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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-12 Daily Xml
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Next Steps Program

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:21): My question is for the Minister for Child Protection. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is providing better services by extending existing support through the Next Steps program for young people leaving care?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:21): I thank the member for King for her question and for her continued interest in child protection-related issues. The Next Steps program will expand on the success of the Marshall Liberal government's policy, Stability in Family-Based Care, which is a program that supports young people in both foster and kinship care to stay on to the age of 21. This initiative will provide stability post care and extend existing supports to young people in non family-based care, also known as residential care.

The Foster and Kinship Care to 21 initiative commenced on 1 January 2019 and gives carers and young people added stability and security and has been extremely successful helping over 100 young people. The Marshall Liberal government will provide $2.7 million over four years for the Next Steps pilot program to expand supports for more young people leaving care up to the age of 21 years. The Next Steps pilot program is expected to start in January 2022.

This timely investment to support a young person's transition to adulthood will have a range of long-term benefits, such as decreasing the risks of homelessness, unemployment, mental health problems and financial stress and decreasing the long-term impacts on other areas of government, such as social housing, health and mental health. This initiative builds on other measures that we provide to support and assist young people to transition to adulthood, including:

the Over 18 Education Initiative, which provides the carer subsidy and quarterly education grant to carers of young people completing education or training until achieving their qualification or until the age of 25 years;

funding to Relationships Australia SA for post-care services, including counselling and mentoring;

specialised support to access the National Disability Insurance Agency benefits and ultimately to ensure a planned and supported transition for care leavers with a disability;

support to access resources through initiatives, such as the commonwealth-funded Transition to Independent Living Allowance and the Dame Roma Mitchell Trust Fund;

support also to access services through the CREATE Foundation, such as the Sortli app, which was developed with young people in care and provides a range of information to assist them with becoming independent; and

negotiated dental services to the age of 25 to better support our children, as well as ambulance cover to the age of 21.

This is why I am proud to be part of a Marshall Liberal government that—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —is committed to improving outcomes for our vulnerable children and young people to give them the best opportunity to succeed in life.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Kaurna, I call to order the member for Reynell.

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