The Youth Support Coordinator (YSC) Initiative was originally funded in 1997 as a response to research which showed strong connections between homelessness and early school leaving. In 2003, under the Education and Training Reforms for the Future, the YSC was expanded and focused on supporting young people to stay engaged at school or make a transition to further education and employment. The Department of Communities in collaboration with Education Queensland committed $18.6 million over three years to employ 100 Youth Support Coordinators throughout Queensland.

In 2010-11, further funding was granted for the YSC to support young people aged 14 - 17 years who were at risk of disengaging, or who are newly disengaged, from learning, to successfully transition into and through the Senior Phase of Learning.

From day one, the development of the YSC program was based upon the assumption that services located in the community are well positioned to fulfill a coordination and school-community linking role at the client and local community level. This has been consistently confirmed through several reviews of the program over the past 10 years.

Youth Support Coordinators have achieved remarkable outcomes. The 2009 evaluation of the (then re-named) YSC Initiative (YSCI) found a very high level of satisfaction amongst stakeholders regarding the program. During 2010, the 105 Youth Support Coordinators undertook 5 524 instances of direct support to individual young people. They facilitated 793 groups, which involved a further 16 405 young people. YSCs also coordinated 554 community projects.

In 2013, one of the most successful youth programs in Queensland was effectively dismantled by the LNP State Government.

In 2011-12, the YSCI (managed by the Department of Communities) was allocated a total of approximately $16 million - $11 million from the Education Department and $5 million from the Department of Communities. In 2012-13, the Department of Communities' $5 million was returned to Treasury, and the Education Department's contribution was reduced to $7.4 million. Moreover, this $7.4 million is not allocated to the existing YSCI - the Minister has reallocated these funds to schools to use at their own discretion, with no guarantee that the funds will assist young people who are disengaged from learning.

This fails to recognise the unique capacity for community-based services to support youth people who are disillusioned with the education and training systems and the long term consequences of allowing these young people to disengage from learning.

The Queensland Government reported the defunding by putting a spin on the issue and announcing 6 months' funding before the program is lost. Queensland Government budget papers stated:

Funding of $7.4 million has been provided to continue the Youth Support Coordinator Initiative to 31 December 2013 to maintain support for at risk youth for the 2013 school year. From 2014, the program will be delivered by the Department of Education, Training and Employment.

Meanwhile, QCOSS Commentary on the State Budget 2013-14 perpetuated the myth:

There are no new major cuts to the sector this year, rather there are some welcome, mostly small, initiatives to ease last year’s pain. Funding for Youth Support Coordinators will continue under the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services until the end of 2013 where responsibility will be transferred to the Department of Education, Training and Employment.

YANQ strongly condemns the reckless dismantling of the Youth Support Coordinator Initiative by the LNP Government, the incompetence of the Minister for Communities for allowing such significant funding for the youth portfolio to disappear and the QCOSS commentary, which lacks any analysis or understanding of the significance of this loss to the youth sector and young people in Queensland.

YANQ is extremely concerned that there are growing indications the LNP Queensland Government is planning to 'rationalise' the youth sector, putting at risk the job security of many youth workers and the viability of many youth organisations across the state.

As you will be aware, YANQ held extensive consultations with the sector at the end of last year and published a report earlier this year titled "Listening to Queensland's Youth Sector". The report outlined finding from our consultations across the state and made 5 recommendations to the government for consideration in their recommissioning of the youth sector.

YANQ has been meeting with public servants as well as the Minister to highlight the feedback from the sector. The Minister had last year given YANQ her assurance that she is genuinely wanting to hear from the sector and consider their feedback. That is why YANQ prioritised the consultation with the sector and the reporting to the government even after our defunding.

Unfortunately, last time we met with the Minister to discuss the consultation report she was very hostile towards the sector and the consultation report, in particular Recommendation 3, which states: "Wherever possible, the Queensland Government continues to invest in existing community-based local and regional youth service providers, rather than appointing organisations from outside the community to develop new programs and services". The Minister believes that the sector is immature for having such expectations and in her own words told us that "I will decide what to fund and who to fund".

We tried to outline the broader role the local services play in a community and the importance of this connection to both youth services and the broader community. Unfortunately, the LNP government has no appetite for community development and instead is using the economy as a smoke screen for enforcing their market driven ideology and reshaping the human service provision to match its business model.

It was then of no surprise to YANQ and many in the sector that the Queensland Council of Social Services has been brought in by the LNP to help with the recommissioning process. As the peak body for the youth sector for decades, this is the legitimate role of YANQ, however, it is now obvious that the LNP does not want to hear independent advocacy that YANQ is providing on behalf of the youth sector. In addition, QCOSS, after denying publicly for the past year that they have no intention to take over the youth sector peak role, have now accepted funding to do exactly that.

YANQ has been receiving many calls from the sector across the state questioning the role QCOSS is playing with the government in the recommissioning process. We want to assure our members and the sector that YANQ will continue its work as an independent peak body. Our boycott of the LNP/QCOSS forums has been based on a decision not to give legitimacy to government's undemocratic imposing of a peak on the sector.

In the next fortnight we will be releasing further information about the attempts to silence the youth sector by the LNP and their collaborators.

Watch this space...

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State Government, QCOSS, LGAQ - silencing the youth sector?

Over the past 6 months, YANQ has met with the Minister for Communities as well as senior public servants in charge of developing the youth strategy and has encouraged them to undertake comprehensive consultation with the NGO sector and young people. Unfortunately, the Queensland Government has missed an important opportunity to include in the recommissioning process and the development of the Youth Strategy genuine consultation that informs their policy and programs.

Instead, its very clear that the Government is trying to silence the voice of the sector by dismissing the historical knowledge that YANQ and other sector organisations have gathered over decades. Rather, the Government has enlisted the support of QCOSS and LGAQ and has sidelined the legitimate peak body for the sector, YANQ, due to the outcomes of our independent advocacy and consultation processes. At the end of 2012, YANQ undertook extensive consultations across many regions in Queensland about the recommissioning process. The evidence base was gathered and developed into a comprehensive report which was then tabled with the Government. Despite this, the Minister has been very hostile towards the report and towards the sector's own consultation processes, which have included recommendations to support the work of small community based NGOs. 

Any further consultations and reports undertaken by QCOSS and LGAQ are being funded directly by the State Government and exist only as smokescreens to undermine the consultation work that the sector has already done. YANQ proposed the signing of a MOU between key peak bodies in March 2012 that would allow for a framework of collaboration and non-competition between the peaks, and to role model this for the sector. QCOSS refused, and have continually denied that have been working with the State Government to undermine the youth sector's own independent processes.

It is with great sadness we now see QCOSS and LGAQ breaking their word and partnering alongside Government to silence the youth sector. It is telling that in all the communiques on the recommissioning process released by QCOSS/LGAQ, there has not been one mention of YANQ, the existing consultation undertaken by the sector, or of the already published report/s the youth sector has on hand to allow us to stand strong in the recommissioning process.

YANQ will be releasing a comprehensive response to the Strategy for Youth, released by the Queensland Government last week. In the meantime, YANQ believes that the Youth Strategy is deficient on may fronts, including:

• The strategy is guided by a set of principles which includes: "building strong partnerships with the non-government sector and local and state government agencies to foster better collaborations". However, there has been no meaningful consultation with the NGO sector, nor any movement towards building partnerships.

• Youth justice responses by government have been packaged under 'health and wellbeing'. We have just seen the shift of responsibility for youth justice from the Department of Communities to the Attorney General and we have seen many successful programs being axed by the Department. The government needs be more congruent and not include criminal justice punishment under the name of health and well being.

• Programs like Youth Justice Conferencing, Skilling Queenslanders For Work and Youth Support Co-ordinators that have been defunded or lost money from the Department are being included in what is now being released as Youth strategy. Are we going to see at least the same amount of money returned to these programs? 

• "A wide range of non-government support services including neighbourhood centres will be funded to assist young people or families address issues that impact on their personal, social or emotional wellbeing and safety" - What about youth services - why are they not mentioned? Is this new money or this is the recommissioning of existing money which would mean losing an entire youth service in an area and having the neighbourhood centre with a family/youth worker?

• "A $3.2 million package of initiatives, increasing to $3.7 million in 2014–15, will strengthen the network of supports and services designed to provide more coordinated care for children and their families across Queensland" - Is this new money, and if so, where from? How does it strengthen the network of support services? Is this child protection money or youth sector money?