What's the Answer? - Create

Part A: BACKGROUND TO THE ACTIVITYNational Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020Protecting Children is Everyone’s Business: National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children2009-2020 was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on 30 April 2009. Theoverarching aim of the National Framework is the achievement of the high-level outcome that“Australia’s children and young people are safe and well” measured against the set target of “asubstantial and sustained reduction in child abuse and neglect in Australia over time”(Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a:11). The National Framework, comprising six (6) supportingoutcomes with inherent strategies and indicators of change, provides the first long-term,comprehensive national approach to child protection in Australia.The Community and Disability Services Minsters’ Conference (CDSMC) has been given overallmanagement for the staged implementation of the National Framework through a series of threeyearaction plans. Within the first of these plans, Implementation Plan 2009-2012 (Commonwealth ofAustralia, 2009b), twelve (12) national priorities have been identified as major foci for both thegovernment – at Commonwealth, state and territory levels – and non-government sectors to action.To progress the implementation of the national priorities, the National Framework ImplementationWorking Group (NFIWG) was established with various sub-working groups formed to accomplishspecific areas of action.Transitioning to independence – a national priorityTransitioning to independence 1 is one of the 12 national priorities identified in the NationalFramework’s Implementation Plan 2009-2012. For this priority, the specific areas of action to beaddressed in relation to young people transitioning from out-of-home care 2 to independence are:• increasing support through non-government organisations to assist young people leaving care tobetter establish their independence; and• providing better support for young people as they leave care through State and Territorygovernment initiatives (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009b:18).While work towards achieving these outcomes commenced as early as July 2009, when theCommonwealth Government increased the Transition to Independent Living Allowance (TILA) from$1 000 to $1 500, other key strategies identified as essential for this priority are:12Under the National Framework, the national priority of Transitioning to Independence is drawn from:• Supporting Outcome 4 – Children who have been abused or neglected receive the support and care they need fortheir safety and wellbeing.• Strategy 4.3 – Improve support for young people leaving care.Developing national standards for out-of-home care is another of the national priorities being addressed in the firstthree-year implementation phase. Given the variance of current out-of-home care standards across jurisdictions, acentral aim of this priority is to capture nationally-consistent data to facilitate the identification of service delivery gapsand best practice models for development. As such, the outcomes of the national priority Transitioning to independencehave direct relevance to the development of national standards for out-of-home care which aim to improve theoutcomes and experiences of children and young people in care.1