Cash to care for problem children

STATE governments are increasingly outsourcing the care of the most difficult abused and neglected children to private operators.

STATE governments are increasingly outsourcing the care of the nation's most difficult abused and neglected children to private operators and paying thousands of dollars a week to place them in foster homes.

The operators - who are receiving tens of millions of dollars a year from the states - are advertising on job sites such as seek.com for foster carers, offering tax-free allowances of up to $650 a week plus paid holidays, regular breaks, rent assistance, and 24-hour telephone support.

These not-for-profit operators are building their businesses around their willingness to take the nation's most troubled children - including those who act out sexually and violently - off government books.

Carers are told that children may be treated with medication if the relevant state department approves.

Some welfare experts are concerned about the arrival and the sudden growth of private operators, among them a company known as Key Assets. It opened in Western Australia last year and expanded to South Australia last week. It hopes to open in NSW, and has already gone to New Zealand.

Although Key Assets has only a small number of local children on its books, it is keen to expand. It is a branch of Britain's largest independent foster care company, Foster Care Associates, which has offices in England, Scotland, and Sweden. Its directors are mostly British-based.

Key Assets was this week advertising for foster carers on its website, highlighting the "excellent financial rewards" available to carers, plus 24-hour support, paid holidays and rest periods.

It offers to find homes for troubled children on a "spot purchase" basis, meaning it will charge a set amount to provide shelter for a particular child.

The Weekend Australian understands from a source inside the foster care industry that the amount charged is in the order of $6000 a week.

Key Assets also offers "block contracts" to provide shelter for groups of children.

The company is successful and highly regarded in Britain, where its nimble, and less bureaucratic model of care has won plaudits.

Key Assets competes for funds with other agencies, such as the NSW-based Life Without Barriers, a non-profit corporation set up in the 1990s, which only recently moved into foster care, and now has 800 children on its books.

Life Without Barriers last year enjoyed a healthy 95 per cent increase in its business with the NSW Department of Community Services. It took $85 million in funding, of which $20 million went on salaries. Its directors, who say they derive no income or financial gain, aremostly local lawyers and businesspeople.

It specialises in placing children with extremely challenging behaviour in private homes.

It regularly places ads for what it calls "professional foster carers" on job websites, such as Seek.com.

Its ads spruik a tax-free income "averaging $650 a week for a full-time placement and up to $150 per night for respite", which is when foster carers take a child with, for example, a severe disability, to give the parents a break.

Life Without Barriers also operates in Queensland, where an arrangement with local businesses allows foster carers to get access to a range of cheap products such as unlimited $5.95 Eagle Boy pizzas; discounts on car tyres; and even 10 per cent off the cremation of their dead pet, from Pets Eternal Peace.

Life Without Barriers CEO Ray Dunn told The Weekend Australian that his corporation's carers received "reimbursement" for their efforts that covered "reasonable costs for the care of an individual child.

"Having invariably been the victims of abuse and neglect, these children exhibit some very challenging behaviours," he said.

"The people who take on these children accept a tremendous responsibility in nurturing them."

Key Assets had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication.

The director-general of the Department of Child Protection in WA, Terry Murphy, said small, non-government agencies cared for "high needs children". They were required to "operate efficiently and effectively" and engage with the department "in continuously improving its services to provide the best possible service for the department's clients".

The arrival of private operators - which provide a service similar to that of private employment agencies comes as savvy foster carers begin to tout themselves as professionals, worthy of extra pay.

The Weekend Australian understands that some foster parents are advertising themselves to private corporations as specialists in the care of disabled children.

In NSW, severely disabled children attract a stipend of $1100 a fortnight. The payment is tax-free, and does not affect any other benefits a carer may receive, such as the parenting payments.

Other foster carers have set themselves up as carers for newborn babies, mostly born to drug-addicted mothers. Their duties might include the administration of methadone but if the baby is less than 13 weeks old when it arrives in the home, and stays for a minimum 13 weeks, the carer qualifies for a tax-free, cash payment of $5000.

Before the arrival of professional foster carers, the child protection industry was dominated by church-based welfare agencies, and community-minded individuals.

Erica McKinnon, of the Family Inclusion Network in WA, a group that believes that many of the 28,000 Australian children in foster care could, with proper support, be at home with their parents, said foster carers now qualified for a range of benefits that weren't available to the child's biological parents.

"It doesn't seem fair that a child is removed from a home and placed in a new home with a carer who has all kind of support available, including extra income, while the parent is basically being punished," she said.

But she said it was reasonable to pay people a reasonable salary to care for troubled children.

"If there is a social worker or a teacher, somebody with the right skills, who wants to take a year off and take in some children, and they will get an income for that, they should be able to do that."

Australian Council of Welfare Association's CEO Andrew McCallum, said governments should really look at "why there are 28,000 kids living apart from their parents, rather than just expanding the system (of care.)

"We know it's not the best thing for kids. We know it damages the children."