What is the impact of extended out-of-home care on the pathways and outcomes for young care leavers?

Description

National Leaving Care Research Workshop funded by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).

Date: August 27 and 28 (2026)
Venue: Monash University Seminar Room, Level 7, 30 Collins St, Melbourne

Organising Committee: Philip Mendes, Melissa O’Donnell, Tim Moore, Steven Roche and Jessica Russ-Smith

Day One: Thursday August 27

Welcome and introduction
Organising Committee team

Opening presentation
Deb Tsorbaris, National Children’s Commissioner

Morning sessions

One: Latest extended care policy developments
Paul McDonald, Home Stretch campaign
Imogen Edeson or Blair Struthers, CREATE Foundation
Catherine Gibson, Victorian Government DFFH

Two: International developments
Kassandra Chan, review of extended out of home care programs internationally
Rangga Radityaputra, review of extended care programs in Indonesia and other countries in Asian region

Three: specific fields of practice
Andrew Harvey, education and/or cultural and linguistically diverse care leavers
Pearl Goodwin Burns, education
Phil Crane, housing
Joel McGregor, criminal justice
Jacinta Waugh, social connections

Afternoon session

First Nations care leavers
Jessica Russ-Smith, First Nations social work academic (online)
Stevie Wright, University of Canberra.
Joel Matysek, SNAICC
Tammy Wallace, Director, Cultural Capability and Strategy at Act for Kids (online)

Day Two: Friday August 28

Morning sessions

Lived experience policy and research voices
Jasmin Malham, Anglicare
Sarah Morris, Monash
Isabella Kristo, UNSW

Sub-groups of care leavers

Part one
Jemma Venables, young people who leave approved OOHC placements to stay in other places
Jade Purtell, young parent care leavers
Yujie Zhao, female residential care leavers
Hayley Wainwright, transition planning for residential care leavers
Jenna Bollinger, residential care leavers

Part two
Melissa O’Donnell and Fadzai Chikwava (online), mental health outcomes for care leavers
Tim Moore, child safety in residential care
Marina Paxman, POCLS after care survey of 18-25 year olds in NSW.
Steven Roche, Northern Territory transitions from OOHC research findings.

Afternoon session

Knowledge Translation Focus group to connect research evidence and policy and practice innovation (led by Steve Roche and Tim Moore)

This two hour focus group will engage with Workshop participants as experts to examine:

• The current state of extended care reforms in each jurisdiction;
• The state of evidence on reform implementation and outcomes in each jurisdiction;
• Evidence on research gaps;
• How to more effectively link research knowledge and findings to impact on policy and practice innovation.