$500,000, a farmhouse and team of carers for 'worst teen'

THE WA Department of Child Protection is spending more than $500,000 a year to keep a troubled young teen on an isolated property.

THE West Australian Department of Child Protection is spending more than $500,000 a year to keep a troubled and dangerous young teen on an isolated property under around-the-clock supervision.

The boy, who cannot be named by law, was removed from his home as a 12-year-old after being deemed a serious threat to his own family.

The Australian understands that authorities believed the boy, now 14, was planning an act of violence. His carers won't be drawn on the details, saying only that the boy had been raised "with conflict" and was "feeling vengeful" and that his rage had "the potential to spill out".

The boy had not previously been in trouble with the law and had never been in any kind of out-of-home care.

His anger frightened the boy himself, and some family members, including his parents.

"It's important to say that he was frightened, because he himself didn't like what was happening," one of his carers said.

One carer said he was persuaded to join the team of five looking after the boy because he "had been given this label, that he was potentially WA's worst child offender -- and I thought it's not fair to condemn him like that".

Social workers were initially at a loss to know how to treat the boy's case and placed him in juvenile detention for several months.

However, he could not be held indefinitely as he had not been charged with any offence.

While in care, the boy made an impression on social workers who visited him, with one saying: "Hewas much more sad than he was angry."

Social workers convinced bureaucrats in the department to fund an elaborate program to protect the boy from what was deemed an almost certain bleak future. The department, in partnership with a private agency called Key Assets, has isolated the boy in a rented house three hours out of Perth, and hired a team of workers to live with him on a week-on, week-off basis.

The unique program, modelled on similar approaches in Britain, is being seen as something of a test case for troubled teenagers who are too old, or unsuitable, for regular foster care.

The boy, who spoke to The Australian on speaker phone with members of his care team present, says he likes to fish in the nearby river, which is stocked with marron. He is never without at least two male adults. Some stay for two or three days at a time, before taking a few days off.

In recent weeks, a female carer has been added to the team, to bring both a "feminine element" and crafts and storytelling into the boy's life.

Key Assets director Susan von Leonhardi, who has more than 20 years' experience in child protection, said the cost was "considerable" -- The Australian understands that it is more than $500,000 a year, -- but "the evidence shows that the cost of prevention is much less expensive than the cost of incarceration in a mental health facility, or in a juvenile justice system".

"It costs many thousands of dollars a week to keep a child in a detention centre," she said.

"Our aim is to ensure that this boy never needs to go there. It's not about cost.

"Everything we do is designed to encourage Jordan (not his real name) to stay in the community, and to keep him away from

any other kind of facility."

Ms von Leonhardi said the team of carers working around the clock with the boy had seen many positive signs that his self-esteem and behaviour was improving, and they believed he would one day "be able to take his place in the community".

He has been provided with exercise equipment to help him lose weight, and to encourage him to give up smoking. He recently went on a wilderness hike, where he photographed the landscape for a visual diary of his new life.

The boy cannot attend a normal school but studies by distance education, using the internet.

One of his carers, who cannot be named, says the boy wanted to go home to his parents "but he understands that we are here, trying to help him.

"And he's come a fair way. When I first saw him, he was so terrified and quiet, and now he's got this real sense of humour. He can crack me up."

In recent weeks, the boy has complained of loneliness, and there are plans to introduce him to a bush regeneration program involving other young people.

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