What does the budget mean for Canberra’s children?

Children in Canberra are feeling the impact of housing pressures and the growing struggle to afford essentials, including food and health care. Barnardos Australia welcomes the ACT Government's focus on the cost of living in this week’s budget. The investment in social housing is also welcome, however we will need a greater investment in the near future to prevent more children and families from falling into homelessness and poverty.

With more families in crisis, the ACT Government needs to make a greater commitment to family support services. These services are vital to ensure that families remain safely together instead of children coming into contact with child protection and into the foster care system. The absence of a funding boost to child and family support services and the current indexation rates on existing contracts is forcing our sector to deliver more to the community with fewer resources. This puts enormous pressure on our dedicated workforce and ultimately it will mean fewer families receive the support that they need. The ACT will be forced to pay for these decisions further down the road.

Barnardos Australia is pleased to see the $10 million funding allocation to further support young people who are leaving care to transition to independence. Barnardos is strongly committed to the services we currently provide to this group of vulnerable young people and this funding boost will contribute to broadening support to all care leavers.? It's important to acknowledge the difficulty young people face in their transition to adulthood in the context of the current economic climate. They will need all the support they can get in terms of further education, healthcare and housing.

This budget makes an important investment in Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations. Barnardos Australia welcomes this, whilst supporting calls for more investment to this sector, to further self-determination and enable Aboriginal children and families to receive the services they need.

With the forthcoming election in October this year we're looking forward to further announcements on how a future government will support children, young people and families in Canberra. We will continue to be here to support them, as we have done for the last 60 years.