LEAVING CARE PLANNING (RANT)

I’ll clearly say upfront that this will not apply to some organisations or even some jurisdictions. But for the love of [insert preferred deity or alternative here], could we please please please ensure that every care leaver has a leaving care plan? Early transitioning from care planning (and having a documented plan) is so undervalued by some organisations yet is fundamental if we’re going to improve (or even maintain) outcomes for those transitioning from care. There really aren’t that many of them, so why is it so hard for all of those with foster care, residential care and transitioning from care responsibilities to effectively work together with young people on this, and live up to their required obligations? I wouldn’t be surprised if even some of our 19th century industrial schools were better at this than is sometimes the case today!

Developing, reviewing and updating leaving care plans has been recognised as good practice for literally decades. It is now also a policy or legal requirement in many jurisdictions through primary legislation (Acts) or secondary legislation (regulations) e.g. the four countries that make up the UK since 1999 with the UK National Standards for Foster Care (and the development of residential and foster care inspection standards and legislation since then), Australian states and territories since 2009 with theNational Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 and New Zealand with the Oranga Tamariki (National Care Standards and Related Matters) Regulations 2018 which came into force on 1 July 2019.

 Yet in the last week, the issue of non-existent or poor leaving care planning and plans, has been raised with me by three different colleagues in three different jurisdictions.

 This is hardly a new issue and has been highlighted as a problem by multiple organisations including in Australia the CREATE Foundation (and their long-running What’s the Plan campaign). More recently for example, the Australian Institute of Family Studies has reported that only 46% of young Australian people aged 16–19 years approaching transition reported having a ‘leaving care plan’, and are rarely involved in this (Muir & Hand, 2018); on their website the CREATE Foundation give a figure of 35% (i.e. 65% not having a leaving care plan).  In New Zealand research published last week, half of a sample of 17 year olds in care reported that they had not even had a conversation with their Ministry social worker or anyone else there, about what they would need when they turned 18? 

 Ironically just the week before last I attended the online launch of the Australian Parity magazine special issue on leaving care with several inspirational speakers talking about new policy initiatives and a ‘brighter future’ for those transitioning from care. However, for much of that to be realised I would strongly argue that the issue of leaving care planning and plans for all must be urgently addressed. 

So my challenge. If this is an issue in your organisation, why is it still happening, and what can and will you do about it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can email me at: iain@betteroutcomes.co.nz

Kia kaha (Stay Strong).

Iain