❓ Ms. Mettam questions the Minister for Child Protection about a report on children in care. The Minister confirms she has now been briefed and outlines the scope of work within the child protection portfolio.
AnsweredQoN 139Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CHILD PROTECTION —
INTERNAL REPORT
139. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the minister's
response to questions in the Legislative Council this week that she had not
been briefed on a report titled Profile and pathways of children who enter
care , which tracked 327 children in care from 2019 to 2021. Has the
minister now been briefed on this report; and, if not, why not?
INTERNAL REPORT
139. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the minister's
response to questions in the Legislative Council this week that she had not
been briefed on a report titled Profile and pathways of children who enter
care , which tracked 327 children in care from 2019 to 2021. Has the
minister now been briefed on this report; and, if not, why not?
AnswerView source ↗
I have now been briefed on that
report. I think the member needs to understand the scale of the work that is
done within the child protection portfolio. We know that there are just over 5 000
children in care. It has gone down over the last 18 months or so, but there are
about 5 100 children in care. But there are many more families that the
department works with, and out of that number of children who are in care,
there is a churn. There are some children who will come into care under
temporary orders. The department will work with them, the community sector
organisations will work with that family and, ideally, there is reunification.
Therefore, at any one time, there is a large number of investigations, early
intervention and reunifications that take place. Earlier I referred to the Target 120 program, so there are at-risk youth as
well, so quite a bit of work is done in the child protection portfolio.
The department is continually
looking at how it can improve the end-to-end experience to minimise the number of children who are at risk or are harmed. To that
end, it is responsible for the delivery of many of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, for
example, and the delivery of preventive harm
mechanisms out there in the community. Quite a bit of work is done within the
department constantly to ensure that we have good policies and practices
in place, good professional supervision and good partnerships and the like with
our foster carers and community sector organisations. I hope I am giving the
member a good understanding that quite a lot
of work gets done in the department. Regarding this specific piece of work that
looked at a snapshot of a certain number of children and young people
who came into the care of the department and what their journey was over a specific
period, it is not unusual that I would not see the sort of detail. But, yes, I have
since seen that report.
report. I think the member needs to understand the scale of the work that is
done within the child protection portfolio. We know that there are just over 5 000
children in care. It has gone down over the last 18 months or so, but there are
about 5 100 children in care. But there are many more families that the
department works with, and out of that number of children who are in care,
there is a churn. There are some children who will come into care under
temporary orders. The department will work with them, the community sector
organisations will work with that family and, ideally, there is reunification.
Therefore, at any one time, there is a large number of investigations, early
intervention and reunifications that take place. Earlier I referred to the Target 120 program, so there are at-risk youth as
well, so quite a bit of work is done in the child protection portfolio.
The department is continually
looking at how it can improve the end-to-end experience to minimise the number of children who are at risk or are harmed. To that
end, it is responsible for the delivery of many of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, for
example, and the delivery of preventive harm
mechanisms out there in the community. Quite a bit of work is done within the
department constantly to ensure that we have good policies and practices
in place, good professional supervision and good partnerships and the like with
our foster carers and community sector organisations. I hope I am giving the
member a good understanding that quite a lot
of work gets done in the department. Regarding this specific piece of work that
looked at a snapshot of a certain number of children and young people
who came into the care of the department and what their journey was over a specific
period, it is not unusual that I would not see the sort of detail. But, yes, I have
since seen that report.
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