Page 3561 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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experiences and recommendations for improving the out of home care experience and system. By directly hearing the voices of children and young people, the independent consultant was able to understand how young people experience decision-making processes.
The CREATE Foundation’s written submission states:
CREATE acknowledges the significant work in refocussing on the participation of children and young people in the OOHC—
out of home care—
system in the ACT by both community and government stakeholders.
That is certainly what I have experienced over the past almost three years in this portfolio, with a commitment to hearing those voices of children and young people. I will have a little more to say about that in a minute.
As I have noted, consultation on the discussion paper closed on 28 June 2019. Mr Muir has reviewed the submissions and is preparing a findings paper for the ACT government working group. The purpose of the findings paper is to provide accurate and independent feedback about what stakeholders have said during the face-to-face consultation process and through their written submissions.
The review of child protection decisions in the ACT is an important piece of work. The findings paper includes the views of children and young people along with the views of birth families, carers, the legal sector and other key partners. As a next step, Mr Muir will be meeting with the ACT government working group—consisting of representatives of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate, who have carriage of this project, the Community Services Directorate, and the office of the Coordinator-General for Family Safety—to discuss the findings.
I look forward to sharing the findings paper with the Legislative Assembly in due course and reporting back to the Assembly by the last sitting day in March 2020 regarding how the voices of children and young people have been included in this consultation process as it goes forward; the progress and outcomes of the review and the consultation processes; and what steps will follow and when these are expected to conclude, which is the last part of my amendment.
I make the point to Mrs Dunne that this is not about changing the willingness to report back. It is just that if I reported back again next week, I would not have anything more to say than I am saying today. It is about locking in when I will come back and provide another update. If I can do it before the end of the last sitting day in March 2020, I am very happy to do that.
As I mentioned earlier, there are many ways in which the ACT government listens to the voices of children and young people and encourages their involvement in decision-making. One example of this is the talking practice forum. Embedding the culture of listening to the voices of children and young people was part of the talking
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