OnlyHumanPodcast - KimTalkstoPaulMcDofHomeStretchCampaign

This week on the show we look at the challenges facing children in care and coming out of care. Children in foster homes who have been removed from their families have often been through trauma. Separated from all that they know, adjusting to life in care, and moving out of care back into the family or adulthood independence, are challenging times for them. According to government figures there are nine and a half thousand children living in out of home care in Queensland over the last year with 1500 at any one time There are up to 50,000 children in out of home care nationally, almost 16,000 of them indigenous (a figure that has increased considerably since the intervention). When children reach the age of 18, they are no longer subject to the child protection regime that removed them from their families, nor are their foster families whom they may have formed a bond with, responsible for them any more. The state does not continue to economically or socially support them, and many end up unemployed, as young pregnancies, or homeless . In 2017 Queensland Government legislation to the child Protection legislation aims to create a “permanency care order”, $3 million trial (over two years) would see professional foster carers trained to provide stable, supportive family environments to children and young people with very complex needs who may otherwise live in residential care. However they still need to leave care at 18.