Australian Capital Territory
Financial Management (Performance Criteria) Amendment 2006 (No 3)
Notifiable instrument NI2006–143
made under the  
Financial Management Act 1996, s19D   Amendment of Performance Criteria
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Office for Children, Youth and Family Support

Strategic Indicator 1 – Provision of a range of services that meet the needs of young people involved with youth justice services

Recidivism Rates for Sentenced Young People in Custody – The original target measures the recidivist rates of young people who have been sentenced to detention more than once in a 12 month period in the current financial year.  As a consequence of the frequent delays in court proceedings, the number of sentences handed down per annum and the likelihood of a young person being sentenced twice in the same year is very low.  Although the current target reflects this low probability of recidivism, the measure is somewhat misleading as, depending on the number of young people in custody, it would be possible to meet the target of 10% if only one young person in custody was counted as a recidivist.  The revised target is based on the number of young people, who under the Children and Young People Act 1999 have been subject to more than one period of detention during the current and/or previous reporting year i.e, the measurement is over 2 years.  This provides a better perspective into the effectiveness of the detention system. 

Strategic Indicator 3 – Provision of prevention/early intervention services that reduce the number of resubstantiation of abuse.

Resubstantiation Rates – The original target for this measure was based on 2002–03 data relevant to the number of Child protection reports for that period.  The Department has introduced a new policy definition for substantiation to improve consistency with other jurisdictions.  This definition requires staff to substantiate the presence of risk rather than the likelihood of an abuse event.  This broader definition of substantiation better reflects the safety and wellbeing of children but has increased the rate of substantiated matters.

Output 1.1 – Client and Adolescent Services

Number of Young people receiving community based orders by the Children’s court – The current target of 280 reflects the average number of youth on community based orders, whereas the performance measure wording implies a total annual number.  The revised target eliminates this inconsistency by measuring totals rather than averages.

Number of individual clients supported by the Turnaround Program – When the Turnaround initiative commenced in 2003, the throughput planned for the program indicated that it could cater for up to 30 clients per annum.  This was an optimistic estimate of throughput for the new program.  Further, as the program progressed, it became clear that most clients took approximately 18 months to transition through the program rather than 12 months as originally anticipated.  These factors have combined to result in an annualised client intake of only 20 young people.

Output 2.1 – Child Development, Family Support and Prevention Services

Number of Children or Young people receiving targeted intervention services through the Adolescent Day Unit, Schools as Communities and Youth Connections Service – The original target was based on an average number of interventions per quarter.  The performance measure is worded to reflect the total number of children or young people who receive targeted interventions through these programs during the year.  The revised target eliminates this inconsistency.

Disability, Housing and Community Services

Output 2.2 – Child and Family Centre Program

Number of families accessing services – As this is a new program, no previous output history was available when the original targets were developed.  A conservative estimate was made.  The revised targets have been recalculated based on actual outputs for the first two quarters of 
2005–06.

Number of parenting sessions – As this is a new program, no previous output history was available when the original targets were developed.  A conservative estimate was made.  The revised targets have been recalculated based on actual outputs for the first two quarters of 2005–06.

Number of Community Development/Education Programs – As this is a new program, no previous output history was available when the original targets were developed.  A conservative estimate was made.  The revised targets have been recalculated based on actual outputs for the first two quarters of 2005–06.