‘Horrifying’: Alarm over NSW’s child protection failures
A scathing report has found the NSW government is failing to meet any of its child protection responsibilities, with children cycling through temporary and emergency accommodation and the department not properly responding to serious allegations of abuse.
The NSW Ombudsman’s report, which has been labelled as “horrifying” by child welfare advocates, is the fourth damning report in as many months into the Department of Communities and Justice’s child protection services.
The Ombudsman found 75 per cent of children reported to be at risk of harm were not visited by a caseworker, prompting the watchdog to launch a maladministration investigation into the department’s response to these reports.
Department staff screen risk-of-harm reports to determine whether they meet a threshold of “significant harm”, which includes allegations of sexual abuse, serious physical abuse or serious neglect.
Just a quarter of children reported as at risk of significant harm received a face-to-face visit by a caseworker in 2022-23, down from 29 per cent in 2017-18, the Ombudsman found. Aboriginal children were four times more likely to be involved in risk of significant harm reports as non-Aboriginal children.
The report also found children are being left in limbo in the out-of-home care system without plans to find them permanent homes through family restoration, guardianship or adoption.
Just 13 per cent of children had a “permanency goal”, which means there are plans in place for their return to their families or for guardianship or adoption with a foster family, down from 17 per cent in June 2020.
In the five years to June 2023, adoption rates decreased by 57 per cent, exits to a permanent home declined by 19 per cent, and family restoration decreased by 22 per cent.
Instead, these children are placed in residential care or emergency accommodation such as hotels and motels. The report also found that one in three children had a substantiated allegation of abuse while in residential care.
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