‘7300 incidents of in-care abuse’ in one year in Victoria

More than 700 vulnerable Victorian teenagers in state-run residential care suffered serious abuse in one year.

The violence and social problems sweeping through the residential care units further highlights the crisis engulfing child protection in Victoria.

More than 700 vulnerable teenagers in state-run residential care suffered serious physical and sexual abuse in just one year, a disclosure that will plunge Victoria’s child protection service deeper into crisis.

Victoria’s Commission for Children and Young Persons has revealed that despite teenagers being placed in residential care for their own safety, they can often be subjected to violence and more than 7300 incidents were reported in 2019-20.

Eighteen children in residential care died that year while there were more than 2000 cases where teens ran away from residential units, according to the commission’s annual report.

“Incidents in residential care accounted for approximately three-quarters of the year’s total … incidents, even though this group of children make up approximately 5 per cent of the out-of-home-care population,” the report states.

The violence and social problems sweeping through the residential care units, now managed by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, further highlights the crisis engulfing child protection in Victoria.

The Weekend Australian reported that 65 children and teenagers known to child protection services died in 2019-20.

Senior Andrews government minister Jacinta Allan said on Monday that every child death was deeply traumatic for families, loved ones and child protection practitioners. “We know there’s always more to do in this really challenging area, which is why last November’s budget added significant resources to employ significant additional child protection practitioners into this area,” Ms Allan said. “We know there is always more to be done.”

She described the case of Baby M as “deeply distressing”.

 

“We have added significant extra resources … to employ more child protection practitioners on the frontline, and additional support, administrative supports, to wrap around those child protection practitioners because they are doing really difficult work in really challenging circumstances, and it’s critical that they get every support they can,” she said.

Among the biggest problems in residential care, according to the commission, is the number of children who abscond from the units. During the year, 179 major and 1980 non-major runaway incidents were recorded.

Sexual exploitation of at-risk teens is also a major problem, with the commission logging 236 cases during the year.

The commission also notes that one of the major flaws in child protection involves the premature closure of cases by authorities.

Eleven child death inquiries in the past year noted “premature case closure”.

“In six of these cases, the risks to children were not adequately assessed due to poor information sharing or poor information gathering, including in one case evidence of sexual exploitation,” the commission’s report states.

“Premature case closures where there were several re-reports also pointed to a need to improve understanding of cumulative harm. Other issues that led to cases being closed prematurely included the ‘refer and close roundabout’ resulting from premature closure of cases and referrals to support services which are not followed up.”

An earlier version of this report incorrectly said more than 7000 teenagers in state-run residential care had suffered abuse in just one year. The correct number is 700. The error was introduced in production.