Young people with a disability transitioning from out-of-home care, Address to Create Conference,

1. Young people with a disability transitioning from out-of-home care, Address to Create Conference, November 2013 by Philip Mendes

2. Young people with a disability leaving care are more vulnerable to poor outcomes; • Victorian leaving care supports discretionary not mandatory • Disability can be the result of abuse and neglect, or leave young people more vulnerable to abuse

3. The aims of this study were: • To examine stakeholder views on risks of poor outcomes such as homelessness and involvement with the youth justice system for young people with disabilities • To expand our knowledge regarding the demographic backgrounds and care experiences of this group of care leavers, including the differing forms of disability represented, whether or not these are formally diagnosed; • To identify the specialised transition needs of this group of young people; • To clarify the nature of existing policy and practice relationships between child protection services and child and adult disability services and their respective roles and responsibilities in supporting this group of young people; • To identify practices and policies that will lead to improved outcomes for young people with a disability transitioning from OoHC in Victoria.

4. Study involved partnership with non-government organisations • Qualitative study: six focus groups with practitioners involved with OHC and/or leaving care.

5. Findings: Two key themes • 1) Young people with disabilities are not experiencing planned transitions from care and are not receiving the aftercare services they need. • Transitions are unprepared and unplanned. • Many young people who move into adult disability services experience a reduced level of support.

6. Young people with disabilities are sometimes transitioned into aged care facilities. • Inadequate funding results in a lack of accommodation options and support services for young people with disabilities. • The system is crisis driven • It is challenging to equip and prepare young people to participate in their transition plan. • Young people’s participation in their leaving care plan is hampered by the lack of resources and services. • The sudden transition from statutory children’s services to voluntary adult disability services is problematic for some young people.

7. Problems in relation to interagency collaboration • The system is confusing and not well connected • Short and long term outcomes are poor for young people with disabilities after they leave care • Some young people with disabilities are transitioned into Supported Residential Services (SRSs) and Rooming/Boarding houses • Some young people with disabilities return to live with family because they have no other option available to them. • Some young people with disabilities end up in prison • Some young people with disabilities are directly exited into homelessness and others quickly become homeless. • Young people with disabilities are at high risk of abuse and exploitation after they leave OoHC.

8. Theme Two: Young people with borderline disabilities, undiagnosed disabilities, and mental illness do not receive the accommodation and services they need. They ‘fall through the net’, and are at high risk of particularly poor outcomes

9. The most common type of disability is mental illness and yet young people with mental illness are not eligible for disability services. • Young people who appear to have an undiagnosed intellectual disability are not receiving the services they need, because it is difficult to arrange assessments. • Young people with undiagnosed disabilities are excluded from mainstream accommodation services because they are seen as too ‘high needs’. • Even when young people with disabilities do access mainstream accommodation services, their accommodation ‘falls apart’, because they do not receive the support they require. • Difficulties are exacerbated because young people experience high levels of supervision and control whilst they are in care, yet are expected to make responsible decisions in relation to their finances and other matters as soon as they leave care. • Difficulties are further exacerbated because most young people with a borderline intellectual disability, undiagnosed disability, and/or mental illness are not developmentally ready to progress to independence.

10. Limitation: this was a small-scale, qualitative study conducted in one jurisdiction only. There is always a risk of bias with respect to the backgrounds of experiences of those who opt in to studies such as this, and we particularly recognise the lack of a “voice’ for young people with disabilities themselves in this study. A later phase of this research will involve direct consultations with care leavers with a disability

11. The following implications for policy and practice emerge from these findings: • It is essential to have reliable and accessible data on the number of young people with a disability in and leaving OoHC to facilitate effective leaving care planning for this group. • Funding for housing and supported accommodation services must reflect the real ongoing needs of care leavers with disabilities. • Greater collaboration and joint planning between child protection and disability services for this population of young people is essential. • Specialist allied health assessments should be available and funded on a needs basis. Where possible, these assessments should occur at the beginning, rather than at the end of a young person’s ‘journey’ through OoHC to determine their skills, capacity and readiness for transition. There must be flexibility in relation to the timing and staging of transition. • After they transition from care, young people with disabilities should have ongoing monitoring and support. The State, which has taken on the role of ‘parent’, must continue to be accountable for the post-care accommodation and support that is provided to these young people. We recommended at least 12-monthly reviews of care leavers with disabilities until they are 21 years old.