Combined Youth Interagency Minutes:

This meeting was held on:24th March 2016

This meeting was chaired by: Bradley Dunn – YDO Lake Macquarie & Astrid Gearin – YDO Newcastle

The following people attended this meeting:See attachment

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that we meet upon and pay our respect to Aboriginal Elders both past and present.

Agenda Item / Meeting Record
Key Speakers / Mel Fernandez & Nicola Hirschorn
1 in 7 Child Poverty Campaign
NCOSS has launched the 1 in 7 campaign - with a report produced which identifies 5 ways to ensure the 1 in 7 children experiencing poverty in NSW are not left behind but have the best possible start in life. In NSW, 13.8 percent of children under the age of 15 are experiencing poverty – a rate higher than any other mainland state. Almost 1 in 7 children live in households below the poverty line. The full report can be found here
Brad Dunn
TEI Reform
During March Youth Action attended a meeting alongside other peak organisations where FaCS shared some findings from an external consultant, including potential directions and options for the TEI reform. These findings referenced a number of reports as well as information obtained from consultation with the sector.
What was said?
Various options and discussion items were outlined for core reform components:
  • Performance and Evaluation Framework (overarching component)
  • Evidence Based Practice Approach
  • Future Program Structure
  • TEI Systems Structure and Processes
  • District Budget Allocation
  • Local Planning Processes and Governance
  • Contracting and Pricing
  • Aboriginal Services Strategy (underpinning all other components)
  • Implementation Approach (underpinning all other components)
What happens next?
The following dates are outlined by FaCS in their Program Reform Timeline 2015 – 2017:
•March: Release of the report on FaCS formal consultation processes
•April: Release of a draft paper that will outline options for reform, for testing
•July: Release of final reform directions paper, outlining decided reform options.
We anticipate that the April draft discussion/options paper will be followed by another short period of consultation.
Sector Feedback
Due to the reform process and a range of ideas, speculation and suggestion of what the reform may bring, we collected some feedback from those present regarding what they are hearing, thinking and feeling in regards to the reforms and the sector as a whole.
What are you hearing?
•Parents cannot afford to engage their children/teenagers in current out of school activities
•Not enough drop in centres and funded youth services
•The white noise of resistance to change
•Lack of consultation
•Lack of support services for young people
•Young people are being re-traumatised having to tell their story 3 or 4 times when approaching mainstream services
•Inexperienced services receiving funding over established and respected services
•Staff burn out
•Inadequate funding to address increasing demands from young people and funding bodies
•Young people are bored
•Silence
•Cutting funding of education and social services for multicultural programs
What Improvements are needed?
•Integration of service and school outcomes
•Space for drop in centres to facilitate better connection with the service and youth
•Co operation between services
•Skilled workers
•Better consultation with young people
•Trauma informed care training more widely delivered
•Build a greater understanding of behaviours
•Closer contact and formal connection when referring clients to new services
•Subsidies for out of school programs like sports
•Drop in services or specific activities for youth
•More SHS caseworkers to meet the need
•More drop in based activities and programs
•Flexibility in service provision
•Supporting groupwork, casework, counselling, family therapy, community development
What is the most pressing concern for your service or the sector as a whole?
•Getting students to attend school and be engaged in school
•Youth accommodation refuges
•Lack of servicing of high needs young people
•Mental health support
•School refusal issues
•Multi factorial problems that take time to address
•Casework engagements over 12 months are usually required
•Lack of funded activities eg sports, arts, social groups in 14-24yr age group
•Access to appropriate crisis and short term accommodation for young people
•Gap in mainstream youth/young adults groups/programs and services in Lake Macquarie
•Lack of crisis and transitional accommodation
•Meeting tender outcomes
•Group activities for young people in Lake Macquarie
•Working together
•Funding timeframes as opposed to ongoing services/programs
•High number of referrals vs capacity to deliver
•Disengagement from school due to drugs and alcohol.
Thankyou to all those who contributed
Richard De Martin & Bradley Dunn
Lake Macquarie Youth Network of Practice
Review of the Youth Work Code of Ethics
For quite some time now the issue of a Youth Work Code of Ethics has been on the agenda across the sector. In 2003 the Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia created a Code for WA. This code was adopted by YAPA in 2004. Since then a review of this code and the development of a formal code has been planned in NSW but has never been actioned. In 2007 RYDON developed a Code of Ethics for Youth Work which was distributed across the RYDON regions. There has been no review on the Code since this time. Youth Action placed the Code on the agenda at their 20015 Conference, establishing a working group who would address this issue however this has yet to get off the ground. Currently across Australia a Code of Ethics has been written and adopted by Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, ACT and Tasmania. We are not aware of a Code of Ethics for Youth Work existing in Queensland or the Northern Territory. In March 2016 the Lake Macquarie Youth Network of Practice reviewed each of the states Codes as well as other professional Codes of Ethics from Psychology and Social Work and the UK Youth Work Code of Ethical Practice. This was refined this into one document which incorporates the Code of Ethics, the Definition of Youth Work and examples of the Code in practice.
Initial feedback at the CYI was encouraging, with all present agreeing that a Code of Ethics for Youth Work in NSW is necessary and that the presented document filled the need. Representatives of FaCs have also indicated the benefits of this document, especially in the lead up to a reform change. This document has been sent to Youth Action for review in early March. No feedback has yet been provided.
We ask that all services read through the document and the accompanying poster and provide feedback. We are hoping that this Code will be adopted by Youth Action as the NSW Youth Work Code of Ethics however until that time we encourage all service providers to refer to the WA code of ethics as endorsed by Youth Action as well as your own service Codes of Conduct and Practice.
The revised code of ethics developed by the Lake Macquarie Network of Practice is attached to these minutes.
RYDON Conference
Registrations to attend this year’s RYDON Youth Conference are now live on Eventbrite. This years theme is about connections. You will gain hints, tips and advice on how to connect young people, services, programs, ideas and the community. We have some great presenters this year including Andrew Fuller so make sure you don’t miss out! Go to to register. The conference program for 2016will be released shortly.
Issues Arising / None
12:15pmMeeting Closed.
Please contact me by 1/06/2015if you wish to amend the record of these minutes