CASHING IN ON PAIN
Racket costing taxpayers $27,000 a week to care for a child
TAXPAYERS are being slugged $27,000 a week for a child in residential care as profit-hungry agencies rort the system under the watch of Child Safety.
A Bulletin investigation has lifted the lid on a “resi-care” racket where providers are charging up to $1.4 million a year to look after one child.
Gold Coast teenagers complain they are physically and sexually abused and going without food while carers say they are underpaid.
TAXPAYERS are being slugged $27,000 a week for a child in residential care as profit-hungry agencies rort the system under the watch of Child Safety.
A Bulletin investigation has lifted the lid on a “resi-care” racket in which providers are charging up to $1.4 million a year to look after one child.
On average, it is estimated taxpayers are coughing up $450,000-$600,000 every year for each of the hundreds of southeast Queensland children deemed too vulnerable to be placed in foster care.
Even then, Gold Coast teenagers complain they are physically and sexually abused and going without food. Their carers say they are underpaid and working marathon shifts.
Police say they are dealing with increasing call-outs, as “resi-care” kids shifted from Logan to the Coast go missing or steal money to feed themselves. Some in frustration retaliate by smashing homes and the cars of carers.
A police source knows of an agency worker who boasted about how to fleece the system.
“There’s no reconciliation. You submit you have 100 kids and cost it out – that’s where your money goes. The carer will get funding per month. Then they will look at getting two-for-one pizzas and pocket the rest,” the source said. The Bulletin investigation has uncovered:
• A Logan girl is costing $1.4 million a year in care; another on the Coast $1.2 million.
• Child Safety is investigating a complaint from teenage boys alleging one of them was thrown against a wall by a carer during a dispute.
• A teenager wanted to “end it all” after 28 placements since the age of two and faces life on the streets after a dispute with carers.
• Photographs show empty shelves in fridges, and texts from carers tell children to go get a job to feed themselves.
• Carers are working a 128hour fortnight as agencies cut staff.
“The amount of money allocated to the funding of kids is phenomenal,” said mental health youth support worker Tony Hodder.
“The fundamentals of the business is increasing profit margins. The more extreme the behaviour, the more the funding goes up.
“A lot of it falls back to the government to uphold their part of the bargain. They (Child Safety) don’t get time to spend with each individual case.
“They depend on the reporting of the non-government agencies to be accurate. They don’t want the kids to come to case-planning meetings. The focus is about controlling the money.”
Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates said: “We have concerns that the system is being rorted because there are no proper checks and balances.”
Police are sympathetic to the children, getting repeat call-outs to resi-care homes as the carers cannot cope.
“Some of these kids are in there because they can’t get a foster family. Of late it’s been quite noticeable the amount of kids in care who are getting picked up for stolen cars, break and enters, or assaults,” a police source said.
“They shoplift, they steal and some of them resort to violent crime. The other big issue is kids absconding from those care facilities. They can’t hold the kids, they can’t physically restrain them.
“This is where it gets messy. You have kids who will go from the Gold Coast to a house in Logan and vice-versa, then they do a runner and go back to what they know.”
Gold Coast teenager Steve, who has been under Child Safety for 14 years, said he had been assaulted and knew of drug use and sexual abuse involving other “resi kids”. (See story right.) “By age 10 I had already cut lines (self-harm) and wanted to end it all. People called me names, told me to kill myself and the only thing that kept me going was my little brother,” he said.
The Ombudsman referred a complaint back to Child Safety after it was alleged Steve and his brother were “assaulted and spoken to sexually by workers”.
The 13-year-old brother was taken to the Southport Watchhouse “with not a single person from the carer organisation or Child Safety present to protect his rights as a minor”. Child Safety confirmed a “standards of care harm report” was recorded and the investigation was ongoing.
“However, I can advise the youth workers that the allegations are in relation to, are no longer an employee of the service provider. This has identified challenges to the department in reaching an outcome,” Child Safety said.
Mr Hodder, who founded the support agency Wingman, said many workers with the non-government organisations (NGO) working for Child Safety were not qualified
It breaks my heart to hear that these kids are on the brink of self-harm and living on the streets because the system has failed them MUDGEERABA MP ROS BATES
to deal with children facing numerous health issues.
“Child Safety doesn’t see the child. They rely on the NGO to have a strategy. The kids don’t come to case-planning meetings. The youth workers are equally the victims here.
“In my seven years of working with kids in care, the only place where I actually felt like I and the kids mattered was with Youth Justice, not the NGOs.
“They had strategies in place for your self-care, but most importantly they did not overwork you.”
Ms Bates said the allegations added to recent departmental failures, including the death of a baby at Tweed Heads and injuries to twins, all under the watch of Child Safety.
“It breaks my heart to hear that these kids are on the brink of self-harm, living on the streets because the system has failed them,’’ she said.
Child Safety Minister Di Farmer said young people placed in residential care were more likely to have experienced significant neglect and serious trauma than most of those in general out-of-home care placements. “As a result of these experiences they are also more likely to have more challenging behaviours and other complex issues,” she said.
“They are supported in these homes by trained professionals to help them overcome their past experiences so they can go on to face bright futures.”
Ms Farmer said the Government recognised the importance of having suitably qualified staff to support the young people in residential care and was implementing a new minimum qualification standard.