Policy Evaluation in Forgotten Australians: Essay

One of the important elements of those recommendations is that care leavers be given open and free access to their own records (Australian Senate, 2004). They also suggest that the government establish counseling for care leavers and their families to deal with the impact of life in care, including specialized education for mental health professionals so that they are in a position for dealing with this problem (Australian Senate, 2004). Furthermore, they emphasize the need for continuing educational opportunities, from literacy to higher education, for these people (Australian Senate, 2004).

Impact

It is incredibly difficult to attempt to assess the impact of this report on current policies and practices. At are governmental level, even prior to this report, there had been a number of changes to the foster and institutional care system, aimed at curing some of the institutional-level problems of the system.For example, the practice of routinely removing indigenous children from their homes and placing them in the care of white people had been discontinued for decades prior to this report. Therefore, policies of intentional dehumanization are not necessarily actively encouraged; however indigenous children are still much more vulnerable to removal from their homes than non-indigenous children. This suggests that policy-level changes have not necessarily resulted in changes in practice and procedure. However, one of the most difficult things to realize is that child abuse is difficult to unearth; this is particularly true for children who have been displaced and are not with adults who will be looking out for their best interests. Whether or not this report has led to a reduction in abuse in foster and institutional homes is something that will not really be known until these….....