What's the Answer? - Create
What's the Answer? - Create
What's the Answer? - Create
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Table 1: Projected Costs to Commonwealth for Providing 50% Subsidy to States / Territories for <strong>the</strong> Provisionof Specialist Transition from Care WorkersSTATE YP TFC 2008-9 YP TFC % No. of Workers 50% Cost(based on salarypackage of $67,200)NSW 967 40 172 $5,789,276VIC 568 23 101 $3,400,526QLD 491 20 87 $2,939,539WA 141 6 25 $844,145SA 149 6 27 $892,039TAS 56 2 10 $335,263ACT 34 1 6 $203,553NT 26 1 5 $155,658Total 2432 100 433 $14,560,000Specialist TFC workers would be responsible for monitoring <strong>the</strong> outcomes achieved by care leavers in<strong>the</strong>ir region. This would require workers keeping in touch with young people and having a record of<strong>the</strong>ir contact details. This is not done consistently at present. CREATE has worked on many projectsin partnership with child safety departments in which it was necessary to make contact with youngpeople to send <strong>the</strong>m information; unfortunately, often this was not possible because young peoplecould not be located (in some cases this applies even to those still in care).Ano<strong>the</strong>r essential function TFC workers would serve is to review young peoples’ progress, identify<strong>the</strong>ir current support needs, and in consultation with <strong>the</strong> young people, review and modify existingplans and proposals. Such reassessment is deemed necessary due to <strong>the</strong> statements by care leaversin <strong>the</strong> CREATE Report Card that most of <strong>the</strong> important issues in <strong>the</strong>ir lives, such as those mentionedabove, were ei<strong>the</strong>r not covered in <strong>the</strong>ir initial leaving-care plan, or <strong>the</strong> proposed actions were of littleor no value in supporting <strong>the</strong>ir transition.As well as ensuring that particular departmental workers are assigned responsibility for maintaining“official” contact with care leavers over <strong>the</strong> proposed seven-year transitioning period (18 to 25years), it also would be important to establish mentoring relationships between <strong>the</strong> young peopleand community members to provide a continuous support base for care leavers as <strong>the</strong>y movetowards independence. CREATE’s Report Card cited <strong>the</strong> Victorian tripartite model (Mentoring, Aftercareservices, and Brokerage funding) as one worthy of emulation throughout Australia since it dealswith <strong>the</strong> essential layers of support needed by those transitioning from care.ConclusionThe issues discussed above and <strong>the</strong> key general solutions proposed make <strong>the</strong> point that inaction inproviding adequate initial support for care leavers will result in significant costs to government nowand in <strong>the</strong> future. As McDowall (2008) observed, making programs available at <strong>the</strong> time of transition“would minimize <strong>the</strong> need for…later interventions and would result in considerable economic savingsand generate better outcomes for <strong>the</strong> young people” (p. 18).9