Supporting young people transitioning from out-of-home ...

Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs together with the National Framework Implementation Working Group

Supporting young people transitioning from out-of-home care to independence in Australia: good practice in 2011/12

A Priority under the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children

Carers

Support

Family

Community

Life Domains

Support networks

Housing Education

Social Relationship

Preparation & planning

Young person

Identity Culture Health

Legal matters Training

Life skills Financial security

Employment

Agencies

Significant others

Workers

march 2012

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? Commonwealth of Australia 2012 ISBN 978-1-921975-23-3

With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (). The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3.0 AU licence (). The document must be attributed as the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs National Research Agenda for Protecting Children 2011-2014.

Phone: 1300 653 227 Email: fahcsiafeedback@.au Post: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Tuggeranong Office Park PO Box 7576, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610 All illustrations kindly donated by children, including some children living in care

Contents

Foreword

1

Introduction

2

Preparation phase

3

Transition phase

13

After care independence phase

23

Across the continuum

27

More information

29

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Supporting young people transitioning from out-of-home care to independence in Australia: good practice in 2011/12

Foreword

Transitioning from out-of-home care to Independence: A Nationally Consistent Approach to Planning (the Approach) was agreed by Ministers at the Standing Council on Community, Housing and Disability Services in October 2011. This is an important step towards ensuring that young people who are transitioning from out-of- home care are provided with consistent planning, no matter where they live. The Approach was informed by the evidence of what constitutes best practice transition planning. An earlier discussion paper, Transitioning from out of home care to independence (December 2010), summarised the key evidence about the support requirements of young people leaving care. According to Mendes (2011)1, best practice planning:

is an ongoing and dynamic process based on the levels of maturity and skill development of young people is supported by flexible plans, monitoring of progress, and regular review recognises the role relevant parties have to play. The Approach (Attached Table 1) represents an evidence-based, whole of system response to the needs of these vulnerable young people to drive much needed improvements in the support provided to them through the transition process. Significantly, planning is to consider the needs and areas of support for these young people commencing no later than 15 years, up to age 25.

Based on the research evidence about what works for young people leaving care, the Approach identifies three core elements considered essential in the transition from out-of-home care to independence:

the participants to be included in the process the planning and support processes to be undertaken the life domains to be addressed. As well as identifying the core elements to be considered throughout the process, the Approach also includes the particular focus of support to be addressed to provide young people leaving care with the practical help they need: to prepare for their transition to independence effectively as they make their transition out of the care and protection system into the broader support system after they leave care, up to age 25. The Approach is holistic, requiring child protection workers and others working with young people to address their needs across the following range of life domains: Housing/accommodation Health (physical, emotional ? including self-esteem, mental, sexual and dental) Education and training, employment or other suitable activity Financial security Social relationships and support networks Life (and after care) skills Identity and culture Legal matters

Transitioning from out-of-home care to Independence: a Nationally Consistent Approach to Planning is available at .au under the `Families and Children' subject area, then `Publications and Articles'.

1 Philip Mendes, Guy Johnson and Badal Moslehuddin Young People Leaving State Out-of-home Care: Australian policy and practice Australian Scholarly Publishing. Melbourne, 2011.

Department of Families, Housing, COmmunity Services and Indigenous Affairs

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