FIGURES HIDE KIDS’ TRAGEDY

THE magnitude of the financial numbers revealed from our investigation into what can only be termed as a child residential care “industry’’ masks an even greater scandal – or tragedy.

Looking at the costs involved in the Government’s Child Safety department farming out to agencies the care of hundreds of kids deemed too vulnerable to be placed with foster families, one suspects taxpayers are being fleeced. This is despite the screaming need for the children and teens to be safely housed. We all know that high levels of care come at a high price, but these sorts of costs?

How providers can charge up to

$1.4 million a year to look after a single child beggars belief. How taxpayers pay on average $400,000 to $650,000 a year per child is difficult to grasp. How agencies can then turn around and cut the numbers of carers raises questions.

Then there are the allegations of mistreatment of kids and, as reported today, the heart-wrenching case of a youth who has been in 28 “placements’’ since he was two and is staring at life on the streets. It is in the treatment and the bleak prospects of these kids, the misery and reports of self harm, and the allegations of abuse that the tragedy behind the figures emerges.

Child Safety Minister Di Farmer says the challenging behaviours and complex issues of the children require services of trained professionals. That is understandable, but can she really expect people to swallow such costs, especially when the task has been shunted out to the private sector where the bottom line rules.