Hundreds of children spending months in emergency care, including hotel rooms

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.

At-risk children are spending more than five months on average living in emergency accommodation after being removed from unsafe parents by Families SA, it has emerged.

AT-RISK children are spending more than five months on average living in emergency accommodation after being removed from unsafe parents by Families SA, it has emerged.

The Advertiser on Thursday 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 revealed in Parliament’s Estimates Committee yesterday 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, adding: “I have to say it gives me no joy; this is not an OK outcome for those kids and we have to collectively do better.”

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Rachel Sanderson feared some children could have been living in emergency accommodation for over a year.

“That is an utterly disgraceful period for a vulnerable child to held in the most expensive and least desirable form of accommodation,” she said.

From yesterday, child protection agency Families SA has begun publishing monthly updates 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 waiting time to make a report.

It includes the number of children living in emergency accommodation, such as a hotel or motel room, rented apartment, house or caravan. However, it will not regularly report on the length of time that children spend in that type of accommodation.

It has cost as much as $600,000 a month to house children this way.

Under questioning, Dr Close also revealed:

45 PARENTS have been placed on income management by Centrelink following recommendations from a coronial inquest to increase the practice in order to ensure that welfare payments are spent on essentials.

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 said Families SA had overspent its budget “due to the increase in the number of children that we have had to remove, and the expensive form of care that we have had to give them”.

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