Page 2019 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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interests. We want to make sure that children and young people have every chance to grow and develop in supportive, loving, safe, stable homes. Every child deserves the best opportunity to experience a happy, normal childhood.
This bill contains seven clauses for amendments to the Children and Young People Act 2008 and three clauses for amendments to the Adoption Act 1993.
The first three clauses support decision-making closer to the child by allowing the director-general to delegate a number of functions to the responsible person for an approved kinship and foster care organisation, including the delegation of parental responsibility and the ability for the responsible person to sub-delegate aspects of parental responsibility to approved foster and kinship carers, and the delegation of the power to make decisions about the placement of children and young people with an out of home carer.
This bill also seeks to simplify processes and reduce red tape by allowing the delegation to prepare, consult on and review transition plans from the director-general to the responsible person for an approved kinship and foster care organisation or a residential care service. A further two clauses support minor policy changes enabling young people to have access to protected information and personal items.
Under a step up for our kids we are implementing a number of changes that provide better support for young people as they transition to adulthood. In support of this, I propose to enact changes to allow the director-general to delegate to the responsible person of an approved foster and kinship care organisation the responsibility to provide protected information about a young person to the young person, and entitle young people or young adults who have left care to access personal items held by an approved kinship and foster care organisation.
The next two clauses support technical amendments that streamline processes. These are technical in nature, do not alter policy or processes and will clarify and simplify the clause outlining the time frames for preparing and submitting annual review reports. This is a technical amendment, and the 12-month time frame is not to be amended. And there is a change to the reporting period for the ACT Children and Young People Death Review Committee annual report, from the financial year to a calendar year.
The following three clauses of amendments to the Adoption Act 1993 would clarify the interpretation of the act, thereby supporting pathways to permanency.
I propose to omit reference to instrument of consent from sections 15A, 16A and 17A, as the use of this language is redundant and creates possible ambiguity in the meaning of the sections. Secondly, I propose to clarify additional requirements for the adoption of a child or young person specifically where an order is to be made in favour of a step-parent, relative or two people jointly. And third, I propose to remove the requirement for the principal officer of a private adoption agency to be an ACT resident. These amendments are minor and technical in nature and will improve the clarity of adoption applications being considered by the Family Court. This will prevent any delays in the adoption process related to ambiguous language in the act.
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