Page 2899 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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sometimes makes young people feel unsafe in residential care is the behaviour of their housemates. That is absolutely true. These are complex young people. But one of the things that makes them feel safe is the support of the workers and the Australian Childhood Foundation.
Indeed, at the launch of the CREATE report earlier this year we heard directly from a young person about the change he had experienced over the course of a year in working with their Australian Childhood Foundation worker and their case managers. The difference in that young person’s going from feeling unsafe to feeling safe and having a positive view and outlook for his future was astonishing. That is the work these workers perform, and I will support them every day in doing that.
MR HANSON: Minister, is drug use accompanied by threats of physical violence in out of home care sufficient grounds for government intervention on behalf of a young person?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Madam Speaker, I am not quite sure what Mr Hanson means by “government intervention on behalf of a young person”. There is significant oversight of residential care in the ACT. The official visitors for children and young people visit all residential care homes on a regular basis. Because of the consortium arrangements that we have in place, there are multiple agencies working with children and young people in residential care, including, as I mentioned earlier, the Australian Childhood Foundation. Our own child and youth protection services senior management regularly visit residential care facilities, and there are meetings of the senior leadership that review the cases of individual children and young people. So there are multiple avenues for concerns to be raised, and when concerns are raised about the experience of children and young people in residential care, those concerns are always taken very seriously.
It is a sad fact that the children and young people in residential care are often some of the most complex and traumatised young people in our community. Do they face challenges? Yes, they do. Do some of them have drug and alcohol issues? Yes, they do. We manage those as best we possibly can in a trauma-informed and therapeutic way. But will it create challenges occasionally for other young people? Yes, it will. And when those arise, they are addressed.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, what is your responsibility when it comes to guaranteeing that oversight of the territory’s residential care homes is rigorous enough?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Kikkert for the supplementary question. I would not say I receive a regular briefing—it is not regular as in a set time frame—but I am often briefed on what the current status of the children and young people in residential care is.
The official visitors for children and young people that I mentioned earlier visit residential care homes monthly. I receive a quarterly report from those official visitors. They all are aware that they can contact me or my office if they have concerns. They also can contact the Human Rights Commission if they have concerns that they think
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