Foster Care Victoria

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh appeared on the ABC’s Life Matters the other day discussing a new scheme to jail parents who leave children unsupervised to do things such as gambling, drinking or shopping.

While most of us would agree that leaving young children unsupervised for long periods of time for any reason is unwise and potentially life-threatening to these children, it seems like a huge jump from there to incarcerating their absent parents. Let’s think about our goals here for a minute - surely the primary problem here is that young children are being left without a caregiver for long periods of time? This being the case, incarcerating their primary caregiver, therefore making them unable to provide care for their child at all, seems like a rather self-defeating measure.

We must also take into account the huge cost of such an exercise as well as the potential strain on the already struggling foster care system. By putting in to place such a scheme we would also be knowingly placing some of the most vulnerable members of society in a criminogenic environment, which is in itself a major concern.

Surely the sensible thing to do is provide education and support to assist parents in understanding the needs of their children. Sanctions may be appropriate for repeat offenders, but let them be productive - compulsory attendance at parenting programs or a supervision order. More primary caregivers in prison is not going to solve anyone’s problems, least of all those of the child.

The audio can be found here, and a related article from the ABC website can be found here.

The Australian Childhood Foundation has is calling for religious leaders to have the same obligations in mandatory reporting of abuse as teachers, doctors and nurses.

AChF provide many supports including therepy to children who have suffer trauma and abuse. They work very closely with foster care organisations, especially through a number of the thereputic programs for foster children with specific or high needs.  

This article appeared in the local Leader Newspaper last week and brings to light a disturbing case where a man made a confession to a priest that he sexually abused his daughter. The priest did not report the confession and the abuse continued.

Maroondah Leader has asked for reader feedback on “Do you think church leaders should have to report child abuse confessed to them?”… surely this is a no-brainer.   

The Herald Sun printed a damning article regarding Victoria’s residential care system last Friday. Despite the efforts of the Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary, little attention was given to the extremity of some of these children’s situations or possible solutions for this problem, with the focus lying (once again) squarely on the failings of the agencies who provide this service. You can read the full article
here, or The Age’s version of the story here.

Last night SBS’s Insight program explored questions around Child Protection and included a range of panellists, including former foster children or children who had in some way experienced the system, representatives from DOCS and DHS, case workers and psychologists. What fascinated me about this particular program was that mostly, there was a general consensus on a number of points (which doesn’t often happen on Insight!). These were that: 1) the system is not coping in most states and is therefore not meeting the needs of children 2) Victoria seems to have the strongest tradition and current system for preventative action 3) More funding is needed 4) the decisions about whether or not to remove a child are extremely difficult, so much so that two adult brothers still do not agree on whether they themselves should have been removed.

The program succeeded in amplifying to a larger audience these points, all of which anyone who works in the field could have reeled off in their sleep. I was disappointed however that the problem of the diminishing supply of foster carers was not mentioned. Even when Jenny Brockie seemed to push for fewer notifications to be left investigated and more children to be removed, no one raised the issue of a shortage of foster homes to place them in.

Brockie’s recurring question, “What are we going for the kids at risk tonight”, can only be answered in part by state departments, the bulk of the answer must come from us as a nation in terms of funding, and we as citizens of a community and our role in supporting families and children.

In the end, and in the words of a former foster child, what ‘kids at risk’ need is “even when I was, you know, a bloody annoying kid … to know that yes, there is someone out there that actually cares about them, that actually loves them and is not going to give up on them“.  

Kids at Risk can be watched online, and is also repeated on Firday at 1:30 and Monday at 3:30.   

We have posted a couple of times on this blog concerning the strain on the child protection system in New South Wales.  DOCS was in the media again over the weekend - see this article from the Australian on Saturday, and this post on the ABC website. 

 Both articles compare the situation in New South Wales with other states, notably Victoria.  Victoria is seen as being in a stronger position in terms of fewer notifications and better management of Out of Home Care because the bulk of the work is carried out by non-government organisations.  Interestingly, DOCS has been given until 2013 to prove that it meets the standards to be an accredited Out of Home Care provider.   I am not sure it is particularly helpful to compare states.  At least not without also comparing demographic differences,  substantial variations in legislation and policy, and the host of other variables that contribute to both successes and strains on child protection.    Given the common national goal of keeping our children safe, state differences in practice are quite remarkable. 

For the past month Opinion pages in newspapers around the nation have been filled with letters, some with praise, some with disagreement, over the Prime Minister’s Apology to the Stolen Generations. For me personally it was a very significant and dignified day where we, as a nation,  finally reached a maturity in realising and taking responsibility for horrific mistakes throughout history.

Of course, the whole apology has been a contentious area, and as reported by The Age, Federal MP Sophie Mirabella was one who disagreed and who, in fact, boycotted Parliament. While Sophie Mirabella is entitled to her opinion, however, I do feel that her argument that ‘condemning the past removal of indigenous children may scare welfare officers from protecting children in future‘ misses the mark. While even recently judges and other public figures have pointed to concerns over repeating a history of separation, in publically and officially recognising the flawed policies of removal based on race, Australia now has a new frame of reference for Child Protection which is purely based on simply that; protecting children. Surely the public Apology for racial bases for removal actually alleviates the risk of decisions being made for fear of comparisons to past policies.

For foster care too, the apology draws a line and separates past policies from today’s context and the aims of foster care, which is to provide temporary care for children until they can return home.

Those of us working in the field sometimes can get a bit down about our likeness to a broken record and our repeated spiel, which is almost habitual now, about a “foster care crisis”. Well, a recently released report from the government reassured us that we are not in the least sensationalist.

A 102% increase in the number of children nationally in Out of Home Care over the past 10 years, together with what we know about the ever decreasing number of carers is quite a confronting scenario. The Age reported these findings and included the Victorian relevant information, or, for a condensed version see the media release put out by the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. For people with some extra time for a leisurely net-surf, check out the full report. It has data on state comparisons of the number of children in care, length of time in care, notifications, substantiations, ages of children, reasons for being in care etc. It’s is well worth a read.

Although according to this report the situation in Victoria is actually more contained than other states such as NSW (possibly due to recent policy changes) is does go some way to explain the strain the system (and those trying to work within it) is under. Also, the enormity of the situation in NSW and the recent spate of problems concerning DOCs are unlikely to be unrelated coincidences.

The question we’re all asking is whether there will be a 102% increase in the funding!  

This article from the Age on the 20th of January is saddening.  It concerns the disparity in sentencing for child rapists, depending on the age of the child.  Perpetrators of children over ten years old are more likely to receive lenient sentencing, and may not be imprisoned at all. 

” Victoria’s County and Supreme Court records show that of the 193 people convicted of raping children aged 10 to 16, just 60 were jailed; 39 received wholly suspended sentences.”

 People who held positions of community trust were more likely to be sentenced (22 out of 28).  Does the severity and impact of this crime against children change according to the age of the child, or the job held by the perpetrator?   The inconsisency is concerning, and certainly does not send the community as a whole a particularly clear message about the devastation of child sexual abuse.  As Joe Tucci (CEO Australian Childhood Foundation) puts it, “we fail our children.” 

Both the Herald Sun and The Age have published articles in the last couple of days concerning the increasing rates of child abuse and numbers of children residing in out of home care.  According to the Age, 28,441 children were removed nationally from their parents last year - 50% placed in foster care.  This article from the Herald Sun provides a snapshot of the picture in Victoria, with breakdowns of types of abuse.  It is not hard to see why the system is under strain - carers, support agencies, and protective services alike. 

This article was posted last night on the ABC News website - the Western Australian government has announced a scheme to financially compensate all children who were abused in foster care, institutional or non-governmental care prior to March 2006.  This is good news indeed.  It shows a government willing to take responsibility and face up to the regrettable incidents of the past.