Page 385 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 16 February 2016
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Torres Strait Islander Elected Body remains a hallmark for improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans and I look forward to working with the elected body in the coming months.
As Minister for Children and Young People, I am pleased to confirm that we are continuing to move ahead with the very significant reforms started by my predecessor, Minister Gentleman. Implementation of the government’s five-year strategy, A step up for our kids, is well underway. Some of the achievements so far include new services delivered by Uniting to keep children at home with their families or return them home as soon as it is safe to do so; the new birth family advocacy support service providing independent advice and support to empower birth parents in their engagement with statutory services; and the rollout of new training in trauma-informed care to foster carers and kinship carers.
A step up for our kids is changing the way we deliver services to vulnerable children, young people and their families, and I look forward to providing updates to the Assembly as these changes continue to be implemented. I also look forward to working collaboratively with Assembly colleagues on a final amendment to the Children and Young People Act in the coming months.
Another initiative is the $1.3 million expansion of the growing healthy families program. This program uses a community development approach to engage, support and link Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families to services and culturally informed programs. With the additional funding, growing healthy families has expanded services in north and south Canberra through the Tuggeranong Child and Family Centre as well as in west Belconnen and Gungahlin.
Nowhere is the change to service delivery more evident than in disability support, led by the introduction of the NDIS into the ACT. The NDIS is one of the biggest social reforms in Australian history and the ACT has been at the forefront of this. I would like to thank my predecessor, Ms Burch, for the role she has played in the ACT’s transition to the NDIS. Already, nearly 3,000 Canberrans have transitioned to the NDIS. By the middle of this year, the ACT will be the first jurisdiction to have all its eligible residents into the scheme—more than 5,000 people.
There is a great deal of other work underway outside the NDIS. The Ricky Stuart house respite centre to be operated by Marymead has been constructed in Chifley as part of the ACT government’s commitment to replace the territory’s ageing respite facilities. A second respite centre for teens with disability is due to be built in north Canberra in the near future. Another innovation for people with disability is project independence, a new social housing model that gives people with disability the opportunity of home ownership with funding for construction and land being provided by the ACT government. This project, which is seeing homes built in Harrison and Latham, is a clear example of the ACT government’s commitment to ensuring greater choice of housing and flexible support for people with disability.
I am also pleased to provide members of this Assembly with an overview of the important work that is occurring in the Veterans and Seniors portfolio. The ACT government is committed to meeting the needs of and providing opportunities for our
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