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❓ WA Parliamentary Question on Notice regarding children in out-of-home care, focusing on the role of parental substance misuse and departmental responses. The Department of Communities was unable to provide much of the requested data due to resource constraints.

AnsweredQoN 501Legislative Council

Asked

21 August 2025

Member

Hon Michelle Boylan

Portfolio

Child Protection

QuestionView source ↗

(1) For each of the financial years 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25, and year-to-date 2025–26: (a) how many children were taken into out-of-home care in Western Australia; (b) of those in (a), how many cases cited parental or carer drug or substance misuse as a primary factor; and (c) please provide the number broken down by region? (2) For each of the same financial years in (1): (a) how many children currently in out-of-home care have parental or carer drug or substance misuse recorded as a factor in their case management records; and (b) in reference to (a), what proportion of the total out-of-home care population does this represent? (3) For each of the same financial years in (1): (a) how many referrals have been made by the Department of Communities to drug and alcohol treatment services for parents or carers subject to child protection interventions; (b) how many of these referrals in (a) were completed and services engaged; and (c) in reference to (a), how many were declined, not taken up, or unable to be actioned due to service capacity? (4) As at the date of this question: (a) how many child protection cases are currently open where drug or alcohol misuse is identified as a contributing factor; and (b) how many of these cases involve Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island children, and what proportion of the total does this represent? (5) For each of the same financial years in (1), what proportion of reunification plans for children in care have been unsuccessful due to continued drug or substance misuse by parents or carers?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered

14 October 2025

Responded by

Minister for Agriculture and Food representing the Minister for Child Protection

Response time

7 days

The Department of Communities advises:
(1)
a)
Financial year
Number of children entering care
2025-2026
135 (July to August 2025)
2024-2025
799
2023-2024
935
2022-2023
861
2021-2022
684
b) This information is contained within individual case files and is unable to be reported without a significant diversion of Departmental resources.
c) Not applicable as per response to b).
(2 – 5) This information is not captured in a reportable format and is held on individual case files. It is unable to be reported without a significant diversion of Departmental resources.

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