Disability Training for Youth Justice Staff

Directorate: Strategy and Engagement, Youth Justice

Division: Child Protection and Permanency, District and Youth Justice Services

Project summary

Enhance workforce capacity to support young people with disability.

Focus Area:

• Developing positive community attitudes and behaviours.
• Improving access to mainstream services through better systems and processes.

Project objective

Enhance workforce capacity to support young people with disability, mental illness, a history of trauma, or any combination of these, through development and delivery of a targeted training module for YJ staff.Assurance that people with a cognitive impairment are supported and provided with tailored support when interacting with DCJ:

The challenge

Provision of an increased understanding across the justice sector to identify and respond to the needs of people with a cognitive impairment.

Why is this important?

Staff will learn how to recognise disability indicators and appropriately support young people with various disability diagnoses.  This will also support earlier identification and referral of young people with previously undiagnosed disability to assessment and support.

What will success look like?

• Training package has been delivered to frontline staff.
• Staff report increased confidence and skills in working with young people with disability, mental illness and trauma.Agencies aligning their policies with the best practice standards

Status report

Current Status: Progressing

Date: January 2024

Status Notes:

NDIS training module has been written and piloted. Working with young people with cognitive impairment training module and eLearning module has been written and scheduled for pilot in August 2022.

January 2024

288 staff members have completed the 'Supporting Young People with a Disability' e-learning module. 60 Staff members have attended the 'Working with Young People with Disabilities' face to face training. 

Status Explanatory Note:

Aligns with other disability specific projects being delivered via the Youth Justice Disability Action Plan 2021-2024