Page 2600 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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family support program here in the ACT. This has been a matter of some discussion, and I recognise absolutely, Ms Hunter, your interest in this program and the connections you have particularly with the youth service sector here in the ACT, having previously been employed through the Youth Coalition; I think you headed up the Youth Coalition. So I understand your connection to this area of business.
We did put in, as I have said here before, a major change to how we did business. There were some services, some youth drop-in services, that had fewer than three people a day utilising that service. Every government has limited resources. We have not taken any dollars out of this program; we have maintained the program—and, Ms Hunter, I am coming to your question. But it is important that there has been no reduction in funding. There is simply a new way of doing business. Saying “simply” probably underscores the change that has been before the community sector. There have been organisations that have had challenges in implementing this change, but I have also been contacted by a number of key organisations that have welcomed these changes and recognise the benefits of them.
In regard to service gaps, the sector and the government have been working very closely and have been in regular communication over the implementation. It has just been three months; the end of May saw the first three-month period of that implementation. There was to be a planned meeting, an update, a “find where we are” implementation meeting by the end of May. I asked some questions about that today—whether it had actually occurred. The advice that I got just before I came down, Ms Hunter, was that there was a conversation with the sector that deferred that for a little bit, while still going through the important changes that we need to do.
I agree, and I have accepted here, that the implementation of this program has been less than ideal. I recognise that. Should we immediately respond to the call from the Youth Coalition and Families ACT? I do not think we should; I think there is time yet to go through it and see how this system is bedded down. We are working with the institute of children’s studies around an evaluation or to look at the outcomes of this piece of work, these reforms as well. So there is still some work to do in bedding down these reforms before we need to jump to the service gaps. But I have always said that we will look, as this is bedded down, to see where some further work needs to be done.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, could you give more detail about the current status, the allocated budget and the anticipated implementation of the evaluation of the CYFSP that you have said is being conducted by the Institute of Child Protection Studies?
MS BURCH: I do not have the details in front of me, Ms Hunter, but I understand that the Community Services Directorate is talking with that entity about looking at evaluations. We made these reforms because we wanted to look at the outcomes on these very vulnerable people—youth, children and families. This reform has been a long time coming. Certainly, it has been part of the conversation. Could we have had the outcomes and evaluation framework in place before we implemented it? Possibly,
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