Mr BAYLEY - Recommendations 15.7 through 15.10 from the commission of inquiry report relate to the empowerment of children, their participation in their own care and collaboration with children and young people to make the health setting a safer and more secure space for them. Your Government's response acknowledges the importance of working with children from the Aboriginal, LGBTIQA+ and culturally and linguistically diverse communities to ensure the health environment is safe and welcoming. It says:
The Department of Health has established a children and young people advisory group to strengthen engagement with young Tasmanians.
Does this statement represent a standalone advisory group within the Department of Health, as recommended in 15.7, or is it part of the advisory group led by the Department of Justice?
Mr BARNETT - If we're talking about recommendation 15.7, the department and the Government acknowledge the challenges in terms of supporting younger Tasmanians in those healthcare settings and there is the Health Service's young people's advisory group. I could speak more about that at a higher level but, in terms of the detail, it's best for the Secretary or the deputy to outline the best response to assist the committee.
Mr WEBSTER - The child and youth advisory group we've put together is separate to the Department of Justice group. We've done that through an expression of interest process but we started by having focus groups with our children to learn what they wanted us to do in terms of an advisory group and how they could provide us with feedback. The minister has just reminded me that part of that was finding a different way to get that feedback. Adults can fill out forms and do surveys and things like that, but children don't normally give us feedback in that way. So, how do we actually give children a voice to tell us what their experience is? I'll hand to the minister.
Mr BARNETT - We're very pleased, the department has just finished producing this book, My Say, Our Voices, for children and young people's ideas to improve the Tasmanian Health Service. This is innovative, it's slightly crazy, it's kid focused and it's fun. This is one way to engage with the children. I would like to table this for the committee. I know you'll be interested in having a flick through because it's very kid focused. That's one way to get the kids' and young people's feedback, take it on board and then respond to that. The deputy has already talked about the advisory group we have with children, so I'd like to table that document.
Mr BAYLEY - On the advisory group, minister, that was my question. We note that the Justice advisory group is instructed to have a cross section of community members. From what I understand, it lacks representation from the LGBTIQA+ community and also from rural and remote communities. I can't find anything online or in any of your information about the standalone Health department advisory group. Are you able to list which groups you have managed to recruit to be participants on that advisory panel?
Mr BARNETT - I will quickly respond, then pass to the deputy. In short, we want to be inclusive, we want everybody to have a say and have the right to have a say, and take it on board and respond accordingly. Efforts have been made to establish a membership that is a mixture of age, gender and representation from a range of backgrounds: young Tasmanians with experience of using Tasmanian government health services such as our public hospitals; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people; young people with disability; young carers; young Tasmanians with refugee and/or migrant backgrounds; young Tasmanians from rural, regional and remote areas; young people with experience of homelessness and out of-home care; young people with low income backgrounds; and, of course, LGBTQIA+ young people.
Mr BAYLEY - Is that the aspiration or the list of representative groups you have on the advisory panel as it stands today?
Mr WEBSTER - That is aspirational but at the first meeting we will be talking to the young people we have recruited about how we can extend. We have also gone back out to the community sector, because they are more in touch with these groups than us, to nominate additional people. The idea of this is that it is not a static group that we have selected and they are it for the next period of time; it is who can attend, let's add to it, if someone moves on, let's replace them quickly. We want this to be dynamic.
Mr BAYLEY - Are you noticing any obvious gaps? Is it hard to attract and recruit certain cohorts?
Mr WEBSTER - The same as Justice; the LGBTQIA+ group is the one we have most difficulty identifying, probably because of the age range we are aiming at. But we will continue to work with the community sector, particularly Working It Out, to make sure they have a voice.
Mr BAYLEY - The department's child safety and wellbeing framework outlines a commitment to the provision of LGBTIQA+ inclusive health care and is guided by the Tasmanian Government's overarching framework for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Tasmanians. This framework was developed in 2015 and doesn't appear to have been updated in eight years. A notable emission in its language is the complete lack of acknowledgement of Tasmanians who are non-binary and don't identify as male or female and who don't fit the framework's definition of transgender. When will you commit to updating this framework with the LGBTIQA+ communities? Has there ever been an assessment of how effective it has been in increasing the inclusion for LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians?
Mr BARNETT - I will pass to the Secretary or the deputy secretary shortly regarding the importance of the trial safety and wellbeing framework. It is an important document and we take it very seriously. I made the point earlier about the importance of an inclusive environment in Tasmania. We want that, not just in our health sector and in our hospitals but all around Tasmania. I will pass to the secretary on the operational parts of this question.
Ms MORGAN-WICKS - Health's relationship with the LGBTIQA+ community has been significant and ongoing. We are about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our liaison and work to improve and make more welcoming to our community a minority cohort who we are concerned aren't always accessing health care across Tasmania.
Mr BAYLEY - Do you have an appetite to update the framework, to update those additional cohorts of people who now identify within that broader community?
Ms MORGAN-WICKS - Sorry if I was being a bit slow in answering. We have relied on that community to identify priorities for us in addition to other education and surveys that we have conducted across Tasmania to identify what are the highest priority needs for that group to improve the health service provisions. We are happy to have a look at that framework and to discuss that at our own steering committee.
Mr WEBSTER - The training package that we deliver for the community on behalf of the community which was developed with the community, we are currently adding modules to that, one of which is a transgender module.
