that had representatives from Disability ACT, the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support, Therapy ACT and the Client Guardian Forum. The new service will target ACT children and young people between 10 and 20 years with any type of disability and high and complex needs.
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