NSW foster children: Auditor-General hits out over lack of planning for vulnerable kids
NSW’s most vulnerable children were let down by a NSW Government taskforce that was given $190 million and four years to build a new government-wide plan to support them — but didn’t complete it. SEE THE SCATHING REVIEW OF THE TEAM HERE.
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A NSW Government taskforce built to roll out a series of reforms to support the state’s most vulnerable children failed to establish a whole-of-government plan — despite having four years and $190 million to do so.
NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford, said arrangements used to support children living in foster care families across the state were “ineffective”.
She said an evidence-based, government-wide plan for early intervention, which was the key objective of the reform, was not established.
“The reform concluded in June, 2020 without a strategy or plan in place to achieve its intent,” Ms Crawford said in her scathing review of the Their Futures Matter reforms.
“The governance arrangements established for the Their Futures Matter reform did not provide
sufficient independence, authority and cross-agency clout to deliver on the reform’s intent. “This hindered delivery of the reform’s key elements, particularly the redirection of funding to evidence-based earlier intervention supports, and limited the impact that Their Futures Matter could have on driving system change.”
In 2016 the NSW Government launched the Their Future Matters reforms following an independent review that found out-of-home care for children in NSW was “ineffective and unsustainable”.
The review argued the system was “failing to improve the long-term outcomes for vulnerable children and families”, sparking the new plan by the NSW Government.
The government allocated $190 million to be used between 2016 and 2020 to fund the reforms, however, the Auditor-General found that when the reforms closed in June, funding remained tied-up in existing programs “with limited evidence of their comparative effectiveness”.
At last check, there were around 16,800 children in out-of-home care across the state, a drop of approximately 3000 children in the past two years.
Ms Crawford called for the Communities and Justice Department to use the newly-developed TFM Human Services Data Set to identify the needs of vulnerable kids and assess existing services and how they respond to these needs.
She also called for a major scale up of pilot programs to support adoption across the state.
During the past four years, the State Government taskforce established 10 different pilot programs to support children in out-of-home care.
Family and Community Services secretary, Michael-Coutts Trotter said the number of children in care had dropped significantly.
“Just prior to the start of the Their Futures Matter reform, NSW had the fourth highest rate of children coming into care in Australia,” he said. “We now have the lowest for all children and the second lowest for Aboriginal children.”
Mr Trotter said the reforms developed a “strong foundation for continuing to improve responses to vulnerable children and their families”.
Families, Communities and Disability Services Minister, Gareth Ward, who only stepped into the portfolio following the 2019 elections, said he welcomed the Auditor-General’s report, “and the opportunity to improve the services we deliver to support vulnerable children and families in NSW”.
“In the last 12 months we have made significant progress toward a stronger and more robust framework of cross-agency governance,” he said.
“The Auditor-General’s report reinforces the need for this change to occur.”
Mr Ward said the report affirmed the need for a framework for early intervention.
“The data has already been used to predict likely demand for key social services following the economic impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
“The NSW Government will continue to invest in evidence-based early intervention programs that are proven to deliver good outcomes for vulnerable children and families across our state.”