2015-12-04
Ms SPRINGLE (South Eastern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Families and Children. Under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has guardianship or custody over children in out-of-home care. However, in her answers to several questions on notice dated 6 October the minister confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services has no idea how many children in relation to whom it has guardianship or custodial responsibilities are currently receiving therapeutic counselling services. This is despite the rollout of the department's health and education assessment initiative in 2012 following the Victorian Auditor-General's findings that 57 per cent of children in residential care had not had a mental health assessment. My question is: why is the secretary not required to keep records as to how many of the children in the department's care are accessing therapeutic counselling services?
Ms MIKAKOS (Minister for Families and Children) — I thank Ms Springle for her question, and I note that she has referred to a number of questions on notice that she has received answers to from me in response to these matters. That is Ms Springle's interpretation of my responses to her. I have made a point in my responses of trying to provide some context to the types of supports that the department provides to children in out-of-home care. Essentially, if the member is asking around the types of supports that we provide or the department provides in relation to mental health services — —
Ms Springle interjected.
Ms MIKAKOS — You referred in your query to both mental health services as well as therapeutic counselling, and they are slightly different issues.
Ms Springle — On a point of order, President, I was asking about record keeping, not about support.
The PRESIDENT — Order! The minister still has almost 3 minutes to complete an answer, so at this point I do not intend to direct the minister in any way as to how she should answer the question.
Ms MIKAKOS — I am just trying to seek some clarity around the exact nature of Ms Springle's question, because her preamble was quite wideranging. In the absence of the precise details of the question on notice, it is very difficult to be able to respond directly to the matter at hand, in terms of the response that she is referring to, but what I can say is that the department does require community sector organisations that are funded by the department to provide a whole range of details to the department around performance indicators.
The issues that Ms Springle raised in the question on notice, I am surmising, relate to record-keeping measures, which are difficult to respond directly to her about, because they may well relate to matters that would require an analysis of each individual case. It is very difficult to know exactly which question on notice Ms Springle was referring to, in the way that she has posed that question, but I can assure her that the Department of Health and Human Services does require community sector organisations to report to us on a range of performance measures. She has asked for a whole range of information, some of which has been provided to her and some of which I have indicated to her would require the department to spend a voluminous amount of time in going through each individual young person's file in order to be able to adequately respond to her query.
Ms SPRINGLE - I thank the minister for her answer. However, my question was really pertaining to simple data collection, which was around how many children are accessing therapeutic counselling services. It was not talking about supports in any way. It certainly was not asking for any private information of each individual case. It is a simple matter of data collection. I would like to ask the minister if she would commit to requiring the department to collect and collate information that records the number of children currently in out-of-home care who see a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist or counsellor at least once a month. It is a simple matter of figures.
Ms MIKAKOS -- I thank Ms Springle for her further question, and she is now seeking to elaborate further on the nature of her substantive question. I can assure the member that vulnerable young people in the state's care do receive the appropriate supports that they need. Obviously regard is given to the particular circumstances and the needs of the young person or the child involved. Those matters are included in the young person's file. Therefore there is the ability for the department to determine the types of services that the young person is receiving. That is a different issue to the matter that the member is now raising, which is one of being able to collate that information in such a way as to be able to provide her with a response to her question on notice to her satisfaction. Just because the department is unable to provide her with a level of detail that she may be seeking through her question on notice, it does not mean that the services are not being provided to the young person.