Care sector calls for more funding for foster parents ahead of Child Safety Commission of Inquiry

While the state government conducts a commission of inquiry into the Child Safety sector, the care sector said it was not ignorance, but a lack of commitment that has led to huge cost blowout and a generation of children lost to addiction, crime and neglect.

The care sector has backed Premier David Crisafulli’s Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety on the condition that it leads to meaningful change.

Paying foster parents a decent wage and providing their wards with wraparound support are key outcomes the care sector wants to see from the Queensland government’s Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety.

The inquiry, led by Paul Anastassiou KC, will look into the Department of Child Safety’s over-reliance on residential care homes and social, criminal and economic baggage that come with it.

In the Darling Downs alone, the number of children in residential care grew from 136 in 2015 to 444 in 2023.

The average cost to taxpayers was $420,000 per child, per year and much of this money has been funnelled to for-profit providers.

Many of these children have suffered significant trauma, having been victims of sexual and physical violence, neglect or domestic violence. Just under half have limited intellectual functioning or have self-harmed in the past and a quarter have attempted suicide.

They are also over-represented in the Youth Justice system.

In announcing the commission, Premier David Crisafulli said it was needed to uncover the system’s failures.

“This is the Commission of Inquiry the State must have if we are serious about the safety of Queensland children and our communities,” he said.

But for many in the sector, the failures and their causes were already well-known. What they want is change.

“It will quickly become clear through the inquiry that the challenges in Queensland are not a result of the absence of knowing what is needed to create a better system, it is an enduring and entrenched lack of meaningful action by successive governments on the things we know will make the biggest difference,” PeakCare chief executive Tom Allsop said.

Chief Executive of PeakCare QLD, Tom Allsop, Sunday, May 14, 2023 – Picture: Richard Walker

“If we’re serious about addressing the issues in the child safety system in Queensland, we need to start by taking early intervention and prevention seriously.

“Central to that is making sure children and their families are supported during those crucial 0-8 years.”

PeakCare is the industry body for child and family services and it identified the drop in foster parent numbers as a key driver of the reliance on residential homes.

That drop was blamed on cost of living pressure and a lack of support to care for children with complex needs.

Emerge founder Jen Shaw runs a residential home and is also a foster mum.

She said the allowance given to foster parents was about $350 a week and barely covers the costs associated with caring for a child.

This forced foster parents to work a second job to pay the bills.

She welcomed the inquiry and said she would make a submission.

“I think the Crisafulli government is the first Queensland government to take Child Safety reform seriously,” she said.

“The inquiry will be good so long as they fund and implement the recommendations that come out of it.

“We need to take all that money that is spent on residential care and pump it into foster care, so that we can actually invest in these young people, like a family would.”

Ms Shaw pointed to programs run in NSW, and those run by OzChild in the Darling Downs, that provide foster parents with a good wage and a team of social workers, psychologists and teachers who address a child’s needs.

“I hope this is a genuine inquiry that brings about genuine change,” she said.