Media Releases

TRANSITION: Amelia Mallett said she wasn't given the right guidance when she left care. (File photo - The Canberra Times: David Curry)

The ACT is the poorest performer of all governments in providing support for young people leaving foster care.

According to a national report, the ACT provides the shortest period of support for young people leaving foster care in Australia.

Government support for a young person in foster care ends at the age of 18, unless the person is still completing the last year of secondary schooling.

NSW, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia all offer support to the age of 25.

Queensland has no set age limit, while Tasmania and Victoria offer support to the age of 21.

Report Card: Transitioning from Care, commissioned by the CREATE foundation, a national non-government organisation that supports young people in care, also said that only the ACT and the Northern Territory had no identifiable budget resources for young people leaving foster care.

‘‘States such as NSW have recognised and addressed the problems associated with transitioning as demonstrated through efforts such as the Wood Enquiry,’’ foundation chief executive Jacqui Reed said.

‘‘Yet in the ACT, there is no evidence of trying to keep up with the fast pace of change in the community.’’

In March the Minister for Children and Young People, Katy Gallagher, acknowledged statistics showing one in three people leaving foster care will be incarcerated, half will experience homelessness, and one in three young women will become pregnant.

Since then, she said the Government had funded a range of non-government agencies to provide support to young people who were in  care and planning to leave care in the future.

The department provides financial and other help on a case by case basis after the age of 18. Last year there were about 500 young Canberrans in care, and about 30 to 35 leave care each year.

One person moving from foster and residential care this year is 18-year-old Amelia Mallet, who in one four-year period had 25 permanent and 15 respite placements. She has been out of care for nine months.

‘‘The first six months were really, really hard,’’ she said. ‘‘I think I didn’t know enough about transitioning. I wasn’t given the right guidance  steps to say, ‘This is what you do’.’’

As well as cutting support to foster children at the age of 18, the ACT Government also ends financial assistance to foster carers, except where the foster child is still in high school.

Bev Orr, who with her husband has fostered for 30 years, said the result was that most foster parents had to insist their foster children either look for fulltime employment or leave home.

‘‘We shouldn’t be pushing all these extra duties and obligations on these people when they’re trying to finish an education,’’ she said.

Ms Orr said it wasn’t good enough for the Government to rely on charities like Bernados to provide support.

Another long-time Canberra foster parent, Sue Mannion, said many children in foster care were ‘‘already behind the eight ball’’, having come from backgrounds of abuse and neglect.

She said it was hardly surprising that after leaving care at 18, many of them had children at a young age, became involved in criminal activities, and found themselves with no education and few prospects.

‘‘It’s heartbreaking,’’ she said. ‘‘I’d like to see a real commitment [from the Government] to make sure we can improve the outcomes for this group.

‘‘We don’t want to transition them into welfare, but to paid employment.’’