Page 3066 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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entered care for the first time and had a health passport completed was 153 in 2015-16 and dropped to 53 in 2017-18.
We are seeing a different picture 12 months on from the mid-strategy evaluation. Operational data is showing that the number of children and young people who had passports issued increased to 89 in 2018-19. It is important to note that operational data includes those children who have been in care previously, whereas the mid-strategy evaluation only captured children who entered care for the first time. But a concerted effort has been made to address what appears to be a data lag, and this means that so far in 2019-20 we have seen 109 health passports issued. So, in response to the question that I was asked the other day, we have seen a change over more recent times.
The Community Services Directorate has improved the administration of the issue of health passports for children in care, and this will continue to be monitored. It is important to note—I mentioned the figure earlier—that children entering care have health assessments that identify any health needs that need to be addressed, and this information is shared with carers, including those who provide care to young people in residential care. As I noted when I started this part of the speech, 94 per cent of children who entered care in 2017-18 had that initial health check completed within six weeks of entering care. Of course, the joint governance group for A step up for our kids will continue to review the findings of the evaluation report and more recent data for improvements that can be made in the implementation of the strategy.
The package in the budget also includes a continuation of grandfathering arrangements for payments to those carers who have children in their care who were with them prior to the implementation of A step up and who would otherwise have seen a reduction in the support they were receiving from 1 July 2019. As we continue to work collaboratively with foster and kinship carers and with our service partners to embed a therapeutic trauma informed model of care for our most vulnerable children and young people, we will also commence policy work to consider the next steps in the out of home care reforms post-2020.
The budget investment includes funding for staff to undertake this important policy work. The budget also includes additional resources to complete the new child and youth record information management system, enabling better information sharing and more effective case management for children and young people, their families and carers. Child and youth protection services’ new client management system, the child and youth record information system, CYRIS, is nearing completion and is expected to be launched in the coming months. The government is continuing to support this important and complex piece of work, with funding to complete the phase 4 portals component.
This will digitally connect the community to child and youth protection services, fulfilling a commitment to make government support more accessible, easy and technically relevant to our community. The portals are a fundamental component of the project for children and young people in care, their families and carers, and providers. The interactive portals will improve how child and youth protection services interacts with children and young people and their carers and will improve
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