At the Charting a Better Journey for Children and Young People in Care workshop held in Brisbane on 30 May, the Honourable Shannon Fentiman MP, Minister for Minister for Communities, Women and Youth, Minister for Child Safety and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence invited support from non-government service providers in achieving an “important milestone”, namely the introduction of a minimum qualification standard for all residential staff.
“You may recall that I wrote to those of you providing residential care services in October last year, advising you that this was one of my priorities; and the time is now right for us to make it happen,” Ms Fentiman said.
“Commencing from 1 July next year we want to see people either meeting or working towards this qualification, with full implementation to be achieved by 31 December 2019.
I firmly believe that as we continue to see the increasing challenging behaviours and complexity in needs of the children and young people moving through our system, we as government, must provide guidance and direction in what a minimum standard of service response should be.”
Ms Fentiman said, “In years ahead we will look back on this change with surprise there was ever a time when a minimum qualification would not be set for people working in residential care looking after our most vulnerable children”.
Ms Fentiman stated her commitment to working with non-government service providers, PeakCare and the Queensland Family and Child Commission to develop an implementation plan to be finalised by December 2017.
For a full transcript of Ms Fentiman’s speech, click here.