Page 3108 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 2013
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… do not permit the Panel to explore outcomes arising from projects, such as, whether project implementation is having a direct impact on the wellbeing of children and young people at risk.
The Auditor-General’s report also concluded:
The Directorate has invested considerable resources since early 2012 into a change agenda, Refreshing the Service Culture, and has been successful in recruiting caseworkers from overseas to address local staff shortages. While having these caseworkers is fundamental for providing ‘adequate and immediate support’, given the issues identified, the Directorate’s ability to provide ‘adequate and immediate support’ is at risk.
Again I ask: where does this leave the children and families involved?
Between 2010 and 2013, 35 formal applications for adoption have been submitted; yet only seven have resulted in an adoption being finalised. That leaves 80 per cent of families wishing to adopt effectively in limbo.
In relation to adoption, the government members’ own dissenting estimates report has produced the following recommendations in relation to adoption, and this is quite interesting. In recommendation 328, Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend that the ACT government increase its efforts to shorten the timelines for adoption in the ACT. In recommendation 330, on the other hand, Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend that the government be commended for its support of adoption services across the ACT, including inter-country, local and step-family adoptions. So there is a slight contradiction.
But if that was not enough, in recommendation 331, just to remind the government, having given it a pat on the back, Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend that the government increase its efforts to shorten the timelines for adoption in the ACT. It is a pity neither of those gentlemen is here to answer the questions that those recommendations pose.
Ms Burch: But you are saying they are mutually exclusive.
MR DOSZPOT: Of course they are. But they are also commending you.
Ms Burch: And rightly so.
MR DOSZPOT: Okay. Take it while you can. Twice they have recommended the government increase efforts to shorten timelines for adoption, on one hand, and, on the other, they would like to take the opportunity to commend the government. So take it while you can, Ms Burch. All the while, these vulnerable children may wait years for final orders to be made. A directorate official in estimates hearings indicated:
The importance of those kids making roots and connecting—issues of attachment and issues of stabilisation—is really fundamental for kids if they are going to have better outcomes as young adults in education, in health, all sorts of indicators like that.
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