Page 4134 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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the most vulnerable children and young people in our community. All too often they are one of a handful of trusted people in their life. The children and young people official visitors are an important part of the rigorous oversight framework that exists in the ACT to monitor detention places and residential places of care.
They work alongside other oversight bodies such as the Public Advocate, Children and Young People Commissioner and the Human Services Registrar. The official visitors’ key focus is to engage directly with young people and to ensure that their voices are heard. The official visitors for children and young people during 2018-19 were Ms Narelle Hargreaves, Ms Tracey Whetnall, Ms Tracey Lea Harris and Mr Chris Redmond.
The official visitors visit children and young people in Bimberi Youth Justice Centre and in residential places of care and are available via telephone if a child or young person in one of these places wishes to speak with an independent adult. In this reporting period the official visitors visited Bimberi Youth Justice Centre on 57 occasions. In their reports, the official visitors have consistently expressed satisfaction with the support provided to young people in Bimberi. This does not mean that no issues were raised. Inevitably some were, and these were taken seriously, including in relation to the length of time young people spend on remand and the management of, and support for, female detainees at the centre.
The official visitors noted how impressed they were with the quality of schooling offered to young people at Bimberi through the Murrumbidgee Education and Training Centre and the breadth of programs available to young people. In relation to residential care, the official visitors made 156 visits to 16 residential places of care during 2018-19. Residential care is a different environment to that of Bimberi and the ACT government and ACT Together have taken the official visitors feedback on board about the homeliness of spaces and how support workers can better engage with children and young people.
This year was one of transition to two new official visitors and they note some difficulty in initial engagement with young people as there was no formal framework for handover from outgoing official visitors. The official visitors also noted that there were issues that they remained unclear about, including the role of staff in engaging with young people, action being taken to re-engage young people with education where they were not attending school, and what therapeutic interventions are provided for each young person. I have met with the new official visitors and discussed how transition and handovers could be improved in the future and how they can be better informed about the programs and supports available for the young people they are visiting.
The official visitors also noted continuing difficulty they have in finding teenagers at home when they visit but state that they undertook repeated visits to engage all young people in residential care and were also reassured by conversations with support workers about the welfare and wellbeing of the young people. To support children and young people in residential care, the official visitors worked closely throughout the year with ACT Together, with consortium partners, child and youth protection services and the Public Advocate’s office.
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