Crisis for foster children as carers desert South Australia’s child-protection system
FOSTER carers are deserting South Australia’s child-protection system faster than new carers can be recruited, latest figures show.
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FOSTER carers are deserting the child-protection system faster than authorities can recruit them, latest figures show.
Last financial year, 118 new families offered to care for children removed from abusive or neglectful parents in SA.
However, 165 foster households left the system, according to the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare child-protection report.
But authorities are having more success encouraging extended family members to take in at-risk children, as kinship carer numbers grew by 394 – and only 69 households left.
Foster parents have long warned that the Child Protection Department will fail to recruit enough people to care for the growing number of at-risk children – now more than 3200 in state care – unless dramatic changes are made to the way it treats carers.
A survey report of 65 carers, released by the Opposition last year, revealed widespread dissatisfaction with how departmental staff make decisions, concerns about intimidation and a belief that staff did not proactively inform carers of their entitlements.
Foster carer spokeswoman Rachel Titley said the trend of carers deserting the system had grown as more stories of mistreatment emerged.
The State Government has committed $9 million to recruit 130 new foster families and more than 570 people have expressed interest since the Choose to Care campaign began in September.
Child Protection Department chief executive Cathy Taylor said 1359 foster households were registered as of June 30 last year.
She insisted her staff were “doing everything we can to overhaul our current system”.
Opposition child-protection spokeswoman Rachel Sanderson said the government “treats foster carers very poorly and, as a consequence, they are walking away in droves”.
The AIHW report shows nine in every 1000 SA children are living in state care and 6200 are receiving some sort of support from authorities.
To find out about fostering, search “foster care” at www.sa.gov.au