Please list any other organisations you have collaborated with on this submission.
Who you have consulted with
Homelessness Australia
Youth Network of Tasmania (YNOT)
Shelter Tasmania
Tasmanian Council of Social Services (TasCOSS)
Interim Commissioner for Children and Young People Tasmania
What is your submission about?
Please provide a brief summary of your submission
Topic name
To have data collected about children (under 18 years) who are homeless and specifically whether they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.
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Assessment Criteria 1
1.
This topic is of current national importance.
National Importance
State and Federal governments need more information about the number of children who are homeless and without a parent or guardian so that governments can develop appropriate services – in appropriate locations and for appropriate numbers and ages.
Currently, specialist homelessness services in Tasmania are not adequately resourced to assist children who present to them. With a one-worker model, the services lack capacity to provide care appropriate to age and complexity of need of children. Further, specialist homelessness services are not funded to provide services for children under certain ages, leaving younger unaccompanied homeless children without formal services to shelter or care for them.
In 2015-16, 342 unaccompanied children aged 10 to 17 presented to Tasmanian Specialist Homelessness Services. Two-thirds of these presentations were made by girls (223) and one-third by boys (119). This data only represents those children who presented to specialist services, not all children who experience unaccompanied homelessness.
Across Australia, specialist homelessness services are funded by the Federal Government so therefore issues relating to policy are relevant nationally. In order for better programs to be developed to support unaccompanied homeless children, governments need better understanding of the quantities and complexities they are dealing with.
In 2017, Dr Catherine Robinson of the Social Action and Research Centre of Anglicare Tasmania reviewed the situation for unaccompanied homeless children around Australia. The report, Who Cares? Supported accommodation for unaccompanied children (https://www.socialactionresearchcentre.org.au/research/who-cares/) found significant gaps in the provision of services for unaccompanied homeless children. In particular there is a lack of age- and needs- appropriate accommodation for under 16s.
Who Cares? also provided examples of policy, programs, services and practice guidelines that aim to strengthen responses to unaccompanied under 16s who present to Specialist Homeless Services.
Anglicare Tasmania will continue to provide qualitative evidence to the Tasmanian Government but we are unable to capture the numbers of children who cannot be accommodated (temporarily) by specialist homelessness services, who remain couch surfing, who feel compelled to stay in unsafe homes or who try surviving on the streets. This is an issue of national importance for which data should be collected.
Assessment Criteria 2
2.
There is a need for data from a Census of the whole population.
For whole population
The number of unaccompanied homeless children in each State is likely to represent a small population relative to the whole picture of homelessness. However, the implications for the health and welfare of this population is significant.
Unaccompanied homeless children are likely to be absent from school, either temporarily or permanently, which has serious implications for their education, employment and social development. This issue therefore links to education and employment data.
Unaccompanied homeless children are not likely to receive proper and timely health and medical care due to a lack of adult to advocate for them. This issue therefore also links to health, which, while it is not a specific focus for the Census, is a significant focus for State and Federal governments.
Assessment Criteria 3
3.
The topic can be accurately collected in a form which the household completes themselves.
Easy to answer
There is a range of settings in which answers to this question could be provided. Households that are temporarily providing shelter for a person who normally resides elsewhere would provide information as to whether the person staying with them was under 18 years of age and staying without their parent or guardian, which would be easy and quick to understand and answer. The question of whether the person was homeless or having a sleep-over is also most likely to be easily ascertained, albeit there would be some circumstances where the actual situation is either not known or unclear. The question could allow the household to answer they “do not know” if the child has a usual address, leaving policy makers to interpret accordingly.
Census collectors would also seek to answer the question when gathering data from shelters and from people rough sleeping and squatting. Whether the person was under 18 might not always be easily assessed, but again the data collection could include “age unknown”, which, for the purposes of policy would still be relevant. There are, presumably, protocols already existing for ABS collectors relating to the collection of data from homeless population.
The importance for State governments, as the ultimate carer of all unaccompanied children, is paramount.
Further, unaccompanied homeless children need an avenue for their situation to be known.
Assessment Criteria 4
4.
The topic would be acceptable to Census respondents.
Acceptable
This topic should not be intrusive for households completing the question for a child couch-surfing and they should be able to answer accurately. The questions would cover whether the person is usually there, under 18 and without a parent or guardian.
The issue would not be intrusive for the workers at a shelter/refuge and they would be able to answer accurately.
Homelessness services do not usually accept children under 13 years of age and sometimes not until children reach 16 years old so other than couch-surfing, most other homeless children are likely to be rough sleeping or squatting. It may be difficult for Census workers to approach children in these circumstances and accurately ascertain ages and whether a parent or guardian was present with them. However, the collecting of this data is critical for improving public policy on this issue.
Assessment Criteria 5
5.
The topic can be collected efficiently.
Collected efficiently
This topic would be efficiently collected from households reporting on couch-surfing and shelters.
Collection of data about children rough sleeping and squatting would be collected in a similar fashion as for all homeless people.
An issue of complexity for the ABS to consider is their obligations for mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect, which should already be covered by the protocols in place for ABS data collectors.
Assessment Criteria 6
6.
There is likely to be a continuing need for data on this topic in the following Census.
Continuing need
Children and young adults aged 0 to 24 are disproportionately represented in the homeless population overall. A finer grain analysis is warranted in order to target intervention in an age-appropriate way specifically for children who are homeless and without an adult carer.
Data on unaccompanied homeless children will be relevant to future Census because it provides information for State and Federal governments to monitor the effectiveness of their services. If a Census indicates the growth of the target population in a region, it would allow local authorities to act appropriately. All State governments would be interested to see whether their interventions have successfully reduced the number of unaccompanied children experiencing homelessness.
Assessment Criteria 7
7.
There are no other alternative data sources or solutions that could meet the topic need.
No alternatives
The Census is likely to be the only source that could gain both State and national figures and trends for this cohort. A subset of the cohort can be collected through specialist homelessness services but this would not include the children who are unaware of these services, who are too young for a particular service or who have given up on the ability of services to assist.
The data collected would provide powerful evidence of the prevalence of unaccompanied homeless children, which policy makers can use to justify specific and targeted services.