The Commission for Child and Young People’s (CCYP) Left behind inquiry report tabled in the Victorian Parliament this week has been welcomed by the peak body for child and family services, which is calling for more support for home-based carers.
The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare says the report’s findings reinforce many years of advocacy by the peak and its member organisations, highlighting the escalating risk to children and young people posed by a child protection and family system under pressure.
However, the Centre’s Interim CEO Dr Michele Lonsdale says the declining number of foster carers is making it very difficult to provide this safety net for children and young people who can’t safely live at home.
“We are desperate for more people to come forward and become foster carers and give children a loving and supportive place to live. Sometimes this is just for a short period of time, sometimes longer, while families are supported to rebuild their lives,” Dr Lonsdale said.
Victoria relies heavily on kinship carers with 81 per cent of children in our state being placed with relatives or kin. This is putting incredible strain on grandparents, siblings, extended family and sometimes family friends.
With fewer foster carers coming into the system each year, there are limited home-based options for children and young people. This means children might be moved multiple times before a safe and stable home can be found. And this is happening at an already distressing time in their young lives.
The CCYP report comes in the same week as a Victorian Auditor General’s report, also tabled in Parliament, which says Victoria is not meeting the needs of children in out-of-home care. VAGO found a reliance on kinship placements, fewer foster carers, over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care, and longstanding data quality issues which limit understanding of the system demand and children’s needs.
Left behind makes 7 findings and 13 recommendations, including better funding for family services, tailored services delivered directly to children and young people, and strengthening shared understanding of risk and the system of communication and referrals if children, young people and families are to receive the help they need.
Importantly, it demonstrates the need for additional service and funding support for early intervention for families who are struggling and are considered below the level of risk requiring a mandatory statutory intervention.
Dr Lonsdale says the data on children subject to multiple reports (75 per cent) is particularly distressing.
“We are failing children and their families at a time when they most need help. We need to make early support available and easy to access, without stigma, so families can reach out early. We also need to increase the capacity of our services to help families at risk,” she said.
According to the report, of those who did not reach the threshold for a Child Protection intervention and were referred to family services, more than half (58 per cent) could not be contacted or declined engagement, potentially leading to increasing risk, further reports, and worse outcomes.
“Our child and family services are stretched beyond capacity just responding at crisis points. Early intervention is key to making sure children can be in safe and nurturing home environments where they can thrive,” says Dr Lonsdale.
The Centre is calling on the Victorian Government to
- Substantially increase care allowancesfor foster and kinship carers, with particular attention to younger children and those with complex needs, and to treat this as a matter of urgency.
- Treat placement stability as an indicator of child rights, tracking and publicly reporting on sibling separation, placement changes and placement appropriateness.
- Fund and implement digital system reform as a child safety priority.
- Engage ACCOs and mainstream child and family services (including foster care agencies, ACCOs, and peak bodies) as genuine partners in workforce planning, recruitment and system design.
- Fund and strengthen early intervention services designed specifically for children and young people to access in their own right.
The Centre runs a foster care recruitment program in Victoria called Fostering Connections, which assists people interested in becoming foster carers with information and connection to agencies across the state. For more information visit www.fosteringconnections.com.au or call 1800 013 088 to have all your questions about becoming a foster carer answered.
Learn more about the CCYP report here
Read the Centre’s response to the VAGO out-of-home care report here