Australia - MK, 15, raped and died in foster care, Westmead NSW, 21 April 2014

[Bohemian]

Child protection system 'might as well be from 30 years ago', paediatrics expert calls to replace it

'The residential care model for children unable to be placed in foster homes should be thrown out in favour of a "science-based solution", a paediatrics expert says.

Children who are taken from abusive or neglectful parents are usually placed with foster families, but when that falls apart the children are sometimes placed in "resi" homes.

The Four Corners investigation which went to air last night revealed that despite 42 inquiries since 1997, and the migration of foster care to the private sector, sexual abuse and neglect remain rife.

And it also showed that private providers have been the beneficiaries of a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded industry. [...]'

 

[Bohemian]

Three of four at-risk children killed last year in NSW were known to social workers, report says

At-risk facilities need major overhaul: Labor

This week, the ABC's Four Corners exposed abuse and neglect in residential homes — places where children live because they don't have foster carers.

In NSW, more than 600 children live in these facilities, which are run by non-government organisations (NGOs).

The Premier Mike Baird has announced changes that will force the NGOs to have a clear therapy-based plan for each child they accommodate.

The Minister for Family and Community Services Brad Hazzard said some of the residential care providers "need a bit of guidance to change their practices".

Labor said that was a shocking understatement, given one of the cases that has been highlighted recently involved a 12-year-old sexual assault victim being placed in a residential home with an older boy who was facing sexual assault allegations.

The girl and boy were not separated despite repeated warnings, until the boy admitted he had had sex with the minor.

"It's just unbelievable that this Government does not understand how distressing it is for the community to understand that children are dying under the care of this Government," Ms Mihailuk said.​

She said the residential care system "has been neglected".

"We know that there are contracts that have been set up in 2012, they were renewed this year in 2016, none of those contracts specify any ramifications or penalty if an NGO neglects its duty of care obligations towards a child," Ms Mihailuk added.'

 

[Bohemian]

NSW's 'single biggest reform to child welfare' is a re-run of decade-old promises

'After the ABC's Four Corners aired horrifying evidence of abuse and mismanagement in the out-of-home care system for foster children, New South Wales Premier Mike Baird announced what he what he called the "single biggest reform to child welfare in NSW".

While I have no doubt Baird is trying to improve the lives of children, his "solution" is a re-run of failed promises made by the Carr government more than a decade ago.

The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption in the late 1990s exposed evidence that police and the child welfare sector were ignoring cases of paedophiles abusing children in out-of-home care. As a result, the NSW Government introduced new standards that child welfare agencies were supposed to meet to prove they could properly care for children. This was known as "accreditation".

The huge disaster here is that the biggest player in the sector — the NSW Government's own department in charge of child welfare, Family and Community Services — has never itself received accreditation.

This was highlighted in a report released after the Four Corners program by the NSW Audit Office, which also criticised the department's inability to track what happens to children in care.

The fact that Family and Community Services has not achieved accreditation, after so many years, shows how deeply flawed the system is.'