February 2012
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Published by the Victorian Government Department of Human Services Melbourne, Victoria
© Copyright State of Victoria 2012
This publication is copyright, no part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.
This document may also be downloaded from the Department of Human Services web site at:
www.dhs.vic.gov.au
Authorised by the State Government of Victoria, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.
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Table of contents
Introduction 1
Objective and aims 2
Funding 2
Structure of the program 3
Expectations of the program 4
Client eligibility and target group 5
Referral pathways 6
Service provision 7
Reporting requirements and performance measures 9
Evaluation 11
Staffing 11
Relationships 12
Appendix 1: Finding Solutions referral form……………………………………………………………...15
Appendix 2: Finding Solutions consent form and consent to release and exchange information….20
Appendix 3: A guide to the referral and program process for Finding Solutions ……………………21
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Introduction
The Department of Human Services supports Victorians most in need to assist them to live safe, happy and fulfilling lives. To achieve this, the department plans, funds and delivers community and housing services, directly and with its community sector partners. The department’s services are in line with government’s vision for making Victoria a stronger, more caring and innovative State. The department’s Children, Youth and Families division focuses on the health, safety, development, learning and wellbeing of children, young people and families in Victoria. This includes the planning and provision of youth services.
A range of universal services provide support and assistance to young people including schools, local government, youth groups, religious and sporting organisations. The secondary service system may be conceptualised as services voluntarily used by people requiring support beyond that provided to everyone. Such secondary services comprise a range of individual, family and group supports including information/advice, skill development, case management, counselling and practical support; as well as a range of other services that provide support in relation to specific issues (e.g. family violence and sexual assault services, problem gambling services, drug and alcohol, and mental health services). A more specialised range of service responses specifically for young people also form part of the secondary service system and include School Focused Youth Services, youth substance abuse services, youth counselling, youth accommodation and youth homelessness support services.
Secondary services can assist families to prevent involvement with tertiary services. Tertiary services are services such as Child Protection and Youth Justice that work with families because of a statutory mandate. One of the key aspects of an effective secondary service system is the ability of services to develop integrated and collaborative approaches to service delivery across the universal, secondary and tertiary sectors.
In 2004, following the considerable success of the Eastern Metropolitan Region’s Mediation and Diversion Service, (a service which aimed to prevent adolescents entering out-of-home care), and analysis of the Child Protection and out-of-home care systems which illustrated the need for a strong preventative focus including specific measures to divert young people from out-of-home care, the Department of Human Services established a new service capacity for vulnerable young people of secondary school age, at risk of entering the Victorian out-of-home care system known as the Adolescent Mediation and Diversion Service (now known as Finding Solutions).
This new service recognised that there is a broad range of reasons why young people may be ‘at risk’ of entering the Child Protection and out-of-home care systems, requiring an equally broad range of service responses and service capacity. Since this time, the Adolescent Mediation and Diversion Service, now known as Finding Solutions, has placed a greater emphasis on mediation and diversion services that match young people and their families to support which meets their needs whilst problems are addressed. Timely referrals from Child Protection intake, combined with the capacity to offer a crisis response and to work effectively with the complex needs of young people and their families, are considered critical to the success of the Finding Solutions program.
Objective and aims
The objective of the Finding Solutions program is to provide a rapid response to young people and their families in order to prevent family breakdown and entry to the Child Protection and out-of-home care systems.
The Finding Solutions program aims to:
· Divert a significant proportion of young people at risk of entering out-of-home care to community-based services.
· Provide a creative service response to young people and their families which will include the use of mediation intervention, to reduce the need for out-of-home care and which supports and strengthens the family relationship.
· Provide support to parents and young people that assists them to identify and resolve behaviours and /or issues that are placing their relationship at risk of breakdown, and which eases tension in the family without severing links or reducing parents’ capacity to care for the young person.
Involvement with the Finding Solutions program is voluntary.
Funding
The Finding Solutions program is funded by the Department of Human Services on an ongoing basis. Finding Solutions is funded at a unit price which has been built on the assumption that young people and families will require a range of intensities and duration of support. The average duration of cases is 12 weeks. The average caseload will be 10 client families per one EFT.
Brokerage
Provided service targets are maintained, service providers may set aside a small amount of Finding Solutions funds, (up to 15 per cent), for brokerage purposes to assist young people and their families where it is believed that some immediate financial assistance will alleviate pressures within the family.
Funding can be utilised in the following ways:
· Purchase of a specific service capacity from an individual or service provider to meet an identified client need. This could be in the form of single client focused interventions (e.g. a series of counselling sessions, enrolment fees for a TAFE course, payment for a recreational activity).
· Purchase of respite placement/accommodation (e.g. Adolescent Community Placement (ACP) or Lead Tenant placement, including caregiver reimbursement component). Respite arrangements will be negotiated locally between the department al region and Finding Solutions service provider.
· Provision of one-off home services and items to address immediate safety and/or environmental issues within the client’s home.
· Purchase of material aid.
Service providers must maintain detailed records of brokerage expenditure and provide an annual expenditure report to the region detailing the nature and full cost of each item of brokerage expenditure. This is in addition to any brokerage reporting requirements as outlined in the Youth Services: CRISSP Business Practice Guidelines (2009) for Finding Solutions service providers.
Structure of the program
The Finding Solutions program is a state-wide program operating across all of the eight departmental regions. As at March 2011, there are 14 funded Finding Solutions service providers across Victoria. The table below sets out annual regional targets, funded service providers by region and the Local Government Areas (LGA’s) covered by each provider.
Region / Regional annual targets / Service providers(Annual target) / LGA’s covered
EMR / 62 / Uniting Care Harrison (62) / Whitehorse, Maroondah, Manningham, Yarra Ranges, Knox, Boroondara, Monash.
NWMR / 108 / Melbourne City Mission (108) / Banyule, Darebin, Moreland, Hume, Nillumbik, Whittlesea, Yarra, Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Melton, Moonee Valley, Wyndham, Hobsons Bay.
SMR / 116 / Salvation Army Peninsula Youth and Family Services (43.5)
Uniting Care Connections (72.5) / PYFS - Frankston, Mornington Peninsula.
Connections - Port Phillip, Stonnington, Glen Eira, Bayside, Kingston, Greater Dandenong, Casey, Cardinia.
BSWR / 33 / Brophy Family and Youth Services (11)
Time for Youth (22) / Brophy – Corangamite, Moyne, Southern Grampians, Glenelg, City of Warrnambool.
TFY – City of Greater Geelong, Queenscliff, Surfcoast Shire and Colac/Otway Shire.
Gippsland / 43 / Quantum Support Services (43) / Baw Baw, Wellington, Bass Coast, South Gippsland, East Gippsland, Latrobe.
Grampians / 33 / Lisa Lodge (19.8)
Wimmera Uniting Care (13.2) / LL - City of Ballarat, Rural City of Ararat, Moorabool, Hepburn, Pyrenees, Golden Plains.
WUC – Horsham Rural City, Yarriambiack, Hindmarsh, Northern Grampians, West Wimmera.
Hume / 33 / Central Hume Support Services (11)
NESAY (11)
The Bridge Youth Services (11) / CHSS - Wodonga, Indigo, Towong.
NESAY - Wangaratta, Benalla, Alpine, Mansfield.
The Bridge - Mitchell, Greater Shepparton, Moira, Strathbogie, Murrindindi.
LMR / 43 / St Lukes Anglicare (26)
Mallee Accommodation and Support Program (17) / St Lukes - Loddon Shire, Campaspe Shire, Greater Bendigo, Central Goldfields, Mount Alexander, Macedon Ranges, Swan Hill Rural, Buloke Shire, Gannawarra Shire.
MASP - Mildura Rural.
Expectations of the program
Existing service standards applicable to youth services and placement prevention services will apply. It is however expected that all Finding Solutions programs will operate using a consistent framework in the following areas:
· Client eligibility and target group
· Referral pathways
· Service provision
· Evaluation
· Staffing
· Relationships
This framework will be described further. It is expected that individual programs provided by Service Providers and regional PASAs may require specific agreements within this framework to reflect regional need.
Client eligibility and target group
Eligible clients for Finding Solutions comprise young people of secondary school age and their families who are at risk of entering the Child Protection and out-of-home care systems. It should be noted that eligible clients for Finding Solutions are not Child Protection clients. It is expected that referrals to finding solutions are from one of the following groups:
· young people who are at risk of being asked to leave or choosing to leave the family home
· young people who have recently left, or been asked to leave the family home and are in a voluntary care arrangement (this does not include young people formally placed by Child Protection)
· where a report has been made to Child Protection and it is assessed at the intake phase that current issues do not require Child Protection involvement but community agency intervention or prevention work
It is expected that all young people and their families who may be eligible for Finding Solutions service meet the following criteria:
· young people are of secondary school age
· the young person and/or the family agrees to participate.
While young people and their families may exhibit a number of presenting issues requiring a range of interventions, a central requirement is the need to resolve immediate issues threatening the family relationship which are placing the young person at risk of requiring an out-of-home care placement.
The types of issues that young people and families referred to Finding Solutions may need support and assistance with could include:
· adolescent behavioural issues (including aggression)
· communication breakdown
· adolescent/parent conflict
· development of parenting skills
· school/education issues
· issues involving substance use concerns
· issues involving mental health concerns.
Involvement with the Finding Solutions program is voluntary. The young person and/or their family should be willing to work with Finding Solutions.
Additional considerations
Referrals for young people where there are current protective concerns, are generally not appropriate for Finding Solutions.
There may be instances where a young person who is referred to Finding Solutions has an extensive history of Child Protection involvement and where community support strategies have failed,. In these cases Child Protection will be required to provide a rationale regarding the referral.
There may be occasions where a temporary/brief accommodation arrangement (out-of-home care or kinship) is made for the young person away from the family as part of a clear plan to resolve issues and prevent the need for longer term placement. Eligibility for Finding Solutions would include young people in these situations.
Referral pathways
In the first instance, it is expected that all referrals will originate from the Department of Human Services Child Protection Intake. A standardised referral form has been developed that is to be used for all referrals to Finding Solutions and is available as a Word template. The Finding Solutions referral form can be found at Appendix one.
It is acknowledged however, that service providers may occasionally have some capacity to accept referrals from alternative pathways, specifically Child FIRST. In consultation with their key regional Finding Solutions stakeholders, up to 15 per cent of a service provider’s total annual targets may be received from Child FIRST (provided that this does not impact on the service capacity for young people and their families that have been assessed through Child Protection Intake as requiring Finding Solutions service to prevent risk of entry into the Child Protection and out-of-home care systems). It is the responsibility of each region to decide if it is appropriate to accept referrals from Child FIRST.
In such instances where a Child FIRST referral is accepted, consultation is required amongst all of the key Finding Solutions stakeholders at the local level to ensure that the young person and their family meet the client eligibility criteria as outlined above and will support the delivery of program objectives and outcomes. Regions are required to develop detailed endorsement and communication protocols for such instances. As a minimum, a referral (for Finding Solutions) from Child FIRST would require endorsement by the Child Protection Intake team leader prior to the referral being accepted by a funded Finding Solutions service provider.
Child FIRST referral and communication processes will be a regional responsibility. Regions should include these processes in the Finding Solutions regional protocols.
A Finding Solutions consent form and consent for the release and exchange of confidential information between Finding Solutions staff and appropriate agencies can be found at Appendix two.
In the design of the referral pathway, access and equity requirements must be considered. Funded Finding Solutions service providers should be aware of access and equity issues and in particular should ensure that services are accessible to Aboriginal families, families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (particularly recent arrivals), and people with disabilities.
Service provision
Type of service
Finding Solutions has the capacity to provide a case management role (if required) and direct case work. Case management may include case planning, coordination of involved services, referrals as required and case review. Case work can involve mediation, individual and/or family counselling, practical support, and related assistance to the young person and their family.