Part D: Key Findings and Recommendations

Unfortunately, this Report highlights the same issues concerning transitioning from care that were identified over 20 years ago. Young people continue to experience poor outcomes with the gap widening between mainstream Australians and those with a care experience.

As the corporate parent, governments have a responsibility to protect, and provide equal opportunities for young people leaving the care system to what are available for the general population. Stigma attached to young people with a care experience impacts on the way in which government and society view them. Expectations are lower, and poor outcomes are considered "acceptable".

So what are the answers to improve the system to respond better to young people at arguably the most vulnerable time in their lives? This Report examines the responses provided by young people across Australia who are transitioning from care, and offers practical, achievable solutions to the problems they encounter.

Part D: Key Findings and Recommendations is broken into three phases: Preparation, Transition, and After Care Independence; within each of these, the specific domains of Planning, Housing, Education, Employment, Financial Security, Social Relationships and support Networks, Health (Physical, Emotional, Mental and Sexual), and Life Skills are addressed. In the following tables, the Issues raised are summarised in the left-hand column while the Solutions advanced by the young people are presented on the right.

These Solutions provide a good basis for further consideration for future potential actions. There is a strong need for further discussions, testing and prioritisation of these solutions by Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, and the Community Services Sector.

Preparation phase

Planning
Issues
  • Young people transitioning from care report that they do not have leaving care/transition plans; 65% have no plan for their future.
  • Young people are often not involved in the transition planning process.
  • Young people are often not informed about their transition.

“It was terrible. I was told a week before I turned 18 that I was leaving care.”

Young people’s solutions
  • Develop a national transition from care planning process in consultation with young people including:
    • a Template for a Leaving Care Plan
    • a Checklist of actions to be completed before transitioning
    • an Exit Care Interview with the young person six months before transitioning.
  • Employ specialised transition-from-care workers in each region.
  • Develop a Participation Strategy to engage children and young people in planning.
  • Adopt a consistent approach to transition planning and commence the process at 15 years of age.
Housing
Issues
  • Young peoples’ capacity and willingness to live independently is not explored fully in the planning process. Young people in the general population now live at home for longer (over 25 years of age).
  • Housing/accommodation options are not explored early enough in the planning process resulting in limited housing options at the point of transition.
Young people’s solutions
  • Financially compensate carers to continue to provide support for young people up to age 21 to stay with existing carers if this is the young person’s preference.
  • Develop formal partnerships to determine a suite of housing/accommodation options available for young people with a care experience.
Education
Issues
  • Teachers are not trained to understand the impact that abuse and neglect have on young people with a care experience.
  • Young people in care have a higher rate of suspension or expulsion from school than the general population.
  • Education support plans are often not developed, and when they are they may not be effective.
  • Young people’s academic results are lower than those of young people in the general population.
  • Lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities within CP Departments and Education Departments means young people fall through the cracks.
  • Child Protection orders finishing whilst a young person is completing his/her senior certificate, or turning 18 during the semester, and the young person’s schooling is interrupted if they have to leave their care placement. Many young people are unable to finish their schooling as they have to focus on getting accommodation and a job to support themselves.
  • Lack of stable housing impacts on young people being able to focus and participate fully on their education.

“Kids would get a better education and get better employment if their placements were more stable”

Young people’s solutions
  • Review training for teachers focussing on understanding and managing the impact of abuse (on behaviour) for young people in care in educational settings.
  • Review Educational support Plans to ensure they are effective and implemented for all young people in care.
  • Develop educational tutor programs for young people with a care experience as an essential part of their educational support plan, not an adjunct to it, reducing lengthy delays in obtaining necessary permissions.
  • Extend placements for all young people turning 18 during their final year of school until their formal high school education is completed.
Employment
Issues
  • Limited career planning with young people, and a general lack of information about what employment options are available to them.
Young people’s solutions
  • An essential component to be included in an appropriate Transition from Care Plan.
Financial Security
Issues
  • Young people liaising with Centrelink to access, for example, Youth Allowance are challenged when providing evidence of care status and having ID.
Young people’s solutions
  • Develop a system that can “flag” young people with a care experience. Young people would have the right to opt out of this system if they wish.
  • Workers to receive training/information about the specific challenges and needs of young people in care.
  • Employ dedicated Centrelink workers who are responsible for supporting young people transitioning from care (one in each office at a minimum).
  • Provide training for Centrelink workers and fund the development of a video that provides the perspective of young people in the transition process.
Social Relationships and Support Networks
Issues
  • Lack of planning and support for young people reunifying with birth families.
  • Young people lack support to develop relationships and connections to their communities.
  • Providing information about supports and services needs to be more than just words; it needs to be practical and “hands on”.

“Community contact and support is very important to Indigenous young people”

“... The interaction between one’s self and their community is how a young person grows into a contributing adult”

“You need to be independent to have confidence to engage with your community”

Young people’s solutions
  • Ensure that, where appropriate, the reunification with selected birth family members commences before a young person turns 18. This could be through a program of gradual visitations.
Health (Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Sexual)
Issues
  • Access to free counselling and mental health support services is difficult, and young people are often “put off” by the prohibitive cost.

“...it should be made that a young person can’t leave care if they haven’t got supports in place.”

Young people’s solutions
  • Implement an Exit Health Check for young people transitioning from care as part of the planning process.
Life Skills
Issues
  • Young people often have frequent placements during their time in care and learning basic life skills is often not a priority.
  • There are varying expectations from caseworkers, carers and young people about what life skills are and when they should be taught, and by whom.

“Young people transitioning from care need as much support as possible; everything from finding somewhere to live to what to wear to interviews”.

“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”.

“More mandatory training for foster carers. This training would include how to teach young people life skills, and helping to change the culture of foster care from carers seeing their role as a job, to that of a parent”

Young people’s solutions
  • Provide more life-skills programs, with particular attention to regional areas.
  • Review carer training to ensure that specialist courses are developed in life-skill development for young people.

Transition phase

Planning
Issues
  • Transition planning processes are not often clear to workers.
  • Information about the transition phase and resources is fragmented and difficult for young people to navigate.
Young people’s solutions
Housing
Issues
  • Young people are not treated as a priority for subsidised or government housing.
  • Private rental is challenging as young people are often unable to pay market rates for housing/accommodation.
  • Government housing for young people is often in low-income, high unemployment areas.

“Rent is really high so more rent assistance would help.”

Young people’s solutions
  • Implement a priority-housing category for young people with a care experience within public housing, and SAAP services.
  • Review existing rental subsidies to provide an appropriate level of support to young people to help them access housing in the private rental market.

Best Practice Example: Lead Tenant model (TAS)

Education
Issues
  • A low rate of young people with a care experience complete high school compared to the general population. The low expectations of government compound this issue, i.e., young people in care are expected (and accepted) to have lower educational attainment.
  • Young people associated with Juvenile Justice often have poor educational outcomes and disrupted schooling.
  • Life-skills training is an “add-on” rather than being a part of the mainstream educational curriculum.
  • Early parenthood often prohibits young people completing their education.
Young people’s solutions
  • Develop strategies to increase the proportion of young people in care completing Year 12 to ensure that Year 12 attainment for young people in care is the same as that of the general population.
  • Develop alternative education pathways, including training and volunteering opportunities specifically for children and young people with a care experience.
  • Include life-skills development as part of the mainstream high-school curriculum to develop hands-on practical life skills courses/training for young people.

Best Practice Example: Create Your Future Program

Employment
Issues
  • Young people find it challenging to keep a job when their accommodation, housing, or placements are unstable.
  • Lack of tailored support to assist young people to be competent and confident in seeking jobs.
  • No access to records such as birth certificates, and care history, make it difficult for young people to apply for jobs.
  • Lack of support for young people to guide them to enter the job market.
  • Cost of clothing and grooming for interviews is prohibitive for some young people.
Young people’s solutions
  • Enhance the Job Services Network to ensure that its functions meet the specific needs of young care leavers.
  • Instigate traineeships /internships within various government departments for young people who have been in care.
  • Commit to a quota of traineeships/internship placements.
  • Introduce nationally a model of brokerage funding similar to that operating in Victoria (brokerage is important to provide funds to enable the young care leaver to be competitive in seeking employment, eg. to be well clothed and groomed at interview).

Financial Security

Issues
  • The TILA process is confusing and difficult to access for young people AND workers AND carers. Young people report that workers often give them the wrong information.
  • Young people in care report that they have been declined TILA, and have no other options available to assist in their transition to independence.
  • Funds for TILA ran out before the end of the financial year due to an increase in applications (TILA is not exclusively for young people with a care experience).
  • Lack of budgeting and financial management skills often lead to poor financial decisions. Advertising that targets the youth market with easy credit and mobile phones exacerbates the situation.

“(TILA) It’s confusing and full of jargon...There’s a lot of misinformation around...The paperwork is hard”

Young people’s solutions
  • Young people need to have access to dedicated transition funds (brokerage) in addition to TILA.
  • Young people’s feedback indicated that a review of TILA might consider the following:
    • Is the amount of the allowance sufficient to support young people in transition from care?
    • Is the amount of the budget allocated to TILA sufficient so that all young people under 25 years who have left care are able to access the full allowance?
    • Is the process of applying for TILA “user friendly” for young care leavers?
  • Life-skills training needs to incorporate practical financial management.
Social Relationships and Support Networks
Issues
  • Young people need supportive adults who care about them in their life, not just peers or paid workers.
  • Young people need to be connected to each other and their community.
Young people’s solutions
  • Establish mentoring programs for young people transitioning from care.
  • Support connection experiences (eg. clubCREATE which all young people with a care experience are eligible to join) to link young people in care with each other and their community.

Health (Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Sexual)

Issues
  • Young people lack confidence in accessing health services, and it can be daunting to seek out support when they are unwell.
  • Young people do not know which doctors will bulk bill. Having to pay upfront for health services is challenging for young people on limited incomes. Public hospitals have lengthy waiting lists and for young people with jobs, or studying this is not a viable option.

“There are a decreasing number of health services that bulk bill- particularly mental health”.

“Young people are more confident and willing to access a service if a trusted caseworker/carer/mentor attends the service visit with them”.

Young people’s solutions
  • Young people could be accompanied when being introduced to services (including doctors, dentists, mental health professionals, Medicare, health care funds, drug and alcohol supports).
  • Develop a brochure that informs young people about bulk billing surgeries (this information can also be included on the CREATE Your Future website and in Leaving Care Kits).
Life Skills
Issues
  • There are limited programs that help young people to develop life skills, and they are difficult for young people to access (as many run in school/work hours).
  • Life skill training and development programs are delivered in a fragmented manner and are often metropolitan based.
  • Established mentoring programs are often not specifically developed for young people in care or transitioning from care. Those that are, are rare and offer few places.

“The basics need to start with foster carers, just like other young people learning skills at home. This would include opening a bank account, cooking, cleaning.”

Young people’s solutions
  • Offer life-skills programs in flexible delivery modes (i.e. week-ends and after hours) so that programs are responsive to young peoples’ needs.
  • Map existing life-skills training and development programs that offer specialist training for young people with a care experience and ensure that strategies are in place to distribute the information to NGO’s, Centrelink and young people with a care experience.
  • Continue to support the national CREATE Your Future training package, website, grant-scheme and carer training package. It is important not to duplicate programs and services, and to work toward an integrated system offering economies of scale.
  • Implement mentoring programs that are specifically developed to support young people with a care experience.
  • Provide high levels of training and support to community mentors.

Best Practice Example: Create Your Future Program

After Care Independence Phase

Planning
Issues
  • Young people often leave care with no plan for their future and have limited support systems when things go wrong in their lives.
  • Young people leave care in an ad hoc manner not in a planned way.
Young people’s solutions
  • Provide “Leaving Care Kits” for all young people leaving care.
  • Note. Before the kits are distributed a “checklist” could be completed relating to the young person’s readiness to transition, ie. do they have a plan, do they have a place to live, do they have the necessary life skills, do they have ID and so forth. Once the form is completed in consultation with the young person it should be forwarded to a central point so that a Leaving Care Kit can be dispatched. The kits should contain state-based information about services, entitlements, and link young people to additional resources such as the CREATE Your Future website (already funded by the Commonwealth).
  • Conduct an audit of this process annually.

Best Practice Example: QLD “Go Your Own Way” Leaving Care Kit

Housing
Issues
  • Young people are often not equipped to live independently.
  • High rates of homelessness.
  • Lack of suitable long-term accommodation.
  • Young people often leave care and move into temporary or crisis-type accommodation (refuges).
Young people’s solutions
  • Develop life-skills courses.
  • Utilise the CREATE Your Future life-skills programs.
  • Develop policy to prevent young care leavers from exiting into short-term emergency or refuge type accommodation.
    Accommodation should be long-term and stable.
Education
Issues
  • Lack of practical information about alternative pathways to get into TAFE and Uni.
  • Young people are too busy surviving to continue their education post 18 years.
  • Young people in care often don’t have people to support and encourage them to study.
  • Vocational education programs are difficult to get into, and young people are competing with mainstream students to get places.

“I would like to do TAFE but I don’t have money or transport to get there”.

Young people’s solutions
  • Develop quotas for young people with a care experience in TAFE and universities. Young people should be given priority status as in the model adopted by SA.
  • Waive HECS fees for young people with a care experience.
  • Provide automatic tutoring support for young people with a care experience who enter tertiary education.
Employment
Issues
  • High rates of unemployment amongst young people with a care experience.
  • Lack of training/course options that are tailored to meet young people with a care experience needs.
  • Information and training about how to get a job and keep it and develop the skills to do so are hard to locate.
Young people’s solutions
  • Prioritise strategies (and set acceptable targets) to reduce the number of young people with a care experience who are unemployed.
  • Monitor outcomes and report progress in reducing unemployment.
Financial Security
Issues
  • High level of dependence on financial support from the Government - public housing, mental health services, juvenile justice, income support/allowances.
Young people’s solutions
  • Take action to reduce unemployment in the care leaving cohort to reduce financial dependence.
Social Relationships and Support Networks
Issues
  • Young people have limited access to adults in their lives to guide them once they have left care; this is very important especially when things go wrong.

“A successful transition is being linked into community where the young person is from ...”

Young people’s solutions
  • Ensure that young people are connected with members of their cultural and/or social community while in care through interactions supervised by transition-from-care workers and engagement with mentoring programs. With such relationships established, young people would have an additional layer of continuing support after leaving care.
Health (Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Sexual)
Issues
  • Services do not understand specific needs of young people post-care
  • Lack of dedicated transition workers familiar with the total range of support services available
Young people’s solutions
  • Conduct an annual review of support services available in the various regions. Any deficits in services should be identified and steps taken to develop necessary resources to meet the unmet need.
  • Ensure that transition-from-care support workers are adequately trained so that they are familiar with the range of support services available.
Life Skills
Issues
  • Young people often find it stressful when they are out of the “system” as they have no one to turn to when they need advice or guidance and things “go wrong”.
  • Many young people are unable to achieve successful independent living, and find it hard to maintain a job, have stable housing/accommodation, budget and take care of themselves.
  • Young people’s trajectory to be welfare dependent and unemployed is affected by the system’s inability to prepare them for adulthood (which is also affected by the fact that governments in many states expect them to be self-sufficient at the age of 18).
Young people’s solutions
  • When reviewing the suite of support services available for care leavers, make sure they provide a variable range of approaches, realising that one size will not fit all the young people who come from different cultural backgrounds, have varied skills and abilities, and have divergent aspirations. However, with a combination of diverse mentoring and community programs in place, it is imperative that mechanisms for coordinating service delivery exist.

Best Practice Example: Rapid Response System, SA

Summary

The solutions identified by young people are simple, and easy to implement, and more importantly will facilitate better outcomes. Legislation and policies exist that are well intentioned, articulate and considered. However, it is clear that reducing the chasm between policy and practice is where change must begin to make a positive impact on the system.

The Commonwealth needs to exercise strong leadership and State/Territory governments must demonstrate a high degree of "political will" to implement and enforce policies and make it a priority to monitor and hear the voices of young people to ensure that the intent of policies translates to good practice on the ground. This Report highlights that, for practice to improve, resources and funding must be made available across government. Young people exiting care MUST be given priority status.

The planning phase is particularly important. It needs to be well considered and interactive. Stringent monitoring processes must be developed to ensure compliance with policy; for example, every young person must have a leaving care plan (a plan for their future). To enable quality planning, resources must be allocated to workers directly involved with young people, and specialist workers should be located in each region to oversee and monitor the transitioning of young people to independence. Importantly, specialist workers need to be the responsibility of both the Commonwealth and State/Territory governments.

The community and the corporate sector are willing and able to be involved in improving the lives of young people transitioning from care, but have few mechanisms and opportunities to do so. Mobilising the community to become mentors would make a huge impact on reducing the workload of workers, and would provide long-term stable support for young people post-care giving them every chance of succeeding. Moreover, it is cost effective!

A whole-of-government commitment would change the future for young Australians leaving the care system.

This page is part of: Create Foundation - What's the Answer? (2010)

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DSS2897 | Permalink: www.dss.gov.au/node/2897