The report is based on the voices of 19 individual children and young people, who were open and thoughtful in sharing their experiences with the Commission. Their contributions provide important insights into the experiences of children and young people living in residential care across the state, and how services support them with the provision of food.
Children and young people interviewed were generally positive about their access to food and their ability to participate in food shopping, meal preparation and cooking. Children and young people also rated the quality and quantity of food they received as above average, and no restrictive practices were observed during the onsite visits.
The Commission’s report outlined three opportunities for Improvements.
- There is opportunity to improve consistency across services to provide children and young people in residential care with similar experiences of eating that might be afforded to children living at home, including:
- promoting consistency in the frequency of takeaway nights and ensuring a reasonable and equitable amount of money is provided for takeaway food
- ensuring that service providers pay for takeaway night out of allocated funds, and not out of children and young people’s pocket money
- providing children and young people with opportunities to experience eating out as a group and order lunch at school.
- There is scope to strengthen opportunities for children and young people to learn and connect to their community and culture through food.
- There is opportunity to further inform children and young people about the Charter.
The department advised the Commission it will consider the opportunities for improvements.
The department’s Secretary gave an undertaking that the department would share a redacted copy of the Commission’s report with all residential care providers to encourage and continue to improve practice in relation to the provision of food.