Question Without Notice No. 424 asked in the Legislative Council on 12 June 2018 by Hon Nick Goiran
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
424. Hon NICK GOIRAN to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the answers provided by the Department of Communities to the additional questions following the 2017–18 budget estimates hearings regarding the six-month delay to the out-of-home care reform.�
(1) What are the unique opportunities that the machinery-of-government changes provide?
(2) How will the Department of Communities facilitate further refinement of the costing and service models?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. I note that this question was lodged on 6 December 2017 but I have a note advising that the answer is still current. The Department of Communities advises the following.
(1) The machinery-of-government changes have provided the department with the opportunity to develop and refine processes that support more effective and integrated co-management of children in out-of-home care—for example, with children with disability, improved interactions between the Child Protection and Family Support and Disability Services divisions. This will enable the department to undertake joint planning and allocate resources to minimise duplication, while addressing the needs of the child. Further, the merging of CPFS and Housing has also allowed the department to allocate housing resources and examine processes for ongoing maintenance of these, so that the appropriate properties are available to implement the OOHC reforms and minimise maintenance costs.
(2) Further refinement of the system costings and service models involved considering a whole-of-Communities approach. Costings have been modelled and refined to minimise duplication between the Disability Services and Child Protection and Family Support divisions in the allocation of resources and funding. Analysis of the cohort data has occurred to improve costing accuracy to best meet the needs of children in out-of-home care. Service models have been refined to support the needs of children in care, and include processes developed to facilitate sharing of resources and co-management of children.