Page 3184 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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Many times during estimates, questions were asked about seeking more detail on expenditure that should already appear in the budget papers. I have already made this point. It really would help the community and MLAs, when we are looking at budgets, if we had more detail about exactly what was being funded under some of these overall areas, so that is something we certainly would like to see in the future.
In the area of specialised care for traumatised children, the government’s response to recommendation 39 of the report demonstrates that the ACT is working towards acknowledging and understanding the nature of trauma and the impacts it has on the lives of children. This is a critical framework for both the non-government and government services to use to guide their policy and practice.
It is critical to policy and practice because we know through brain research and studies that children who have a trauma background can recover from these experiences if given the right supports and access to assistance during this developmental stage of their life. It is critical from a government’s perspective to get this right, because the ongoing costs to the community of failing these children, their families and carers is enormous.
The risk factors for a child who has suffered trauma are extensive and put them at risk of even more negative life experiences related to drugs, alcohol, crime, violence, victimisation, poorer physical and mental health and lower educational achievement. In order to stem the ongoing costs to the community, we must act now, that is, during their childhood.
While the Greens support and recognise the work being done in relation to recommendation 39, we also believe that this framework requires substantial funding and assistance in the future to ensure that all workers within the youth and community sector have training on and insight into the effects of trauma and how they can work with children and young people to make steps towards recovery.
Kinship carers are a very important issue that came up during estimates and I believe that the emergence and development of kinship care is at a critical crossroads. We have heard evidence from members of the community outlining a number of concerns. There has also been some confusion within the community and within this place about what kinship carers are entitled to and what they receive in relation to the care of their kin.
The response from government to recommendation 40 outlines that this issue has been addressed with the grandparent and kinship carers association. A small working group has been convened with representatives from both the association and care and protection to progress the development of a fact sheet for grandparent and kinship carers and the department is in the process of finalising a handbook for kinship and foster carers. This is incredibly important. I would like to see this work finished and those resources out there as soon as possible.
Like many emerging issues and the formation of representative groups, there is a need to ensure that consultation and opportunities for providing feedback are wide reaching to ensure that as many kinship carers as possible can be included and given the
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