Queensland\u2019s residential care system for children needs an overhaul to prevent it from being a breeding ground for crime and long-term welfare dependency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One Nation candidate for Keppel James Ashby said changes were also needed to ensure qualified carers were supported to remain in the system.
\u201cThere are about 11,000 children in residential care in Queensland, partly due to the foster care system being on the verge of collapse,\u201d Mr Ashby said.
\u201cFor many of these kids, it costs Queensland taxpayers between $500,000 and $1 million to care for them. Some of them are forced to stay in hotels due to a shortage of residential care homes.
\u201cThe system is under a lot of strain. Carers are almost powerless to work closely with children to foster an environment of trust with appropriate behavioural boundaries, and in many cases are unable to prevent kids from leaving a home and roaming the streets. Qualified carers are leaving the system and are being replaced with others, some of whom are unqualified and inexperienced or who are in it for the good pay ($120,000 starting salary) rather than good outcomes.
\u201cWell-intentioned child safety requirements also prevent the development of a normal home environment where these kids can learn basic life skills. They have virtually nothing to do but sit around watching TV or playing games.
\u201cChildren who\u2019ve been in the system for a while have learned how to game it and weaponise it, threatening carers with accusations of assault or worse in order to get their way or excuse poor behaviour. Discipline goes out the window. And unless they\u2019re eligible for an \u2018independent living\u2019 arrangement, once these kids reach 18 they\u2019re effectively on their own, often without prospects.\u201d
Mr Ashby called for suitably qualified residential care house managers to be given greater autonomy in managing the care of kids in their charge.
\u201cThese highly qualified and experienced carers are the ones on the ground working daily with these children yet they have virtually no say in the management of kids\u2019 programs and activities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should be these people \u2013 who know individual kids best \u2013 who should be planning their care.
\u201cCarers entering the system should also be required to successfully complete appropriate training before coming into contact with kids. At the moment, because of a shortage, carers are being placed in charge of kids before their training is complete.
\u201cSadly, there will always be some parents unsuited to the role of parenting. We must have a sustainable and effective system of state care, but high demand coupled with well-intentioned but impersonal bureaucracy is threatening the system\u2019s viability and delivering less-than-optimal outcomes.
\u201cWe all want what\u2019s best for our kids. One Nation will work to introduce reforms to Queensland\u2019s youth justice and residential care systems to better protect community safety and produce positive outcomes for our state\u2019s vulnerable young people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Queensland\u2019s residential care system for children needs an overhaul to prevent it from being a breeding ground for crime and long-term welfare dependency. One Nation candidate for Keppel James Ashby said changes were also needed to ensure qualified carers were supported to remain in the system. \u201cThere are about 11,000 children in residential care in … Continue reading “Residential care a breeding ground for crime, overhaul needed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24647,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24646\/revisions\/24647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}