Central Queensland foster carers overwhelmed by pressure from Child Safety Department

Foster carers across Central Qld say they are living in fear of having children in their care taken off them and have made explosive claims kids are being forced to spend time with biological family members convicted of serious crimes. Read their claims here.

Central Queensland foster carers are living in fear of having their children taken from them.

Foster carers across Central Queensland say they are living in fear of having the children in their care taken away from them by the Department of Child Safety at any moment due to an increasing push for reunification.

Carers have made explosive claims some foster children are being forced to have contact visits with their biological family members, despite the children begging not to or the family members having criminal history of domestic violence or sexual offences.

Foster carers claim they are being told the contact visits with the biological parents and other family members are because of “culture”, in the cases where the children are of Indigenous descent.

Some foster carers, no matter how many years they have had the children in their care, have no legal rights as the Department is the legal guardian of the children.

It comes as the Central Queensland community reels from the death of 8-year-old Rockhampton boy, Zion Ziggy Sean Goltz, who had spent the first seven years of his life in foster care, before being reunified with his mother 12 months ago.

This publication has viewed multiple emails from foster carers who have told Child Safety that children in their care don’t want to attend the contact visits or that the carers hold concerns for the childrens’ safety, but they are told by Child Safety Officers it is necessary for cultural practice.

Earlier this year, Independent Advocacy NQ advocate Mac Clayten spoke out against the State Government’s approach to reunifying children in foster care with biological families who are known to be unsafe for the child.

Mr Clayten told News he first became aware of an increase in children, namely disabled Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children, being withdrawn from foster families about mid-2021.

According to data from the Department current to March 31, 2022, a total of 11,299 children are in care in Queensland.

Of this figure, 45 per cent (5,029) are of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.

“Children in care” means care outside the family home for children who are in need of protection or who require a safe placement. It refers to children placed with kin, other home-based carers or residential care services.

Reports from the Department state Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people are over-represented in the child protection system in Queensland and across Australia above their population share.

Independent Advocacy NQ advocate Mac Clayten, talks about failures within the child safety system in Townsville. Picture: Shae Beplate.

As a whole, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people make up eight per cent of the national population.

Foster carers have no legal rights over their Indigenous foster children, and are often denied legal guardianship on the basis of culture, despite how many years the children may have been in their care.

In some cases, the foster children have been in their care since birth and are the only home they have known their whole life.

The Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs 2020-21 annual report details a performance statement.

A service area in the performance statement is: Percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children placed with kin, other Indigenous carers or Indigenous residential care services.

The target estimate for 2020-21 was 56 per cent and the actual figure achieved was not listed.

“Indigenous kids are locked in the system with no right to permanency … Forced contact with many family members … Not listened to at all,” one foster carer said.

Carers do try to advocate for the best interests of the child, in some cases the children are scared or traumatised and don’t want to go to visits, but this falls on deaf ears and can be ignored.

The child can be picked up from the foster care home or their school by a Child Safety Officer.

In some cases this has left the foster children worried and anxious and refusing to go to school if they know a contact visit is happening.

“You don’t understand, they think they can come and take us whenever they want even if we don’t want to go and then they try to convince us to do things we don’t want to do,” one foster child told his carer.

The carers also say the Department’s complaints system is “flawed” and service centres have “no accountability”.

“All complaints just get referred back to them to handle or ignore,” an anonymous foster carer said.

One foster carer said there had been a lack of contact from the Rockhampton office altogether and it was almost impossible to get funding for additional needs for early intervention therapies.

These are carers who are volunteering their livelihoods but many are quitting and leaving the system because of the emotional and mental stress and pressure they are under.

“Carers get treated as babysitters,” another foster carer said.

“I was a child’s fourth carer and they moved him to his fifth … So five carers in their small six years, it’s not the child’s best interest in decision making.”

Another carer tried to stop children in their care from having visits with their father, who is a registered sex offender and had only recently been released from jail for assault and abuse crimes.

The visits were held at East Shores in Gladstone and the carer had to fight for him to not be allowed to swim with the children or change their nappies and clothes.

A number of foster carers have spoken to News Corp publications about horrifying examples of foster children being forced into reunifications with abusive and neglectful biological families.

In one case, psychologist reports, doctor’s advice and letters from advocates, teachers and friends against reunification were still not enough to stop a child from being reunified with their biological family.

Another foster girl who was sexually assaulted is now living with her biological mother who never gave the perpetrator up.

Community outrage sparked some changes by the Department of Children in the North Queensland region and an investigation by the Queensland Family and Child Commission.

Estimates Hearing Parliament

Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs’ director-general Deidre Mulkerin said she has suggested a national meeting of colleagues from other states and territories to work together on the issues raised.

“I am deeply saddened and concerned by reports of children in care facing situations of abuse while placed with foster families. Whenever any criminal activity is disclosed to us, we report the matter to police and work to support the child,” she said.

“Sexual offending against children is an abhorrent crime. Risk to children is carefully assessed when it is known that family members have a sexual offending history. The ongoing safety of the child is our primary focus. Contact in these cases, if any, will have conditions such as close supervision.

“No-one wants to see children harmed or suffering and that’s why my staff come to work every single day – to keep our most vulnerable children safe.

“Child safety officers work closely with foster and kinship carers to keep these children safe and we value their enormous contribution to the state’s child protection system.

“More and more families are dealing with increasingly complex issues – from domestic and family violence, to mental health and drug issues. Families need help and that’s why we are intervening earlier to ensure, wherever possible, parents can care for their children safely at home.”

According to the Department, research shows children do better long-term if they can stay at home with their family.

“However, if a child is in danger, we act swiftly to ensure their safety and will not hesitate to remove them from the situation,” Ms Mulkerin said.

“This is where dedicated foster and kinship carers come in, and we cannot thank them enough for opening their homes to these children, providing stability and love.

“We value the input of foster and kinship carers, including their advice when staff are assessing a child’s safety and protection needs.”