NSW Labor

The increase in reports to the NSW Community Services’ child protection Helpline is one of the factors behind the significant increase in the number of children in care across Australia, highlighted in a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) issued today.

Minister for Community Services Linda Burney said that in 2008/09 more than 300,000 reports of children at risk of harm were made.

“The increase in child protection notification and substantiations has had a flow-on effect on the out-of-home care system in NSW,” she said.

“The Government is taking action to make sure that the agency and its non-government partners can deliver a quality, sustainable service over the long term for children who cannot live safely at home.”

Under the NSW Government’s blueprint for child protection, Keep Them Safe, additional funding is being targeted at programs which will strengthen families and make it safer for more children to remain in the family home.

“Ultimately, this will lead to a reduction in the number of children and young people entering care,” Ms Burney said.

Additional funding under Keep Them Safe includes:

• $27 million for the Brighter Futures early intervention program over the next four years.
• $28 million over the next four years for extra services such as family support and sustained health home visiting to help build stronger families.
• $36 million over four years invested in intensive family preservation services working directly with families at risk of having their children taken into care.

In addition to this investment, Ms Burney said the Government is also planning a campaign to recruit more foster carers, to commence midyear.

“We need more individuals and families to open their hearts and homes to children and young people who cannot live safely with their own families – individuals, families with or without children and from any cultural or religious background,” Ms Burney said.

“Research shows children taken into care have the best outcomes when placed in family settings. So it is vitally important that more foster carers, from both city and country areas and from a range of cultural backgrounds are recruited, trained and supported to provide the loving homes these children so desperately need.”