Page 3728 - Week 08 - Thursday, 19 August 2010
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• placement costs to non-government agencies who provide staff in residential placements as well as recruitment, assessment, training and support to foster carers;
• subsidies to kinship carers and foster carers as a contribution to the costs of raising children and young people;
• contingency costs which cover one off or special additional needs including transport and supervised contact, counselling, tutoring and some medical expenses;
• additional therapeutic services including consultation and assessment; and
• case conferencing to divert children and young people from the Out of Home Care system as well as to better coordinate the range of services supporting children and young people in care.
The exact distribution of funds across these areas is flexible and reflects changing pressures at any given time.
(2) Services will be delivered in close cooperation and coordination with the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support and in particular through joint work with Care and Protection Services. The current providers of services under the Out of Home Care Program are: Richmond Fellowship, Marymead, Barnardos, Life Without Barriers, Premier Youth Works, Galilee and the Australian Childhood Foundation.
Children—kinship carers
(Question No 996)
Mrs Dunne asked the Minister for Children and Young People, upon notice, on 30 June 2010:
Given that in the Select Committee on Estimates 2010-2011 hearing on 27 May 2010, it was stated that “we are in the process of developing a kinship carers’ handbook” and that Ms Lambert also stated at that hearing that “I think we have doubled our numbers in formal kin care in the last … five years”, why has it taken five years for the department to begin the process of developing a kinship carers’ handbook.
Ms Burch: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
The ‘Foster Care Handbook’ went out for consultation in October 2005, however a decision was taken not to progress the publication of this handbook until the ‘Roles and Responsibilities’ document (a joint collaborative work between Care and Protection Services and the Out of Home Care Committee) was completed in late 2007.
As the numbers of children in kinship care increased, work commenced in 2008 to update the handbook to include relevancy for Kinship Carers and to ensure its compliance with the then impending new legislation Children and Young People Act 2008. Extensive consultation has been undertaken with the out of home care sector in the development of the Foster and Kinship Care Handbook and a final draft will be provided to the Out of Home Care Committee late July 2010, to finalise and complete the handbook for publication.
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