The former Children’s Commissioner, Megan Mitchell, reported on her 2017 inquiry into the needs of young parents. See Chapter 3 of Megan Mitchell’s Report.
So far, the Australian Government, to whom the report was presented, does not appear to have responded. Worse, few, if any of the recommendations have been acted on at Federal or state levels. Here they are:
1: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics should work with state and territory governments to ensure that national data on fertility rates consistently record age, sex, indigeneity and remoteness.
2: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare should work with state and territory governments to collect nationally consistent data over time on the characteristics and number of young parents in detention.
3: State and territory governments should explore the use of alternative sentencing options, such as home detention, for offenders who are young parents. Where a young parent who is a primary carer is given a custodial sentence, programs which allow them to remain with their children should be made available, when this is in the best interests of the child.
4: The Australian Government should commission the development of a mobile enabled e-resource for young people to address their education and knowledge gap on sexual health issues such as contraception, pregnancy and parenting.
5: The Australian Government should commission research into the distinct needs and characteristics of young parents that present barriers to employment pathways, and the kinds of targeted interventions that are most likely to assist in overcoming these.
6: The Australian Government should commission research into how to deliver housing and homelessness services that more effectively suit the unique needs of young parents and their children. This research will necessarily involve consulting with young parents and their children themselves.
7: The Australian Government should commission research into the factors that lead to parenthood for young fathers and how young fathers can be meaningfully included in education, health and community services programs for parents.
8: The Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments’ Education Council, should work with state and territory governments to develop systemic policies to address the needs of young pregnant and parenting students, including through specific policies and programs.
9: State and territory education departments should systematically collect data on the numbers of young pregnant and parenting young people who are enrolled students.
10: The Australian Government should develop a specific ParentsNext stream for young parents, in particular for those living in rural or remote Australia.
11: The Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments’ Health Council, should work with states and territories to review laws, policies and practices, so that all children and young people who are determined to be Gillick competent have access to prescribed medical forms of contraception and abortion.
12: The Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments’ Education Council, should work with states and territories to review their laws, policies and practices to ensure that:
- access to education for all children is guaranteed
- educational authorities and educational institutions – both public and private – are required to make all necessary adjustments and provide all necessary support to facilitate and ensure access to education for children and young people who are pregnant or are parents
- regular publication of information on adjustments made to support children and young people who are pregnant or are parents is required
- suspension, expulsion or denial of education of a child or young person on the ground of their being pregnant or a parent is prohibited.
13: The Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments’ Attorneys-General Council, should work with states and territories to review their laws, policies and practices to ensure that discrimination against a child or young person on the ground of their pregnancy, breastfeeding or parental status/responsibilities is prohibited without exceptions.
14: State and territory governments should review their policies and practices to ensure that young parents are not targeted on the basis of their age as an at-risk group for child protection assessment purposes.
15: State and territory governments should review their policies and practices to ensure that young parents receive services designed to support them in their parenting role.
16: As part of the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children, Commonwealth, state and territory governments should collect nationally consistent data on children receiving child protection and care services who have teenage parents and on young people receiving child protection and care services who have children as teenagers themselves.
17: All states and territories, led by the Australian Government, should commit to conducting a routine national child maltreatment incidence and prevalence study.