The Queensland Government has today released the Roadmap for Residential Care in Queensland.
Key focus areas for this roadmap include halving the number of children and young people living in residential care, increasing the number of children and young people cared for by kin and foster carers, improving culturally led and intervention support, and reducing the disproportionate representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in care.
This is a five-year roadmap which builds on the significant contribution and expertise of our sector throughout the Statewide consultation process.
PeakCare is excited to take a leading role in supporting the implementation of actions from this roadmap over the coming five years and we remain committed to continuing to advocate for improvements to this critical part of our child and family sector.
We will also continue to focus our efforts on the additional issues and opportunities raised by members through PeakCare’s consultation activities which are not directly reflected through this high-level roadmap.
In the coming weeks we will share with you further information on the next steps in implementing the roadmap actions including development of a new Residential Care Workforce Strategy for Queensland. This is a key action form the roadmap which will be led by the sector, for the sector.
The release of the Roadmap for Residential Care in Queensland does not mark the end of this important process. It instead opens a new chapter for residential care in Queensland. A chapter where success is not measured by the number of actions proposed, but by how these actions are delivered on to create the best possible system for every child and family in need.
The Queensland Residential Care Roadmap is available here.
PeakCare’s Beyond a Checklist – Guiding the Road Forward for Queensland’s Residential Care System is available here.
If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please contact either PeakCare CEO Tom Allsop at tallsop@peakcare.oprg.au or Kate Bjur, General Manager, Policy, Research and Advocacy at kbjur@peakcare.org.au