Scott Morrison pushed to take lead on $15bn effort to protect at-risk kids

Philanthropist Nicola Forrest will press Scott Morrison to spearhead an effort to support at-risk children.

Principal Lee Musumeci with students Azarli and Suhanthan, both 3, at Challis Community school in Armadale. Picture: Colin Murty

Leading philanthropist Nicola Forrest will press Scott Morrison to spearhead a public-private ­effort to support at-risk children, an issue costing the economy $15bn a year according to new ­research.

Mrs Forrest, who will put her case to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, said levels of youth homelessness and mental health hospitalisations were “frightening”, and highlighted the need for more holistic early intervention programs.

She said only co-ordinated support from state and federal governments, industry and philanthropy, and led by the Prime Minister, could improve the lives of at-risk children and their families.

 

“We are looking for leadership,” Mrs Forrest told The Australian. “There are good ministers that are across this issue, that know it affects all their portfolios if children don’t do well.

“That’s the conversation we’ll have with the Prime Minister … to put this on the agenda.

“It’s not just health, or education, or social services. It’s across the board, and it’s getting the states and federal government to work together.

“It’s not about having governments do more, but having them do things differently.”

Minderoo Foundation, a philanthropic organisation created by Mrs Forrest and her mining billionaire husband, Andrew, was among a coalition of business, research and philanthropic groups behind the new research.

It warned that failing to invest earlier in targeted intervention programs to support mental health, welfare and justice programs for young people was costing state and federal governments $15bn a year. “The cost to government of late intervention in Australia is $15.2bn each year. This equates to $607 for every Australian, or $1912 per child and young person,” the report says.

Ms Musumeci with Allira and Suhanthan. Picture: Colin Murty

It found children and young people spend a combined 44,000 days each year in hospital with mental health issues, 45,000 children were in out-of-home care and 124,000 people under 24 years old required homelessness ser­vices each year.

“It’s quite frightening to see the figures around mental health and homelessness,” Mrs Forrest said.

“I think it plays exactly into the conversation we’ve been having over a number of years around the cost of late intervention.

“On one level, early intervention can be a singular service, such as speech therapy, provided the moment difficulties first emerge in a child, so they have a better chance of coping at school.

“On another level, it can involve wraparound support for struggling new parents to prevent children entering out-of-home care.”

An example is Challis Community Primary School in south-east Perth, where a history of truancy and juvenile crime has been replaced with a thriving student community.

The turnaround at Challis began about 15 years ago when principal Lee Musumeci put a playgroup on site that got parents involved in school life while their children were still babies. Now the Minderoo Foundation-funded Challis Early Learning Centre and kindergarten are nurturing kids and supporting their caregivers from birth, while a jobs centre on school grounds is helping their parents into work.

“One of the mums who found a job with that help said this was the first year she didn’t have to choose between buying groceries and paying the car registration,” Ms Musumeci said.

Because of a partnership with Curtin University, Challis kids have daily access to final-year students in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, social work, clinical psychology, dietetics and recent nursing graduates.

The results are in the children’s improved NAPLAN results. Ms Musumeci said when she hires teachers she looks for heart and passion but most of all “I’m looking for belief that the postcode doesn’t define the child’s destination”.