E1031B - Out of Home Care - Youth Work - Humanities Assignment

Internal Code: MAS5375

Humanities Assignment:

Often in youth work, you will see references made to Out of Home Care (OOHC). While youth work can exist in many different settings and environments (community drop in centres, mental health teams, drug and alcohol work, street based youth work, etc.) the government standards for OOHC reflect the highest level of care and protection for young people in statutory care. As such, these standards can be applied to any youth work environment to ensure the level of support to young people is at its highest. A sound knowledge of these standards greatly helps shape you as a strong youth worker. Where organisations and individuals can demonstrate working in line with these Standards would be what is called ‘best practice’; that is, the highest quality of service and support. There are National Standards and each state and territory may also have their own standards. Questions: 1. Provide an example for each of your chosen two Standards of how you would apply these Standards in a youth work context. 2. Discuss the context that each standard is based in (e.g. social, political, economic, legal, historical, cultural). In your answer include consideration of statutory and professional frameworks. 3. Identify one barrier or challenge to implementing the standard for each of the 2 standards selected and outline how you would address these in the workplace. 4. Discuss how your cultural background could support or question the application of these standards to youth work practice.