Out-of-home care placements
Some Victorian families are unable to provide a safe, secure and caring environment for their children. When this happens the Department of Health and Human Services (the department) must respond in the best interests of the child or young person. If necessary, this can result in children and young people being placedin alternative care arrangements.
For those children who cannot safely reside with their parents, home-based care is the preferred type of placement. Home-based care is where a child is placed in the home of a carer. The carer receives reimbursement to help cover the costs of a child’s living expenses. There are three categories of home-based care:
•foster care – where care is provided in the home of an approved volunteer
•relative/kinship care – where the caregiver is a family member or a person with a pre-existing relationship with the child
•permanent care – a legal arrangement in which the child lives permanently with a family approved as suitable to be their guardian. Permanent care provides stability for children who are unable to live safely with their birth parents on a long term basis.
A small and decreasing proportion of children or young people are placed in residential care units with up to three other children where staff are paid to care for them. Children in residential care are often adolescents.
The department contracts a variety of community service organisations to recruit and support volunteer foster carers and operate residential care services.Community service organisations also help to provide permanent care services and kinship care support services. There were:
•12,314 children in at least one out-of-home care placement during the year.
•3,739 admissions to and 3,307 exits from out-of-home care during 2016–17.
•9,446 annual daily average number of placements in out-of-home care.
Table 1: Daily average number of children 0–17 years in out-of-home care placements by placement type, by quarter 2016–17
Quarter / Foster / Kinship / Permanent / Residential / TotalsSeptember 2016 / 1,583 / 4,916 / 2,320 / 444 / 9,266
December 2016 / 1,584 / 5,028 / 2,421 / 433 / 9,469
March 2017 / 1,531 / 5,083 / 2,424 / 431 / 9,471
June 2017 / 1,544 / 5,143 / 2,466 / 426 / 9,581
State average 2016–17 / 1,560 / 5,043 / 2,407 / 434 / 9,446
Note: Over this period a number offoster care and kinship care placements converted to permanent care placements.Columns and the state average do not sum due to a small number of other placement types included in the total.
Table 2: Children less than 12 yearsof age in residentialThe percentage of children in out-of-home care, who are less than 12 years of age and placed in residential care, as at 30 June 2017 / 0.38%
Children aged less than 12 years of age in residential care may be in specialised arrangements to accommodate sibling groups or to care for children with high and complex needs.
Quality-of-care concerns
The departmentrequires reporting of concerns to ensure that the safety and best interests of the child are paramount at all times, and that children and young people in out-of-home care reside in safe, stable and high-quality placements. Quality-of-care concerns can range from minor quality issues through to possible physical or sexual abuse. All reports are treatedseriously and matters reported to police.
Ensuring the safety of children may involve removing the child from placement, the removal of the alleged perpetrator or, where the alleged perpetrator does not live in the placement, making arrangements for the child to have no further contact with them.
Table 3: Quality-of-care cases during 2016–17
Number of CasesNumber of completed quality-of-care cases that had an outcome of substantiated abuse during 2016–17 / 165
Number of new quality-of-care cases investigated inrelation to quality-of-care concerns during 2016–17 / 955
Number of quality-of-care cases that were completed within the period of 2016–17 / 605
All quality of care matters are screened for appropriate response via an investigation planning group. A potential outcome of the screening meeting is an investigation. The number of new cases investigated refers to cases that were reported to the department within the 2016–17 financial year, where the screening meeting outcome was Investigation. The number of completed cases refers to cases that were reported, investigated and completed within the 2016–17 financial year. Cases with an outcome of substantiated abuse encompass completed investigations where abuse is substantiated and action is taken in response
Suitability Panel
The Suitability Panel decides whether or not an out-of-home carer who is alleged to have sexually or physically abused a child in his/her care should be disqualified from being a carer or decides whether or not a carer who has been disqualified should have that disqualification removed.
The Suitability Panel held 12 hearings during 2016–17. One matter is still under consideration.Of the eleven completed hearings, two matters were not proven andin seven cases where the allegations were proven the carers were disqualified.
Child protection
Services delivered by the department and funded community service organisations focus on the health, safety, development and wellbeing of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, young people and families in Victoria. Child Protection and Family Services include child protection, out-of-home care, ChildFIRST, adoption and support for victims of family violence and sexual assault.
In 2016–17 there were110,987 child protection reports received.
Table 4: Average rates of unallocated clients 2016–17, by division and state, per cent
Period / North / South / East / West / StateSeptember 2016 / 18.6 / 19.6 / 19.8 / 18.8 / 19.2
December 2016 / 19.2 / 20.8 / 19.9 / 18.1 / 19.4
March 2017 / 18.7 / 21.2 / 18.8 / 14.7 / 18.3
June 2017 / 17.9 / 20.4 / 18.1 / 20.8 / 19.6
State average 2016–17 / 18.6 / 20.5 / 19.1 / 18.1 / 19.1
Note: Data in the above table represents the average number of unallocated clients for each end of month data extract (point in time snap shots) per quarter. The count excludes cases in intake phase and cases awaiting allocation for less than four days. Division and State total includes regional services. The total is a summary of the reported quarters.
Child protection demand
Child protection receives, assesses and investigates reports where children may be at risk of significant harm from abuse or neglect within their family, and ensures that appropriate services are provided to protect children from harm.
A report is a report to child protection about a child’s wellbeing or safety. Reports can also be made about concern for the wellbeing and safety of unborn children after their birth.
An investigation is a comprehensive assessment of allegations made and other concerns about the reported child’s safety and wellbeing. As well as seeing the child and parents or carers in person, this will involve contact with significant others and professionals who know the child and family to assess the concernsand how to address them. The number of reports received in 2016–17 was four per cent higher than the number in the previous year, while investigations increased by nine per cent. Substantiations showed a 10 per cent increase from the previous year. Of the 16,793 substantiated cases 2,873(17 per cent) involved children who had been partofa previously substantiated case that had been closed in the previous 12 months.
The number of reports received on unborn children in 2016–17 was seven per cent higher than the number inthe previous year.
Table 5: Child protection demand
Child protection demand (quarterly data) / Total2016–17 / September 2016 / December 2016 / March
2017 / June
2017
Reports on unborn children / 2,173 / 556 / 546 / 537 / 534
Reports on children / 110,987 / 27,842 / 27,713 / 27,551 / 27,881
Investigations / 31,106 / 7,544 / 7,338 / 8,040 / 8,184
Substantiations / 16,793 / 4,439 / 3,742 / 4,144 / 4,468
Re-substantiations within 12 months / 2,873
Table 6: Child protection practitioners receiving regular supervision
Child protection / PercentageChild protection practitionersreceiving regular supervision for2016–17 / 81.2%
Incident reporting
Incident reporting data are allegations made by clients of the Department of Health and Human Services. They are recorded and remain as incidents regardless of whether further information becomes available to substantiate or disprove an event. Incident reports include disclosures of historic abuse and assault that were alleged to have occurred before a client entered state care.
Category One incidents are the most serious incidents and include: death of clients; allegations of physical or sexual assault; and serious client behavioural issues that impact on client or staff safety. Where there is an allegation, it is met with a strong response that includes medical attention (should this be required), a report to police if it involves an allegation of physical or sexual abuse or a client is a victim of a crime, and counselling and support being offered to all parties.
Incident reporting enables service providers to take corrective-action to protect the wellbeing and safety of clients where necessary and better understand the underlying causes of incidents to prevent their recurrence.
Following legislative changes made early in 2016, all category one incident reports involving a child or young person in out-of-home care are provided to the Commission for Children and Young People.
As part of the Machinery of Government (MoG) process announced by the Premier on 6 February 2017, Youth Justice Custodial Services, Community Based Youth Justice and Youth Justice Policy moved to the Department of Justice and Regulation on 3 April 2017[1]. Incidents relating to these services are not included in this report
Table 7: Category one incidents in Families and Children services
Incident type[2] / 2016–17Client death / 49[3]
Assault / 1,012
Behaviour / 1,216
Other / 1,800
Client death
All client deaths, including those occurring at home or in hospital, must be reported as Category One incidents. The majority of deaths are of children less than two years of age and these deaths include premature births, sudden infant death syndrome and known medical conditions including those they were born with. Service provision to children who were known to child protection at the time of death, or in the 12 months preceding their death is reviewed by the Commission for Children and Young People. The Department of Health and Human Services notified the Commission of34 deaths[4] in 2016-17 that were in scope for a child death inquiry.
Assault
Assault includes both alleged physical and sexual assaults. Where clients are victims of assault they are supported by family support services, child protection, out-of-home care and specialist counselling services.
The department has procedures requiring all allegations of assault to be reported to the department within 24 hours, and that clients are protected and supported. All allegations of assault are required to be referred to the police.
Behaviour
While clients can display a range of dangerous and disruptive behaviours placing both themselves and others at risk, behaviours are generally well managed with a range of services being provided to better support clients.
Other incident types
Other incidents include matters such as absent/missing persons, drug/alcohol possession or use, injury, illness and self-harm.
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1
[1] The Refugee Minor Program and the Central After Hours Assessment and Bail Placement Services continue to be managed by the Department of Health and Human Services
[2]Incident reporting data undergoes routine data validation and as such is subject to minor changes over time. Total numbers contained in this report may not be directly comparable to subsequent released incident reporting information.
[3]Note that there are differences between the number of incident reports of client death and the number of child deaths reviewed by the Commission for Children and Young People. Examples of incident reports that are out of scope for review by the Commission include where an unborn child has been reported to child protection and is subsequently stillborn, or where either a child or parent is not a client of child protection (but was still the subject of an incident report due to involvement in family services programs).
[4] Note that there are differences between the number of incident reports of client death and the number of child deaths reviewed by the Commission for Children and Young People. Examples of incident reports that are out of scope for reviewby the Commission include where an unborn childhas been reported to child protection and is subsequently stillborn, or where either a child or parent is not a client of child protection had involvement in family services programs).