Page 3077 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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extraordinary work of all carers, including foster carers, kinship carers and our permanent carers. I look forward to hosting a morning tea for foster and kinship carers during Carers Week.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our community organisations supporting vulnerable children and young people in care. I would also like to sincerely thank child protection services and out-of-home care agency staff for all the work they do to ensure children are strong, safe and connected to our community.
Community-based out-of-home care agencies provide direct support to foster carers on a daily basis and I know they are committed to helping their carers provide the best care possible for children and young people.
In 2012 the ACT government committed to reform the out-of-home care system. This year in the ACT budget we have signalled this commitment by investing in making our out-of-home care services better for everyone involved, including our carers. For the 2014-15 year the government has invested an extra $4.1 million to cater for growth in numbers of children and young people in care and to lay the groundwork for the new out-of-home care strategy 2015-20. The out-of-home care strategy is a practical expression of the human services blueprint and will be one of the first better services initiatives delivered by government. The strategy is currently being reviewed by government and I expect to release the strategy shortly.
The strategy is about looking at new ways to support all those involved in the out-of-home care system—of course especially children and young people. Too often children and young people leaving care are disadvantaged and are significantly overrepresented among the unemployed, the homeless, prisoners, the parents of children in care and the mentally ill. We know when children enter care they have been exposed to abuse and neglect and are further traumatised from a loss of familiar relationships and environments from being in care.
That is why I was so pleased to be able to launch, with Minister Burch, the ACT’s trauma recovery centre, Melaleuca Place, in July this year. This centre is already playing an important role in supporting children who display traumatised behaviours and in supporting their carers to respond to the children in the manner that is going to reduce the impact of the trauma experienced.
Another issue facing our sector, and one that the strategy seeks to address, is our difficulty in attracting foster carers to the role. The ACT faces particular recruitment pressures because of our high rates of participation in the labour market and the decision of most families for both partners to work. This means there are fewer families who might feel they have the time and energy to support other children and young people. This means as a community we need to think about how we support carers as a precious resource.
This year we will see a number of new initiatives rolled out under the banner of the strategy, with more announcements to come. These initiatives may include rolling out a pilot of therapeutic assessments and planning for some children and young people in
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