Children and young people are happy and healthy
Budget 2019 provided funding to ensure safe and secure forensic mental health services are available to young people. This responds to the legislative change increasing the youth justice age from 17 to 18 years, resulting in more young people within the youth justice system.
A post-graduate training course for youth forensic staff is underway and funding for community staffing has been assigned to lead DHBs of each of the five youth forensic regions for distribution. Dedicated funding will be provided to increase community youth forensic staff across all regions, over four years.