There are 112,500 children at risk of harm in NSW. The state is failing most of them

NSW is failing to protect its most at-risk children, with a scathing new report detailing a broken system where the government does not monitor the wellbeing of children in foster care, and last year closed the cases of 85,000 children at risk of significant harm.

The damning NSW Audit Office report into child protection lays bare the entrenched problems plaguing the system, which is described as “inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable”.

“Since 2018-2019 there have been increasing child protection reports, escalating out-of-home care costs, insufficient placement options for children with complex needs, and limited services or support for children and families engaged in the child protection system,” the report, tabled to parliament on Thursday, said.

NSW’s child protection system is “inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable”.Credit: Adobe Stock

At the same time, the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), which is responsible for child protection in NSW, “has failed to make the necessary changes to ensure its child protection service model meets the needs of children and families”.

In August 2023, there were 471 children living in emergency care in NSW, with 30 per cent of these living in hotels, motels, and serviced apartments.

The average cost per child in hotels, motels, or apartment accommodation was $829,000 per annum.

The Minns government in May announced an urgent review of the state’s foster care system after the Advocate for Children and Young People reported a litany of disturbing testimonies by children living in emergency care.

Children as young as 12 reported being sexually assaulted and exposed to rampant drug use.

The former Coalition government handed the delivery of some foster care to the non-government sector in 2012, and a report by former senior public servant David Tune in 2018 found the child protection system was failing the most vulnerable families and not stopping entrenched neglect.

The latest Audit report revealed that in 2022-23, the department received more than 400,000 child protection reports and identified 112,592 children who met a threshold for presumed “risk of significant harm”, the report said.

“It’s going to take time to deliver the outcomes children and young people deserve.”

Kate Washington, families and communities minister

However, 75 per cent of those children did not receive a home-based safety assessment by a caseworker to confirm these risks.

“Their cases were closed without any follow-up services from DCJ and DCJ does not know the outcomes for these children,” the report said. The cases were closed due to the “competing work priorities” of caseworkers.

The number of children returned to their parents from out-of-home care has also declined over the past five years, despite the department’s objective being to “restore them to their parents when it is safe to do so”. DCJ has also not succeeded in “reorienting the child protection system to focus on early intervention support for families” despite the recommendations of multiple reviews.

In a separate report released on Thursday, the state’s Audit Office also criticised the department’s handling of Aboriginal children in the child protection system.

“Approximately 6500 Aboriginal children were in out-of-home care as at 30 June 2023, making up 45 per cent of the out-of-home care population. By comparison, around 7 per cent of children in NSW are Aboriginal,” the report said.

“The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) is not effectively safeguarding the rights of Aboriginal children in contact with the child protection system.”

Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington said the two reports provided further evidence of the need to reform the child protection sector.

“For the sake of vulnerable children in families right across NSW, we are determined to fix the broken child protection system that we inherited,” Washington said.

“We have begun the work to repair the system, but as laid out in these reports, there are significant issues in every direction, so it’s going to take time to deliver the outcomes children and young people deserve.”

If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au), 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.

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