Kids ‘at risk’ in state kinship care system

Thousands of the children affected are Indigenous, with a higher proportion of Indigenous children in Victoria in state care than in any other Australian jurisdiction.

Victorian opposition spokesman on child protection Dr Matthew Bach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Children are being put at risk because Victoria’s Department of Families Fairness and Housing is not properly monitoring their safety in kinship care, the state’s Auditor-General has found.

Thousands of the children affected are Indigenous, with a higher proportion of Indigenous children in Victoria in state care than in any other Australian ­jurisdiction.

The tabling of the report co­incided with an address to state parliament from the co-chairs of the First People’s Assembly of Victoria, ahead of debate commencing on Wednesday on the Andrews government’s treaty bill.

The Auditor-General’s report found the number of Victorian children placed in the care of their extended family members increased by 33.2 per cent between 2017 and 2021, with DFFH introducing a new kinship care model in 2018 in an attempt to accommodate this growth.

Four years later, the Auditor-General has found the ­department “cannot be assured that it is providing timely, safe and stable placements for children and young people” because it does not systematically monitor or report on whether it is achieving the objectives of the new model.

The Auditor-General found the department also did not ensure that staff and service providers complete mandatory assess­ments on how safe a home was, what support the carer needed and the child’s wellbeing.

“This puts children in care at risk because DFFH cannot confirm if they are being cared for in a safe environment. Kinship carers are also not receiving the support they need to provide stable homes for children and young people in their care.”

The Auditor-General’s office found the department met its target of checking whether a placement was safe and could meet the child’s needs within the first week of the placement just 14.2 per cent of the time.

It found the department met the target of assessing what support carers needed to ­provide a safe, secure and ­nurturing home within the first six weeks of the placement just 2.2 per cent of the time, and annual assessments to check the child’s progress, wellbeing and development and stability in the placement were completed just 0.9 per cent of the time.

Of the 12,728 Victorian children in out-of-home care in 2019-20, 2450, or almost 20 per cent, were Indigenous. Aboriginal people make up 0.8 per cent of the Victorian population.

Of the Indigenous children in state care in Victoria, 79.1 per cent were placed with relatives or other Indigenous caregivers.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Data shows that for every 1000 Indigenous children in Victoria, 103 were in out-of-home care as at June 30, 2021, compared with a national average of 58 per 1000.

Among non-Indigenous children, 4.7 per 1000 were in state care in Victoria, compared with a national average of five in 1000.

Opposition child protection spokesman Matthew Bach, who began his life in foster care before being adopted, described the Auditor-General’s report as “disturbing”

He said while the Coalition offered bipartisan support for the treaty process, “we should also be very mindful that I’m afraid here in Victoria, we continue to fail ­Indigenous kids”.

“It is a very sad fact that today, one in 10 Indigenous kids in Victoria is in care,” Mr Bach said.

“That’s by far the worst of any Australian jurisdiction.

“The government’s default response that it has employed more child protection workers to fix the system was discredited, as the report highlighted the concerning high turnover of child protection practitioners, where in four of the last six years (it) was greater than the annual staff turnover of the whole department.

“The facts are that under years of Labor, Victoria’s child protection system is unsafe, dysfunctional and fails our most vulnerable children.”