Page 3181 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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Under the child and family centre, we are pleased that the programs continue to be rolled out across the ACT. We heard in estimates that this model is working towards an integrated family support program that fosters relationships between NGOs and government service providers. The key to ensuring families access help early in the life of an issue is to ensure that the services they access are welcoming, non-judgemental and staffed with highly skilled, qualified and understanding workers. This allows the opportunity to provide early intervention strategies and ensure that families have limited contact with systems such as care and protection.
We commend the continuation and strengthening of this program into the future and hope that the service provided to the families and children in Canberra continues to grow. Our key recommendation in relation to this is to guarantee that the child and family centres ensure they remain in touch with what their clients’ needs and wants are, how service providers can work together to strengthen the client outcomes and that family and child centres continue to adapt and change to meet the needs of their past, existing and future clients.
Children’s services are an area of very important work for children and families. We recognise the need to support families to make choices about work, access to respite, search for employment and access to training. In order to meet the expectations and needs of families, it is important that the ACT government work with our federal counterparts to make sure children are safe, their wellbeing is enhanced and supported and that early childhood education outcomes are achievable in childcare services.
To make this possible the ACT government needs to address the skills shortage in the childcare sector. We have heard that there have been increased enrolments in CIT childcare training places and that many students are due to graduate in late 2010, and this is pleasing. However, we are also acutely aware that at the heart of making the childcare sector attractive to workers there needs to be an adjustment of community attitudes about the value of the work and the remuneration received by workers in this sector. The Greens strongly encourage the government to work towards a stronger childcare sector through the strengthening of employment conditions. We need to value the work that involves the care of children.
Under community affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, with regard to the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs I note recommendations 11 and 18 of the estimates report, particularly recommendation 18, which links to recommendations of the Indigenous elected body’s report of January 2010 calling for greater data collection in the ACT public service and the ACT government as a whole. The ACT government has not yet responded to the elected body’s report and the concerns raised in it.
Improving the collection and provision of data about our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is vital to improving social inclusion for these communities. Without data on these residents it is difficult to close the gap. Limited information means we cannot accurately measure improvement for the Indigenous community in key areas such as health, education and corrections.
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