Page 3594 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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The ACT Greens are interested in seeing the spectrum of services in the ACT managed in a way that provides priority to prevention and still offers supports for young people who are at risk or in crisis. In the ACT at the moment it feels like the pendulum has swung to target only one section of the community, and we need to be aware of and provide service to all who need it.
There is an inherent risk that more people will find themselves or their loved ones in crisis situations because we have not made all appropriate efforts to intervene early and prevent the escalation of problems. On the surface it would appear that much of the funding has been directed into government front-line services, and while we understand this and, of course, support it, we are still, as I said, concerned that it comes at a loss to early intervention programs.
There has been a lot of change and reform happening in the community sector, particularly in relation to children, young people and families. The changes to the children and youth family support program have caused mass disruption and we still need the essential element such as the development of performance measures and evaluation frameworks. That still has not been done. Anecdotally we are already starting to hear of the cracks appearing with front-line youth services in particular reporting increased client loads and decreased flexibility and appropriate programs to respond.
On the issues facing the care and protection system, there are some very positive funding allocations. The Greens commend any additional care and protection staff positions that can be used to reduce pressure on the system. This initiative may also offer some practical relief to existing front-line staff who have already been working incredibly hard to respond to notifications. However, I issue a word of caution about how these positions will be recruited in light of the information provided by the recent Public Advocate report which talks about problems with recruitment and retention within care and protection.
I also put the challenge up to the government to ensure that these positions focus on reducing the numbers of children and young people coming into the statutory system. While the Greens support the initiative to further improve care and protection services, including systems development, professional development and practice improvement, it is essential that front-line staff continue to have complete support from the minister, the directorate and also, of course, from all of us—the wider community.
With this change management going on, it is absolutely essential that senior management within the directorate get behind this and make sure it is properly resourced and properly supported. I will keenly watch the development of these recent initiatives, and I want assurances from government that these will be given high priority and the moneys allocated used accordingly to implement these programs as soon as possible.
The Greens have some reservations about the effectiveness of the five-year recruitment and retention plan. To date we have received information that this will involve paying a staff retention bonus after three years of service. However, just like
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