The ACT may soon lead the nation by funding full-time foster parents in a bid to better help vulnerable young people.
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The Government also plans to fund more intensive work with families at risk to keep children at home, without needing to enter foster care.
Minister for Disability, Children and Young People Joy Burch will tell the Legislative Assembly next week she wants to make fundamental changes to the way the territory deals with the issue.
A discussion paper issued by her office calls for a significant increase in funding and for refocusing resources and attention on placement prevention.
''Introduction of the proposed new service system represents a major departure from current practice,'' the paper says.
It proposes the option of a small number of professional foster carers to give undivided attention to troubled children.
Other jurisdictions have discussed the idea of paying full-time professional carers but Ms Burch believes the ACT would be the first to implement the change, if it decided to go ahead.
She said she was determined to make fundamental changes to the system to help the almost 600 children in the ACT in foster care or kinship care.
''Now that’s a lot of kids in what we consider to be an affluent, educated, well-paid community,'' she said.
Ms Burch’s proposals are particularly aimed at helping children with multiple issues.
''To me early intervention and support for those really complex kids is critical because what we have at the moment I don’t think is serving them well, so I need to find a better solution for them,'' she said.
''The reality is more kids are coming into care and so if you understand the implications of that - it's well researched and documented they have worse life outcomes, they have poorer educational outcomes, they are over-represented in homelessness and youth justice and the like, so it is right and proper that we need to give them a better life.
''It’s an expensive business so we need to think what can do better, given that it costs us a lot of money and the outcomes for the children can be improved, therefore it makes sense to completely review what we’re doing with the system.”
Ms Burch said intensive work with families at risk would be beneficial in ''almost putting them on notice''.
This would apply in the first 12 months of a court saying a child is at risk and there is a possibility of removing the child from the family.
''If you’ve got problems with drug or other complexities in your life that you can address through support, then we ask the families to work with us very intensely,'' she says.
''Our view of most of Canberra is that we’re educated and able to be self-caring but for some of these complex families, the idea of budgeting, good meal preparation and the commitment to educating their children, is really quite thin.
''So we work with them as a family to improve and be good parents, to keep the family together,'' Ms Burch said.
''It is the first plank in strengthening families, to make sure the families are supported, that the children are not taken into care and, where the children have been taken into care, we focus intensely on reunification over a shorter period of time.''
While the courts have been allowing two years to determine an order regarding a child, the minister wants to accelerate the process by reducing that period to one year.
''That is driven by all the research that shows kids need safety and permanence as quickly as possible,'' she said.
''Particularly with the young ones, if they are in multiple placements or are unsettled, the long-term effect on their thinking and their cognitive development is impacted, so the focus is on intensive work in the first 12 months.''
Canberra woman Bev Orr and her husband have been foster parents to well over 300 children in more than 35 years.
Speaking for the Australian Foster Care Association, she welcomed the proposals as a way to better meet the needs of children and young people in care.
''As an over-arching framework, it is great - the current system does not work for all children and it's the most vulnerable and the most needy who are missing out,'' she said.
''The bottom line is the current system does not meet their needs.
''There are a lot of children and young people who have very special needs that are not being met adequately at the moment and there are some that are not being met at all,'' Ms Orr said.
''There is far greater potential in this new system for their needs to be met.
''The initiative around professional care and looking at children's needs through a therapeutic lens will hopefully mean that children will be the big winners out of this,'' she said.
''If everything that is in this initiative is carried through and properly resourced, children and young people in the ACT will be far better off and they will have much better support and services to meet their specific needs.''