ACTCOSS 2020 ACT Election issue brief: Supporting Canberra’s Women, Children and Families
For a just and fair Canberra, the next ACT Government must:
- Build a child protection system capable of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children while working to keep families together and/or connected through measures including:
- An independent external review mechanism for child protection decisions in the ACT
- Building a restorative child protection system
- Better access to advocacy and legal support for women, children and families in the child protection system.
- Implement all recommendations of the Our Booris, Our Way review into the care and protection of Aboriginal children in the ACT
- Increase investment in the out of home care (OOHC) system including:
- Extension of supported placements for all young people in out of home care, without individual assessments and incremental approval, from 18 to 21 years
- Access to an aftercare service for young people up to the age of 25 years.
- Provide additional funding for community-based specialist women’s services including domestic violence services, legal services and housing and homelessness services
- Further improve inclusive education in the ACT to enable children with disability to participate in mainstream schooling safely and successfully
- Implement Respectful Relationships Education at a minimum standard for all staff and students from Preschool to Year 12.
Read the full issue brief below for more details, or read other issue briefs on our ACT Election page.