The Youth Coalition of the ACT works in partnership with community and government to identify, develop and strengthen whole service systems, to improve outcomes for young people and their families.
The Youth Coalition recognises that the forthcoming ACT Budget is projected to be a constrained Budget, due to the recent injection of funds into the ACT health system. Our Budget Submission builds upon existing initiatives and election commitments; identifying areas for cost-effective and targeted resourcing across both community and government.
For ease of reference, budget initiatives are listed by the relevant Directorate (noting the Machinery of Government intentions for ACT Health and Community Services Directorate to merge in 2025).
ACT Health (Child and Youth Mental Health):
1. Deliver ACT Labor election commitments in full, to continue funding community-based mental health programs and initiatives.
2. Allocate funding for the ACT Child and Youth Mental Health Sector Alliance secretariat and project support; and, to continue existing youth lived experience initiatives within Government, through the Alliance Youth Reference Group (YRG).
3. Conduct a comprehensive review of the Mental Health Act 2015, to encompass a wider view of mental health, inclusive of mental illness, which provides greater scope for genuine whole-of-government and whole-of-community approaches to mental health.
Canberra Health Services:
4. Deliver ACT Labor election commitments to reduce CAMHS wait-times; including establishing a CAMHS satellite clinic in Gungahlin and increasing the capacity of the North Community Team.
5. Allocate funding to undertake scoping for a ‘young adult’ transition program/team, delivered collaboratively between CAMHS and AMHS, to better support young people aged 18-25, including those transitioning from CAMHS to community-based services; through co-design with young people with lived experience and parents/carers.
6. Expand access to the Mental Health Service for People with Intellectual Disability program to young people from age 12, including those with moderate ID presentations.
7. Re-establish a COPMI position within Canberra Health Services, as part of election commitments to provide support to children whose parents experience mental illness, especially young carers.
ACT Education Directorate (Flexible Education Program):
8. Urgent investment to locate appropriate temporary accommodation for the Muliyan flexible education program, to enable it to return to an on-site capacity of 30 students, with potential expansion to 50 on-site students.
9. Longer-term planning to invest in fit-for-purpose sites for Muliyan on the north- and south-side of Canberra.
10. Conduct a review of the Flexible Education Program, to consider how it may better provide supported pathways to education for young people impacted by raising the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility, who are exiting Bimberi, or accessing residential care or youth homelessness services.
ACT Community Services Directorate (ACT Child, Youth and Family Services Program):
11. Undertake scoping to understand the true cost of delivering community services through the CYFSP, the ACT Government’s primary investment in community-based child, youth and family early support services.
ACT Community Services Directorate (Youth Engagement):
12. Appropriate funding to co-design a Youth Strategy with both young people and youth organisations, which supports a whole-of-government and community approach to supporting youth wellbeing. This should include a review of existing ACT Government youth engagement mechanisms.
ACT Community Services Directorate (Housing and Homelessness):
13. Conduct a systematic and collaborative needs and assets assessment of the ACT youth housing and homelessness system, to understand system opportunities and constraints.
