13.2 Leaving care

Transitioning from out-of-home care to independence is a gradual process commencing from age 15. It is important for children in care to have practical help and skills to prepare for the future.

This indicator uses results from a national survey of children in care; those whose care arrangements have been ordered through the Children’s Court, where parental responsibility for the child or young person has been transferred to the Minister/Chief Executive.

Children aged 15-17 years were asked about the adequacy of the assistance they are currently receiving to help prepare them for adult life, including help with making decisions about their future and in eight specified life domains to be considered in transition planning.  

Trend data: For all indicator displays, the yearly trend is limited to indicators with 3 or more years (including the current year) of comparable time series data. To see the trend click on “Yearly Trend” button on the display. Where 3 or more years of comparable data including the most recent year is not available, a “No time series data” message is shown on the display.

The horizontal stacked bar shows the proportion of young people aged 15–17 who, at the time of exit from out-of-home care, report they are receiving adequate assistance to prepare for adult life in 2018. Each stacked bar presented the proportion who reported receiving as much assistance as they need, some but they need more, or no adequate assistance. Data are disaggregated by Indigenous status, sex, age group, remoteness and living arrangement.

Source: AIHW Out-of-home care survey national dataset 2018

See the supplementary data tables for further information and footnotes about these data.

Indicator technical specifications

The information below provides technical specifications for the summary indicator data presented in the quick reference guide.

National Standards Indicator 13.2 Leaving care: Proportion of young people who, at the time of exit from out-of-home care, report they are receiving adequate assistance to prepare for adult life
  Definition Data source
Numerator Number of children aged 15-17 years in care who report they are receiving adequate assistance to make decisions about their future AIHW Out-of-home care survey national dataset
Denominator Number of responding children aged 15-17 years in the reference period AIHW Out-of-home care survey national dataset

Explanatory notes

Data are sourced from a national survey of children in care. Further interpretive information for the indicators, and background information on the survey, is provided in the AIHW report The views of children and young people in out-of-home care: overview of indicator results from second national survey, 2018.

 

Children ‘in care’ are those who were residing in out-of-home care (including foster care, relative/kinship care, family group homes, residential care and independent living), whose care arrangements had been ordered by the relevant Children’s Court and where the parental responsibility for the child had been transferred to the Minister or Chief Executive, and who had been on a relevant court order for three months or more. Please note that the titles of the relevant ‘Children’s Courts’ may vary across states/territories.

Children aged 15-17 years were asked the question ‘Do you get enough help to make decisions about your future?’ This question had four response categories: Yes as much as I need, Some but I need more, Not really, and Not at all. Children were also asked ‘Do you get enough help with:

  1. education, training and work?
  2. managing your money?
  3. keeping healthy?
  4. learning household skills like cleaning and cooking meals?
  5. staying in touch with friends and family?
  6. staying in touch with your culture and religion?
  7. housing/accommodation?
  8. accessing legal services?

This question had five response categories: Yes as much as I need, Some but I need more, Not really, Not at all, and Does not apply to me.

The numerator includes children who reported ‘Yes as much as I need’ to the question.

The numerator and denominator exclude children with a ‘not stated’ response to the questions.

Although the title of this indicator specifies young people exiting care, the data for this indicator include all young people (aged 15-17) still in care. When developing the national survey questions it was considered more appropriate to not limit the question to those exiting care.