Page 1331 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
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Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety, Minister for Government Services and Procurement, Minister for Urban Renewal) (10.24): I am pleased to provide the Assembly with a progress update on the implementation of the ACT children and young people’s commitment 2015-2025, hereafter known as the commitment. This is the fourth progress update where we can reflect on current progress and plan for future activity.
The commitment is a high level strategic document that sets the vision for a whole-of-community approach to promoting the rights of children and young people aged zero to 25 years in the ACT. The commitment identifies six priority areas that influence the work we do across the ACT government and wider community to create strong communities that support children and young people.
The key priority areas of the commitment are measured and reported through the publication A picture of ACT’s children and young people 2018. This biennial data publication provides a snapshot of how children and young people are progressing against a set of indicators relating to health, wellbeing, learning and development outcomes. The latest edition of A picture was released recently. The Community Services Directorate is continuing to develop an interactive online version so that data can be updated in a timely way.
The first priority under the commitment is implementing policy that enables the conditions for children and young people to thrive. We know that implementing well-designed policy is the foundation for building strong families and communities and for addressing the social determinants of wellbeing for children and young people. A good example of a policy that aligns with this priority is the future of education strategy launched by the Education Directorate in August 2018. This strategy outlines how the ACT government will work to create equal, accessible and inclusive learning opportunities for all children and young people to reach their potential. This 10-year strategy also aims to improve learning outcomes for young people and to strengthen education systems to support quality learning.
The development of the future of education strategy was the result of consultation with 2,200 students, aged from early childhood to college, which also highlights our commitment to another priority: including children and young people in decision-making. In working towards the goal of ensuring that every child in the ACT gets the best start to life, the ACT government is also currently developing an early childhood strategy to enable every child to participate in quality early childhood education and care prior to school.
The ACT government has also committed to a 10-year early support initiative to shift the human services system towards providing better support for families and individuals early in the life of an issue. This initiative represents a new approach to investing and partnering with the community sector to shift from crisis driven responses, where service impacts are less effective in changing life trajectories, to earlier support, which will improve people’s long-term life outcomes and enhance wellbeing. The reform will improve life outcomes for young Canberrans and enable all key priorities of the commitment.
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