Page 4141 - Week 13 - Thursday, 31 October 2013
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psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, will provide a healing response to children’s trauma and support for families, foster carers and teachers who care for them on a daily basis.
The centre will take an all-of-family approach, providing support to siblings, including foster and kin siblings, and extended family as required. They will be provided with support to understand the impact of trauma as well as support to implement consistent strategies for supporting the child across the whole family. This will be extended to others within the child’s network, such as childcare centres and schools, and will work to ensure not only long-term stability of placement but also stability within the educational setting.
For young offenders, there is early evidence that early intervention in planning and programming has positive outcomes. The after-hours bail service, which began in 2011, assists young people who are on community-based orders to meet the conditions of their orders. This may be through arranging transport or arranging suitable accommodation so that they do not breach their bail or a good behaviour order condition.
In the 2012-13 year, the after-hours bail service received client-related matters relating to nearly 170 young people. Importantly, this work resulted in 26 young people in police custody being diverted from custody at Bimberi Youth Justice Centre. In recognition of this success, the after-hours bail support service won the ACT public service award for excellence earlier this year, and I take the opportunity to congratulate the team on their success and recognise their winning of that award. The Community Services Directorate is starting to see long-term impacts of the after-hours bail service and the trends for young people in detention, with both the numbers of young people in Bimberi Youth Justice Centre and the average custody nights declining significantly over the period since the program’s implementation.
I note that during the evaluation period, the after-hours bail service was used extensively by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. I think that shows the high acceptance rate of this service and the value of the service for Aboriginal young people.
For young people in the youth justice system, a number of early intervention programs have been delivered under the blueprint strategies, and changes at Bimberi include the establishment of the Bendora transition unit, the establishment of a family engagement officer and key worker roles and consultation and engagement with a broader range of community service providers, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, in provision of services and supports to young people.
The unit provides planning and preparation for young people who are in custody and prepares them to re-enter the community, and it has been very successful to date. It ensures that these young people are job ready, relationship ready, and are safely accommodated in the community, with the necessary daily living skills required to sustain themselves. Again, early indications are showing that that program is a great success.
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