Help for the state’s most vulnerable children will start before birth

Keeping children safe and healthy from their earliest days is a major focus of the NSW budget, including $1 billion in new funding to repair the state’s broken child protection system, as well as better access to maternal healthcare for pregnant women and families in the crucial first five years of their children’s lives.

The record increase for the out-of-home care system underpins reform of the system, which includes wresting more control of the foster system from private agencies and back to the Department of Communities and Justice.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and NSW Minister for Disability Inclusion and Families and Communities Kate Washington during a meeting with carers on Tuesday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Tuesday’s announcement is the biggest ever investment in child protection in NSW, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said in his budget speech on Tuesday.

“In March 2023, more than 100 children cared for by the State of NSW were sleeping in motels,” Mookhey said. “Unaccredited emergency accommodation. No proper support. Barely adequate supervision.”

A total of 13,780 children are wards of the state in out-of-home care arrangements, including foster care, kinship and residential care.

Aboriginal children are significantly overrepresented. Almost one in 20 Aboriginal children in NSW were in out-of-home care as at June 2024 (45.1 per 1000 population), 10 times the rate of non-Indigenous children.

The new package contains an additional $797.6 million to support and reform the out-of-home care system, including $143.9 million in new money to underpin a 20 per cent rise in the foster carer allowance to retain and recruit more foster carers.

This will increase the tax-free payment to the carer of a typical 14-year-old from $880 to $1056 a fortnight, an extra $4576 a year. For a typical five-year-old, the carer allowance rises from $656 to $787.20 a fortnight, an increase of $3411.20 a year.

“Those with love to give a child needing foster care should have the financial means to do so,” Mookhey said.

Another $49.2 million will fund 44 government-owned, purpose-built or upgraded residential care homes for children over the age of 12 with complex needs, and $10 million for the Office of the Children’s Guardian.

“Since April this year, for the first time in over 20 years, no children are staying in motels,” Mookhey said.

The total $1.2 billion package includes $1 billion in new spending. An additional $191.5 million found from other savings will fund a pay rise for the state’s 2126 caseworkers and to recruit more than 200 new caseworkers in a system where almost one in 10 positions were vacant in March 2023.

Mookhey said the positions would be “funded by the savings created by no longer having to pay labour hire firms to care for kids in motels”.

A separate $83.8 million in health funding has been allocated to a Maternity Care and First 2000 Days package, including $44.8 million for 53 new full-time equivalent midwife positions, and expanding midwifery group practices to increase access to continuity of care and parenting support.

The package also covers enhanced maternal care training for clinicians and $5.7 million for free vaccinations for pregnant women against whooping cough, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to protect them and their babies.

Another $21.9 million over three years will fund an Aboriginal Families First 2000 Days measure to provide culturally responsive care during pregnancy and for their children up to five years old.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.