Page 3080 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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The ACT government is currently developing the out-of-home care strategy that will run from 2015 to 2020. The strategy has quite a new focus in some areas, focusing on keeping families together when it is in the best interests of the child, and moving children through the foster care system and towards permanent placements in a timely manner. While foster care provides much-needed support for children in need, we also know stories of children that move through several placements and have no sense of permanency or security developed through this. Permanent care or adoption may well be the best options for some children, although this must be balanced carefully with the rights of the birth family and the provision of support to birth families to help them with their role as parents, and we must be sure that accurate and timely information is provided to birth families so that they are empowered to actively participate in conversations about their children's future.
I think it would be fair to say that this government, and Minister Joy Burch, did ensure that out-of-home care was a priority. She may have come to that through a trial by fire, but the development of the out-of-home care strategy appears a very thorough and consultative process, involving a co-design project, consultation on a discussion paper and an issues paper, and a carer discussion paper. The engagement from the community, carers and carer associations has been strong.
I would like to finish by saying that the Greens welcome and support Ms Lawder’s motion. Today we would like to offer our thanks to the ACT’s foster families for their commitment and the loving care that they offer to children in need. Their efforts deserve our warmest thanks, as they are helping to keep the fabric of this community intact by opening their homes to be the home to a child in need. Of all of the supports that we can offer children in need, offering them a home, with warmth, conversation, time to play and time to rest, is the most valuable.
We would also like to offer our thanks for the great work done by the community organisations in the ACT that are involved in facilitating the care of children in out-of-home care. Marymead, Barnados, Anglicare and Communities@Work are organisations that are involved in the placement of children and young people, particularly Marymead and Barnados when it comes to foster care. Foster care is only one of the many services and supports that these organisations undertake in their quest to improve the lives of children and to support families. They also offer counselling, support and activities for families at risk, support for adolescents, and support for parents, amongst other things. Overall, they do great work, and I appreciate having the opportunity in this place to be able to offer them our gratitude.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (10.39): I would like to start by offering my support to Minister Gentleman and supporting the initiatives of this government in improving services to children and young people in out-of-home care. Foster Care Week and Carers Week provide us with an opportunity to take stock and think about the incredible contribution carers make to the Canberra community. And I would briefly like to recognise the role of carers across our community who volunteer on a day-to-day basis to provide care to some of our most vulnerable citizens. The out-of-home care system would not be here today without the support and commitment of carers. Every day, carers give up time out of their busy lives to love and nurture often very complex children and young people.
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