Growth in demand for services

The Department of Child Safety says it is committed to building a strong service system in the face of growing demand for its services.

The comments come after The Chronicle revealed the number of young people living in group homes in our community has more than doubled in the past eight years, from 136 in 2015 to 444 in 2023.

These are children who are our most vulnerable, for whom it is no longer safe to live with their parents but are waiting for foster care placement or a kinship care placement.

Some have had several kinship or foster care placements but have been put back into residential care as result of their violence or drug use.

In a statement to The Chronicle, a department spokeswoman said demand on the child protection system remained high and was driven by the continued impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, population growth, cost of living pressures and increasingly complex issues faced by many families.

“Every child deserves to be supported, and our residential care services are an important part of a suite of placement options available to keep children safe, particularly for children with high need behaviours, disabilities requiring 24-hour medical care and large sibling groups,” she said.

“The vast majority of children in out-of-home care are in family-based placements, and we continue to undertake regular carer recruitment campaigns to increase the number of foster carers as well as prioritise locating kin carers for children wherever appropriate.

“We have also been working to increase the proportion of children and young people cared for by kinship carers. This work includes having dedicated kin teams in regional areas to find, connect and assess more kinship carers.

“Since June 30 2019, the proportion placed with kin has increased from about 44 per cent of children and young people in care to just over 48 per cent.”