What's the Answer? - Create

Preparation planning prior to 15 years• Planning should start before a young person turns 15.• Heaps of 13 year olds are more mature these days, than I was at their age. We should startplanning then.• Start planning when the legislation states: at 15. The problem is the Department isn’t sticking tothe legislation.• Start at 15. Just let young people be young people.• You don’t have to start formally planning before 15, but young people should be taught life skills –just like other young people. More life skills training has to happen with carers.Dedicated transition from care workers• Employ more people.• Make funds available for dedicated workers.• For a case worker to work through the ‘red tape’ and address the ‘everyday things’; and for atransition worker to address planning and preparation for the future with a young person.• Two workers – one to do administrative work.• Make steps to recruit and retain more workers. Young people should have the same worker,working intensively with them from 15-18 years, gradually decreasing their support to 25 years.• Post care support up to 21 or 25 years. Involve young people in deciding how much support theywant and for how long.• Look at South Australian model of dedicated transition workers and look to extend to everystate/territory.• Extend the Queensland Commissioner for Children, Young People and Child Guardian CommunityVisitor Program to every state/territory. More informal planning could occur at this level, eg. aCommunity Visitor kicking a ball with a young person asking them casually, “Where do you seeyourself heading?” (This could be seen as ‘secret planning’).Education• Education Support Plans in every State/Territory. If States already have them, they need to bereviewed and made more effective.• A specific role (either in Child Protection Department or Education Department) or oversee andensure the implementation of Education Support Plans.• Support workers in the schools to act as a ‘go-between’, e.g. to help connect young people totheir teachers.• More effective communication and relationships between Child Protection Departments andEducation Departments. This could include an online program between the two Departments tobetter share information.• Roles and responsibilities between Child Protection Departments and Education Departmentsneed to be much clearer, to each other and children and young people and carers.• Providing young people with tutors – paid or voluntary.• Mentors for education – one-on-one basis and talk to groups of young people. They could sit in oroutside of the Child Protection Department.• Include issues and challenges facing children and young people in care in teacher training.• Anti-bullying training for all children and young people, eg. Years 7 and 8.• Stable placements for all children and young people.• Extend placements for all young people turning 18 during their final year of school. Extend until30 January or until their tertiary education is finished.41