Families SA to begin publishing key data online detailing extent of pressure on system for first time
AT-RISK children are spending an average of more than five months living in emergency accommodation, including hotel rooms, after being removed from unsafe parents by Families SA, it has emerged.
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AT-RISK children are spending an average of more than five months living in emergency accommodation, including hotel rooms, after being removed from unsafe parents by Families SA, it has emerged.
The Advertiser today revealed that 190 children had to sleep in emergency accommodation on the night of June 30 because foster homes could not be found for them.
Child Development Minister Susan Close told Parliament’s Estimates Committee on Friday that 156 of those children had been living in that kind of accommodation, under the supervision of paid carers, for 31 days or more.
Dr Close said the average length of stay was 157 days, or more than five months.
Under questioning from the Opposition, Dr Close also revealed:
45 parents have been placed on income management by Centrelink, largely because they were spending welfare payments inappropriately and failing to provide for their children.
912 drug tests or referrals for treatment were conducted last financial year but it was not known how many tests returned a positive result.
1500 reports to the electronic Child Abuse Report Line had not been acted on and extra staff had been brought in to help clear the backlog.
Dr Close confirmed Families SA would on Friday begin publishing key data online which details for the first time the true extent of pressure on the system.
Monthly updates will be publicly available on the number of children taken into state care, where they are living, how many reports have been made to the abuse hotline and the wait time to make a report.
Much of the information has previously been difficult to obtain. The Advertiser has had to lodge requests to the department, or Freedom of Information applications, to access basic data.
Dr Close said the Government wanted to “share the dilemma” facing social workers and encourage more people to consider becoming foster carers.
The number of at-risk children spending the night in hotel rooms or rented apartments, under the care of paid staff, has skyrocketed from 31 a night in late 2013 to a record 190 on June 30 this year.
The soaring demand is costing the state up to $600,000 a month.
Social sector leaders have described the spiralling use of emergency accommodation for children removed from unsafe parents as “alarming and concerning” and warned that it could be harmful to children who were already at risk.
The figures also show that:
MORE than 26,700 calls to the Child Abuse Report Line went unanswered last financial year, up from 15,689 in 2014-15.
THERE were a total 57,034 calls to the CARL call centre, up from 40,074 the previous year.
THE waiting time to make a report has almost doubled, from 20 minutes to 39 minutes.
UP to 94 children were taken into state care, or put under other protection orders, for the first time last month.
THERE are a total 3234 children in state care, almost half of whom live with relatives or others known to them.
Dr Close conceded the department had not used “the kind of databases that easily produce this kind of information” but it was working to improve its data collection and analysis.
“If we’re going to come anywhere seriously close to addressing the problem, we have to understand its size and its depth,” she said.
“If we make it explicit how many kids aren’t in a family, either of their own or a foster family, it helps people understand that, if they think things should be better, perhaps they could play a role in that. Knowing where kids are sleeping that night is part of making that choice.”
Welfare advocates warn the type of abuse directed at children is worsening in parallel to the number of reports.
Centacare Catholic Family Services director Dale West said the figures released today “underline our experience about the severity” of child abuse in South Australian homes.
“What we do know is the nature and depth of abuse now goes beyond neglect, to children being intentionally and, at times systematically, very cruelly treated in some circumstances,” he said.
“It is a very poor reflection on the community that these numbers have increased but ... it is possible that these statistics are getting us closer to what the real picture out there is.”
Anglicare SA CEO Peter Sandeman said housing a child in rented accommodation, in the care of paid staff, placed “even higher levels of stress on a child who is already going through an extremely stressful time”.
“Foster carers must receive higher levels of support so they continue as carers and we would like to see informed decisions about long-term care options ... made quicker,” he said. “This will deliver far better outcomes for the child and also reduce the burnout faced by foster carers.”
Opposition child protection spokeswoman Rachel Sanderson worried that the failure to answer calls to the abuse hotline meant vulnerable children were “being left in dangerous situations”. “The fact there are now 190 children sleeping in emergency accommodation such as motels ... is further indication of the system in crisis,” she said.
“The Government has completely lost its way in child protection and the sooner we have the recommendations of the (Nyland) royal commission the better.”
Margaret Nyland is expected to deliver her final report to Government next Friday, making wide-ranging reforms to improve the child protection system.
Ms Nyland urged greater transparency in interim findings she released last month. She recommended the Government split Families SA from the Education Department and appoint a new chief executive.
It should also create a “dedicated data collection and research division”, she said.
Dr Close said a “strong pool” of candidates for the new chief executive role — up to 90 people — had been identified from around Australia, and even Canada and the UK.
Applications for the position close today.