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Youth Consultations

young people's forums

The Protecting Children project team asked CREATE to organise two Young People's Forums. The forums were opportunities for young people in care, or who have been in care, to give their feedback on the reform options in the Protecting Children project. The forums were held in late October 2004. The feedback was recorded by CREATE, and is published below.

Proposed change: Raise the notification age to include 17 year olds

Response

  • Yes
  • Can think of examples of young people where this would be good.
  • Should not be over-used. Most 17 year olds would need to be given the choice to refuse intervention.

Proposed change: Improve ways of connecting young people to services they need, and for services to be able to provide longer term support

Response

  • Would like more peer related services to bring young people together.
  • Need support in getting into regular community programs, sports teams, schools ¿ some of these require money.
  • Drug and alcohol detox services need to be easier to access.
  • More alternatives to regular school are needed.
  • Need more one on one support which is informal and helpful ¿ workers who are there for us. Child Protection workers try to refer us to counselling when all we need is someone to talk to who will listen to us and offer advice. (also acknowledged that counselling is sometimes necessary).
  • Would be very useful if young people could easily access a book or DVD or website providing information about services. Useful for those in the community and for those in care.

Proposed change: Improve availability of mediation services for young people in conflict with their families

Response

  • Yes.
  • Most young people in the group had opted not to go to Court as they felt there was no point.
  • Court processes are too convoluted.
  • General feeling that the Magistrate just rubber stamps decisions which are made elsewhere and which could have been settled earlier.
  • Prefer mediation to Court.

Proposed change: Improve secure welfare and therapeutic services

Response

  • Secure welfare is useless for substance abuse issues. Just wait until released and then go on a bigger binge.
  • Needs to be a detox program linked to secure welfare, or a separate secure detox program.
  • Secure welfare is potentially harmful if admission is due to attempted suicide. Secure welfare isolates people and is a cause of further depression.
  • Secure welfare might be an easy "out" for caregivers who don't want to deal with difficult behaviour.
  • Secure welfare can be useful for self-harm which is not drug related.
  • A lot of potential high risk behaviour results from hanging around stations. Suggested 3 strikes (i.e. caught hanging out at stations) should lead to detention.


Proposed change: Normalise experience of being in care

Response

  • We are normal and want to be seen and treated as normal.
  • Caregivers should be able to authorise excursions, routine treatment, and overnight stays. We miss out on normal things because of delays in getting authorisation from case planners. Police checks can take up to a week, and we often need an answer the same day. There should be no argument about money being available for school excursions, sporting activities etc.
  • We miss out on internet access in most residential placements and some foster placements.
  • Don't like having to go to DHS to get assistance, authorisations, services. Would prefer to access such things through caregivers. If have to meet DHS worker, would prefer to meet at a café rather than the office, as long as the worker doesn't spread books etc over the table and sit there taking notes, which is embarrassing.


Proposed change: The Children's Court to have the capacity to make a Guardianship Order where young people are in stable placements but a Permanent Care Order cannot be applied for, where the young person consents, until the young person is 18 or the placement ends

Response

  • Yes, if everyone (young person, parents, caregivers, DHS) agrees.

Proposed change: Require the Secretary of DHS by law to ensure that young people in care are assisted to acquire life skills and to plan and prepare for leaving care, as well as to provide good standards of care

Response

  • Yes.
  • Need assistance in all sorts of things, including accommodation, acquiring job and job search skills, budgeting, practical skills, learning to drive.

Proposed change: Require the Secretary of DHS by law to provide support for care leavers after they have left care where needed

Response

  • Placements should continue beyond 18 if needed, and should continue to have caregiver payments if young person still studying.
  • Needs to take account of many young people leaving care before 18.
  • Should be available up to age 25.
  • Should be available to anyone who has ever been in care and who is in need.
  • Prefer to access support through agency we already know from being in care, not a new agency.
  • If a care leaver becomes a parent, should be given special support in acquiring parenting skills so as not to repeat family mistakes.
  • The lead tenant program is the best model around at the moment to provide accommodation for care leavers.

Young People's Organisations that made submissions

Organisations that work specifically on behalf of Victoria's young people have made written submissions about the Protecting Children reform options. The submissions can be read through the links below.

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