During October and November 2017 the QFCC conducted workshops with 11 young adults who had recently transitioned to independence after living in residential care. The CREATE Foundation and Life Without Barriers Next Step After Care program assisted to make the workshops happen and supported participants to attend.
Participants were a mix of males and females from different cultural backgrounds and life experiences. Participants were aged between 18 and 23 years of age.
The workshops were aimed at gaining a better understanding of young people’s experiences and hearing their perspectives on what is working well or could be done better to strengthen the residential care system and improve outcomes for children living in residential care. Although facilitators discussed key topics during the two-hour workshops, participants guided discussions as much as possible.
The topics discussed included the placement environment, placement matching, involvement in activities, police presence at residential care services, case planning processes and key messages participants wished to share with others about the residential care system in Queensland. These perspectives informed the development of The criminalisation of children living in out-of-home care in Queensland information paper and the Joint agency protocol to reduce preventable police call-outs to residential care services (the Joint agency protocol). They also provide valuable information to GForce for ongoing consideration about what is working well and what could be strengthened in the residential care system.