The Commissioner for Children and Young People Leanne McLean today welcomed additional funding in the 2021-2022 State Budget to support initiatives to implement the Tasmanian Government’s new Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy.
“The 2021-2022 Budget includes substantial additional funding to support children’s wellbeing in the first 1000 days of their lives, which is where we can make a huge and lifelong difference to their wellbeing,” Ms McLean said.
“This includes funding to increase access to multidisciplinary paediatric services around the State, as well as residential programs to support vulnerable mothers and babies and the delivery of parenting programs to anyone who needs one.
“Further, the Budget increases funding to children living in Tasmania’s out-of-home care system through prioritised access to health and education supports via the new ‘SureStart’ initiative.
“This is a very welcome initiative which responds to one of the recommendations in my 2019 Out of Home Care Monitoring Report Number 1.”
Ms McLean said overall the budget includes a range of concrete commitments and it was very encouraging to see children and young people’s wellbeing as a central budget theme.
“I will be keeping a close eye on the Government’s progress to develop and implement a new Climate Action Plan, as this has been a key priority for Tasmania’s children and young people.
“Tasmania’s children and young people will be very keen to see how the Government has considered their views in the development of the new plan.”
“While the Government has announced a new agency with responsibility for climate change, the budget is light on detail.
Ms McLean also welcomed additional funding of $875,000 to her office to increase participation opportunities for children and young people in Tasmania.
“This funding will make a significant difference to the scope and reach of the CCYP Ambassador program and enable more children and young people to have a say on matters that are important to them and to inform the decisions that affect them.”
