NSW has the highest rate of children in Out of Home Care (OOHC) in Australia —and one of the fastest growth rates. NSW also has the second lowest rate of children commencing intensive family preservation services (to avoid OOHC and/or facilitate restoration)…
Based on today's system, up to 24,00 children may be in care by 2013/14 (if carers can be found).
The Coalition O’Farrell Government response to this scenario?
It is a reduction in payments for carers of :
* 16 year old and over foster children entitled to Youth Allowance – down approximately $5,530 per annum
* children fostered for over two years whom their foster families are formally adopting - $16,172 per annum down to approximately $1,500 per annum.
In June 2010 The Daily Examiner reported that:
In July 2010 The Northern Rivers Echo reported:
There are now twice as many Aboriginal children in some form of foster care than were forcibly removed from their parents during the era of the Stolen Generations. The Casino-based Ngunya Jarjum is the first Aboriginal organisation in NSW to be a fully accredited out of home care service, and according to general manager Lenore Marlowe (aka Minna), most of the kids are being placed with white families. “There are just not enough Aboriginal carers... we’re trying to keep kids in the Bundjalung nation, that’s why I want Bundjalung carers. We need to keep them in their own community, their own nation,” she said. Lenore said that 40% of Aboriginal kids in NSW are in care. It’s a staggering statistic that she said is a direct effect of the Stolen Generations.
Earlier in May 2010 The Northern Star had also looked at foster care:
With no emergency youth accommodation and no adolescent foster care programs in Lismore, young people between 10 and 16 years old included in these rising statistics are taking to sleeping it rough in an attempt to leave their dysfunctional homes.
In September 2011 the position does not appear to have improved by much as an ABC News report states:
There are 3,500 children currently under the care of the state and more than two-thirds are looked after by foster or relative carers….
Last month, figures from the Department for Child Protection revealed almost 20 per cent of children under 10 had been moved more than three times while under the care of the state.
Many current foster parents take in more than one child, as it is estimated that across New South Wales there are four times the number of children in need in relation to the number of people willing to foster.
The O’Farrell Government approach to this issue does not appear designed to encourage more people to take on the responsibility of caring for these children in the family home rather than an institution and, it is no excuse for it to ever point to the fact that slashing foster care funding has been a feature of governance in this state for some time.
An Australian Institute of Family Studies 2007 research brief notes:
Australia-wide there were 35,895 children in out-of-home care on 30 June 2010, according to the Australian Institute of Child Studies.
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