Mr. Gabriel McCabe:

Yes I do. Admission to school is one very narrow aspect of the needs of children in care. There is a wide educational need and a support system does not exist. The evidence of far superior supports in other countries still leaves children in care with low educational achievement. The three important issues that affect children in care are protection, education and social integration. The Bill will not do anything specific for protection or education but it will certainly help children enormously on the social integration side. Mental well-being is a serious issue for children in care. It is exaggerated when children are pushed out of their community and they are strangers in their community who spend long, lonely times in their room or during school holidays when they do not have association, which is especially vital for adolescent children.