Our Opinion
The Home Stretch – Next Steps
Hot on the heels of the public launch of Queensland’s Home Stretch Campaign in Brisbane on the 28th November, the Palaszczuk Government has announced a significant boost in initiatives to support young people leaving care. These initiatives that have been brought together under an expanded Next Steps Plus program, will aim to ensure that young people leaving care receive additional support into housing, education, and employment.
In announcing the new initiatives, Minister for Child Safety, Youth and Women Di Farmer said the Next Steps Plus program would build on the support currently given to young adults after they leave statutory care up to the age of 25 to access a range of government services and programs aimed at supporting them to achieve independence, along with individualised support.
“There are more than 500 young people in care each year who turn 18, and supporting those young people after they leave care with things like housing support, training and skills, and help to find employment is a high priority for us,” she said.
“That’s why we amended the Child Protection Act to make sure that we start planning that transition to adulthood for every young person in care from the age of 15, and we keep supporting them after they leave care right up to the age of 25.”
Minister Farmer said initiatives to support young adults to achieve independence had been developed across government, including education and training, employment, and housing initiatives, along with additional financial support.
“We’ve extended carer allowances to the age of 19, which is one way we are supporting young people to transition to adulthood by making sure they can finish high school and not feel they have to do it all on their own from the moment they turn 18.
“But it’s also critical we provide a range of supports to help young people transition at their own pace – because not every young person will want to stay living with their carers.”
Minister Farmer noted that the CREATE Foundation is currently undertaking research to evaluate what kind of supports young people need to successfully transition to independence. She commented on the importance of these services being informed by what young people with a lived experience of being in care have to say about their needs, in preference to relying on “a bunch of adults telling them what we think they need”.
The range of initiatives to support young people transition to independence include:
- Programs delivered through Education Queensland to help young people engage with education and training
- Free TAFE for Year 12 school leavers across 139 high demand industries
- The Nurse Navigators program, which supports young people in care to access priority healthcare
- Mental health initiatives focusing on young people, including initiatives to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people
- Access to women’s health and wellbeing programs for young women exiting care
- Improved housing solutions and pathways for young people, including Youth Foyers to support at risk young people
- The Queensland Youth Partnerships Initiative, working with corporate and community partners to provide opportunities to young people leaving care, and
- Skilling Queenslanders for Work programs aimed at supporting young people.
Underpinned by an investment of $4.8 million each year, plans are now in place for Next Step Plus to commence in early 2020. Tenders are now open for non-government providers to deliver the redesigned program. For more information or to apply, click here.
PeakCare’s view
PeakCare welcomes the State Government’s announcement. We especially welcome the whole-of-government approach being adopted in creating initiatives that run across education and training, employment, and housing in addition to child safety. The opportunity for non-government organisations to become part of this collaboration of multiple agencies by tendering to deliver services that fall under the umbrella of Next Steps Plus is also welcomed.
PeakCare perceives that Next Steps Plus serves as another significant step in supporting young people in their transition to adulthood that builds on the Government’s earlier commitment to extend the payments made to foster and kinship carers until young people in their care reach 19 years of age. The Home Stretch Campaign argues the case for further extending these payments until young people reach 21 years of age. The point made by Minister Farmer that “not every young person will want to stay living with their carers” is fully acknowledged, and it is appreciated that the Next Steps Plus program is intended to benefit not only young people who may remain living with their foster or kinship carers, but also those who choose to leave their care or who have been living in residential care or had no fixed place of abode.
The Home Stretch Campaign does not wish to make any support on offer to young people contingent upon them remaining in foster care or, in any way, compel young people to remain living with their carers especially if, for all kinds of complex reasons, they have not had a positive experience of foster care.
However, for many young people who have come to enjoy stable, loving and trusting relationships with their carers, continuation of the small allowance paid to foster and kinship carers can often make the difference between these young people being able to engage in tertiary study or forego their ambitions, and/or in being able to remain in or leave the place they call home. If home is where the heart is and their hearts are telling them to stay, we should be doing all that we can to let them.
PeakCare congratulates the State Government on taking another important step in the journey towards supporting young people in their transition to adulthood. We look forward to further dialogue with the Government about continuing this journey by further extending payments to foster and kinship carers until young people in their care turn 21.
If you have a view, let us know by entering your comments below – anonymously if you prefer.
Once again, well-balanced commentary by PeakCare – commends the Government for their investment in Next Step Plus whilst still serving notice that there is more to be done in extending care to 21 for those young people who need it
With reference to the speech delivered by Lindsay at the launch of Home Stretch last week, it seems that the Campaign has delivered both some of the rain he was hoping for as well as Next Step Plus. Very impressive! Now for the next step – extending care till 21.
If home is where the heart is and their hearts are telling them to stay, we should be doing all that we can to let them – very nicely stated! Powerful words! Best wishes for the campaign!
As Lindsay said at the launch of the Home Stretch Campaign in Brisbane last week, the Campaign provides us with the opportunity to make our voices heard and to impress upon the Government and the Opposition parties our support for the option of extending care until 21. We should make use of every opportunity we can to state our position on this – including entering our comments in response to this blog.
Well done to the Government for introducing Next Steps Plus. I look forward to saying, “Well done for extending care till 21”
You have expressed the case for extending care till 18 very well. This is not an ‘either or’. We want both the benefits that young people will receive from Next Steps Plus as well as the benefits that will come from extending care till 21. Keep up the good work! Congratulations to you and all members of the Home Stretch Steering Committee!
Thanks to PeakCare for this announcement, it is fantastic to see additional supports to young people through Next Steps Plus. We hope to see this support broadened to include extending care to 21 so that all young people in care have the support and care they need as they enter adulthood.
It is wonderful to see the continuing developments in supporting the transition of young people from care to adulthood. The work of CREATE, PeakCare Qld, QATSICPP and QFKC over many years has made a significant contribution to these developments. More recently the national Home Stretch initiative has focused attention on extending care till 21 years including financial support to carers. Thank you PeakCare Qld for acknowledging the progress while reminding us all that more work needs to be done. Your capacity to work with others and preparedness to stay at the table to achieve this goal is acknowledged.
I have has some reservations about Home Stretch, but your blog has helped to allay some of my concerns. Most of the promotional material seems to focus on extending foster care with not a lot of attention paid to young people for whom this may not be an option or not an option that they would favour. I agree with your comments that there are many young people who would benefit from extending care – the young people you noted who have formed stable, loving relationships with their carers – but that doesn’t cover all young people. I think that these carers would also not believe that simply extending care by continuing their carer payments is all that young people in their care need. It would be better to regard it as a much appreciated and important part of a suite of individualised options that should be made available to support young people in their transition to adulthood. Your blog provides some re-assurance that there is a ‘bigger picture’ that Home Stretch has in mind.
I’ve also had some reservations about Home Stretch – not in an overall sense but about the ways in which extended care could be implemented. I have no problem at all with the idea that foster and kinship carers should receive continued financial support that will enable young people to remain in their care if that’s what they want and need. However, I’m not completely comfortable with the idea that the money should be tied to carers rather than to the young people in their care. It may be simplistic, but I’m wondering about a model that would financially assist each young person who is older than 19 years of age to pay board to their foster or kinship carer. This Board could be equivalent to the carer payment rate. The carer would still receive the same level of financial support, but the payment of the money in the form of board would seem to be a more age-appropriate solution for young people and one which recognises their growing maturity and empowers them to make their own choices. If a young person decides to leave their carers, this money could be used to contribute to the cost of wherever other place they choose to live. Just an idea….
I was very encouraged by the Minister’s announcement that CREATE have been asked to research with young people what they think young people need to assist their transition to adulthood in preference to “a bunch of adults telling them what they think they need”. This is what true co-design should be about.
Next steps Plus is not all it seems. Minister Farmer has announced $4.8 million for the program. The eligibility criteria had changed (which is great) but this has created a massive increase in young people that will NEED the service. So why has Minister Farmer given less money for more young people? Why must a young person be in a crisis to use the service? Currently, next step does not have any wait list and will work with a young person no matter what the circumstance. They do not need to be in crisis. This new “Next Step Plus” is underfunded and not an equitable service. I’m disappointed.
This is positive news but the proof will be in what is actually delivered and the appropriateness of the delivery so cautiously optimistic. There should be some consideration of access to financial and legal information and advice which young people need and may not know how to access.
There has been talk of this type of initiative for a very long time. It is great to see that State Government is now behind it.
Whilst it all sounds great that Next Step Plus is being funded, I have heard they are getting less money and expected to do more work. If this is really the case I’d be really disappointed. It would equate to less actual service delivery for each young person. I hope this is not the case. We need some dollars behind the words, not just positive spin around what is essentially a funding cut. I’d like to know if Next Step Plus is essentially more investment than the current Next Step After Care?