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The purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand what is occurring in the NSW substitute care system by analysing the available data. To do this the paper essentially sets out to make sense of the complex "official" data available from the Department of Community Services. The intention is to provide answers to some fundamental questions such as In undertaking this analysis the paper primarily draws on the Department of Community Services publication "Trends in the Substitute Care Program: profiles for the financial years 1991/92 - 1995/96". All references are to this paper unless otherwise indicated. This Departmental publication represents another development and improvement in the collection and dissemination of substitute care data which has been sorely lacking in the past. However doubts remain about the reliability of the data. There is also considerable doubt in understanding and interpreting the data due to the confusing way it is presented and the confusion of terms used. For example the way in which the data counts "children", "activities", "entries" and "exits" at different times without clearly defining the differences in these terms. The Department in the "Trends.." publication does not attempt to define substitute care although it does draw a distinction between substitute care "aimed at supporting children and/or their family through periods of crisis" - termed "support services", and "care services" which are "aimed at supporting children to live away from their families for extended periods of time.." (p3). The inclusion in the Department's data of children living with their own parents who are receiving a State payment is particularly problematic and at variance with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare definition of out-of-home care:
Substitute care data at State and national levels does not - unless the young people are State Wards - collect information on young people in detention, children living in disability accommodation and hostels/hospitals, children in boarding schools, children with disabilities in Home and Community Care funded respite care and other groups of children where there is organised care away from their own family. In this respect substitute care systems do not collect information on all those children and young people who have the experience of living away from their parents for short or longer periods of time.
4,872 children entered the substitute care program in 1995/96. This was a small increase compared to the figures in 1991/92. Numbers of children and young people entering care swelled to a peak of 5,498 in 1993/94 then declined. Overall there is an upward trend, ie, increasing numbers of children entering substitute care. Consistently the highest rates of entry are for children under 1 and children aged 13-14 years. 6.11 children per 1,000 and 4.23 per 1,000 respectively. It may well be that these are the most difficult family life stages and indicates a need for targeted services to families at these life stages. It is also quite possible that recent concerns about the vulnerability of infants and the Department's policy requiring all infants at risk to be visited will further increase the entry rates for this age group. The age groups with the lowest entry rate into the substitute care program are 16 and 17 year olds with only 35 sixteen year olds and 23 seventeen year olds reported as entering in 1995/96. However it is clearly unlikely that family stability rates are high for this age group rather this low entry rate is accounted for by The age distribution of children entering care is consistent with the Children's Court data for finalised Care Applications. Children under one year and young persons 13 and 14 years of age were most often the subject of care orders - 150 children under one year, 158 thirteen year olds and 164 fourteen year olds in 1995/96. The small number of care applications in the 16+ age group (12 young people in 1995/96) reflects the limited legislative options referred to above. (Department of Community Services, "Trends in Care Matters Finalised in NSW Children's Court Jurisdictions", 1996) In the Department's data a distinction is made between substitute care "support services aimed at supporting children and/or their family through periods of crisis" and "care services aimed at supporting children to live away from their families for extended periods and in some cases permanently".When using the Department's distinction of "care" and "support" it appears that the proportion of children entering for support services and those requiring care services has remained steady over the five year period with there being consistently around 57% requiring support and 43% care. However the data on reasons for entry to care suggests a much higher percentage of children entering care due to family support type reasons: 45.5% of children in 1995/96 entered care because their parent or carer needed 'periodic relief', 13% because of 'significant family breakdown', 10% 'carer cannot cope due to illness'. In total 68.5% entered care for family support reasons. Surprisingly only 20% of entries to care were defined as children at risk in 1995/96. Child protection notifications rose from 23,759 in 1991/92 to 28,944 in 1995/96. (Department of Community Services, Trends in the Child Protection Program, 1997) However the increase in notifications has not resulted in an equivalent increase in the rate of entry to substitute care. While notifications have risen by 22% entries to care have risen in the same period by 18%. Numbers of children entering substitute care have increased slightly and "child at risk" as a reason for entering care has remained consistently low at around 20% of cases. It could be that there are coding issues in District Officers entering the data and that many of the family support types of reason are initially notified as child at risk but then subsequently described as a support case at the point substitute care is utilised. Nonetheless the question remains as to why increases in child protection notifications have not resulted in greater use of substitute care. Not only have notification rates increased but the number of Care Applications to the Children's Court increased by 51% between 1990/91 and 1995/96. 1,758 children and young people were subject to a finalised care application in 1995/96. (Children's Court Trends, op cit) It may be that child protection does not have as strong an influence on substitute care as has usually been thought. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children entered the substitute care program at a rate of 23.9 per 1,000 in 1995/96, 8 times higher than non ATSI children. The trend for ATSI children entering is upward with a rate of 15.9 per 1,000 in 1991/92 up to 23.9 per 1,000 in 1995/96. This contrasts with a rate of 3 per 1,000 for non ATSI children. The great majority of ATSI children enter for support services not long term care. It is possible that there is significant undercounting of ATSI children where care arrangements are made without reference to any statutory authority or funded agency. Only 402 of the 4,835 entries to substitute care in 1995/96 were children recorded as being from non-english speaking background (NESB). This represented a rate of only 1.7 per 1,000 compared to the 3 per 1,000 for English speaking, non-ATSI children. 54.4% of all entries to care in 1994/95 were placed by non-government agencies. There were a total of 9,737 "entries" involving 5,302 children with some children having multiple entries to the substitute care program, eg, regular respite care. The non-government carried out 5,299 of these entries. 5,826 children were defined as being in the substitute care program at 30/6/96. This is an increase of 28% on the 1992 figure but less than the peak of 6,066 at 30 June 95. Overall the trend is upward, ie more children in care at a given point in time. The 1996 figure represents 3.75 children for every 1,000 in the population which is up from the 2.84 per 1,000 in 1992. NSW's rate of placement is higher than the national average of 3.1 and is the highest placement rate of all States and Territories except Tasmania which has a rate of 4.0 per 1,000. However data for Queensland and Northern Territory is incomplete. (AIHW, 1997.) The NSW rate and the national average compare favourably to the figures for Western Europe - 5.8 per 1,000, and USA - between 7.3 and 12.2 (Bath, 1998). The number of children in "care" placements has increased slightly in number from 2,705 in 1991/92 to 3194 in 95/96 but has been steadily decreasing as a percentage of all children in care from 62% in 91/92 to 54.8% in 95/96. This is because of the increase in children using "support" placements. The total number of ATSI children in the substitute care program at 30 June 1996 was 1,278 and the trend is toward increasing numbers. Fewer ATSI children are being made Wards but increasing numbers are using substitute care for support reasons. Most noticeably care with relatives continues to increase with 64.5% of ATSI children who are receiving support services did so in the care of relatives including parents. This compares with 40% for non-ATSI children. Children from a non-English speaking background used substitute care as a support service much less often. If they come in to the substitute care program there is a greater likelihood that they will need extended or long term care. If they do use support substitute care services it is usually in the form of care with relatives or parents. Of those in care at 30 June 96, 2,967 were State Wards. The number of Wards is remaining reasonably stable being less than a 3% increase on the 2,901 at June 1992. At June 1996: Of those in care the largest age groups are young people 11 to 15 years with 14 year olds topping the list with 498 in care at 30 June 1996. This cohort is much more likely to need a "care" placement than a "support" placement. Children aged under 1 are least likely to remain in care although they enter at the fastest rate. This is because of the high number of very short placements and the rapid exit from placement for most infants. Only 156 were in care at 30 June 1996. 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements The number of children leaving substitute care each year is steadily increasing. 5,157 children and young people exited the program in 1995/96, an increase of 27% on the 3,829 in 1991/92. Most children leaving substitute care return to their families, 89% approx. This reflects the large numbers of temporary placements where children return to their parents after a brief respite. Of those children in care at 30 June 1996 78.6% had been in care more than one year. A significant decline from the 89% in 1991/92. Conversely those in care for less than 6 months rose to 13% in 1996 from 6% at June 1992. In other words the average length of placement for those in care at a point in time is decreasing. 90% of all "activities" concerned children in care for less than 6 weeks. The practice of shorter placements is both reflected and encouraged by Children's Court decisions where there has been a strong trend toward shorter care orders being made. Over half of all Orders are now made for a period of less than 12 months. (Children's Court Trends, op cit.) Of the 1,758 Care Applications finalised in the NSW Children's Court in 1995/96 there were 434 Wardship orders and only 119 of these were for more than an eight year period. (Ibid) Clearly the overall trend is toward shorter periods of time spent in substitute care placements, including State Wards, and greater use of brief placements. This should not obscure the fact that there is a core group of children and young people who continue to need extended and often permanent care arrangements. Putting together the totals of those "entering" and "leaving" and "in care" at a point in time: Entering Leaving In Care at 30 June 1991/92 4109 3829 4361 1992/93 4752 4312 4753 1993/94 5498 4841 5471 1994/95 5302 4225 6066 1995/96 4872 3695 5826 The Department concludes that "the trends .... show an increase in the number of children entering the program each year until 1993/94 and a smaller but increasing number leaving the program. In the last two years the number entering the program showed a decline while the number leaving continued to grow. In 1995/96 the number of children leaving the program was greater than the number entering." (p.87) This last point is plainly incorrect. And the conclusion seems to overlook the most significant fact that in every year there have been more entries than exits and the total "in care" population is increasing. Most children in care are in foster care - 60% and the trend is that this percentage is remaining the same. 5,501 children used foster care in 1995/96. The majority 69% did so because the parent or carer was "unable to care without periodic relief" or was "unable to care due to illness". Kinship care including care with parents, relatives and others such as neighbours/friends accounted for 24% of placements in 95/96 and is rising at a significant rate up from 14% in 91/92. Kinship care represents the most substantial form of care after foster care. 2,508 children in 1995/96 were in 'placement ' with their parent or extended family. The increasing practice of placing children at home or with relatives while under Departmental supervision is being partly driven by the NSW Children's Court. "Care Supervision" orders have increased substantially and this is now the most common outcome of care proceedings representing 30% of the outcomes of finalised matters in 1995/96. A further 15% of Children's Court orders are "Committed to a specified person" usually a relative or family friend. The outcome of "Wardship" has decreased to 25% of the outcomes of care proceedings in 1995/96. ( Children's Court Trends, op cit.) Residential care is down to only 8% of all care. A decline from 17% in 1991/92. Family group homes show the fastest rate of decline and only represented .5% of care in 1995/96. Quite possibly this form of care is now extinct in NSW. 817 children and young people used residential care in 1995/96 down from 1,432 in 1991/92. Young people 12 - 17 made up 63% of those using residential care. It is apparent that the youth refuge system has absorbed large numbers of teenagers who in previous decades would have been accommodated in substitute care services. An estimated 1,200 young people under the age of 18 years were accommodated in SAAP funded services in NSW in 1995 (SAAP One Night Census May 1995) 64% (1,881) of State Wards were living in foster care in 1995/96. 18% (542) were in kinship care with parents, relatives or other kinship. In 1995/96 83% of ATSI children and young people were placed with a carer identified as being of the same cultural background and for a further 8.5% the identity was not able to be determined. The proportion of "same race" placements has increased significantly from 1991/92 when 77% of ATSI children were placed with an ATSI carer. Only 38% of children and young people from a non-English speaking background were placed with a carer of the same cultural background. And this is a dramatic decrease from the reported 78% of matched placements in 1991/92. The difference could be accounted for by more accurate identification and recording. The greatest number of children and the largest amount of activity is around younger children in brief voluntary placement. 90% of all substitute care "activity" was for children in care less than 6 weeks in 1995/96. Only 20% of substitute care "activity" concerned Wards. The number of disruptions, planned and unplanned moves of children/young people is non known. 69% of all substitute care "activity" is undertaken by the Department of Community Services and 31% by non-government organisations. 23% of the Department's figures involve care of children by relatives, parents or other kinship placements. Non-government organisations undertake 91% of (the dwindling amount ) of residential care and undertake 45.4% of all foster care. Foster care comprises a substantial proportion of the work of NGO's - 79% of NGO activity and represents 51% of the Department's substitute care activity. The Department is responsible for arranging or approving of the great majority of kinship placements. There is substantial uneveness in the distribution of substitute care services. Non-government agencies provide a substantial proportion of the substitute care services in the Sydney Metropolitan area particularly in the provision of short term and respite care. There is seriously limited distribution of non-government services in regional and rural NSW with no funded non-government substitute care services in the New England or Orana-Far West areas. Distribution of services is difficult to gauge in the Sydney area as the non-government addresses that receive funding do not necessarily indicate where their services are provided. 21% of the substitute care budget - 19.5m in 1995/96 - went to non-government organisations and 79% - 74.3m to the Department of Community Services. Overall the substitute care budget shows an increase of 41% from 91/92 to 95/96 It is problematic drawing out conclusions with any certainty from the available data. Five years of figures are insufficient to establish long term trends and the reliability of the figures continue to be in doubt given the confusion about definitions and variations in the way data is coded across such a large number of departmental offices and non-government services. It is also difficult to understand how at some points the data does not add up. For example, the number in care at 30 June in a given year - plus entries and less exits for the following twelve months - does not equal the in care total at the end of the twelve months. (See table ) Nevertheless publication of the Departments Trends documents are a welcome development and begin to fill in some of the gaps in data that have been glaringly obvious. Further work should now be done to improve the integrity of the data, resolve the confusion in terms (notably use of the term >care< and >support<, >activities<, >entries< etc.) and eliminate the counting of children living at home with their parent(s) from the data. As a starting point the term >substitute< care should be defined or alternatively >out-of-home care< adopted as the preferred term and defined in a manner consistent with the other States and Territories. While exercising caution with the data it may be possible to interpret and discuss what may be some of the implications of the data. The trends in the substitute care figures show increasing numbers of entries to the program, greater use of short term placements, mainly for family support purposes, more children and young people exiting care and an overall >net gain< of the in care population at a point in time. The usage rates for different age groups is significant with young children, especially children under one year of age, most likely to use substitute care but least likely to remain in care for an extended period. Young adolescents 12-15 years of age are most likely to be in long term care. ATSI children and young people are still many times more likely than non-ATSI children (nearly 10 times more likely) to use substitute care although the likelihood of being placed with an ATSI carer has increased substantially to about 83%. This may be due to the application of the Aboriginal Placement Principle in the Children (Care and Protection) Act, changes in attitudes and practices and the development of aboriginal childrens services. The reverse is the situation for children of a non-English speaking background. There is a disproportionately low number entering the substitute care program. Those that do have a slim chance of being placed with carers of the same cultural background. While law, attitudes and practice, appear to have responded to the need for same-culture placements for ATSI children the same cannot be said for children of non-English speaking background. This is perhaps not surprising given the large number of different cultural groups in New South Wales, the ineffectiveness to date of recruiting non-English speaking foster carers and the reluctance among some cultural groups to consider care for an unrelated child. Much work remains to be done in this area. One of the most striking features of the data is the large extent to which sub-care is used to address family support needs such as need for periodic respite, needing care because of parental illness or family conflict. The majority of children using substitute care are voluntarily placed by parents for less than six weeks. This may require alternative forms of service to be expanded and developed in order to address the support needs of families without requiring children to be placed out of the home. Alternatively a reconceptualising of substitute care may be required so it is no longer regarded as a last resort option to substitute for parental failings. >Child at risk< as a reason for using sub-care is surprisingly low. While child protection notifications are increasing and numbers of care proceedings before the Childrens Court are also rising, the numbers of children in care are not increasing at an equivalent rate. This deserves considerable more investigation to understand whether it is due to: The shorter duration of placements and shorter Court Orders is generally a welcome trend. However, again further research is required to understand this trend. While >drift< of children in care appears to no longer be the problem it was in previous decades it may have been replaced by an acceptance of impermanence and a tolerance of serial short-term placements for children and young people which may not be serving their interests well. The making of shorter wardship orders by the NSW Childrens Court remains of concern to practitioners in situations where stable long-term care is called for. Currently the available data does not indicate the extent that multiple placements, unplanned exits and disruptions occur. The diversity of placements offered to children and young people is diminishing. While foster care remains the major form of care provided, residential care has reduced dramatically and family group homes have been eliminated. The capacity to place children and young people with unrelated carers has not increased. Residential care placements have substantially reduced, numbers of foster care placements have remained static with the only increase in capacity showing in kinship care. The greater use of kinship care which may involve care provided by a parent, relative or unrelated kinship such as a neighbour or friends family, urgently requires investigation. Keeping children within their own family or friendship networks before placing åoutside has been a longstanding substitute care principle, and a longstanding practice for indigenous communities. The increase in kinship care may be a successful realisation of this principle. However, it may also be due to expediency, the unavailability of substitute care placements, or the formalisation of child care arrangements that would have occurred in any event. It may also be the case that kinship care is providing a mechanism to legitimise State financial payments to struggling families. The growth of kinship care is not exclusive to New South Wales. it is evident in other States and Territories (Bath, 1998) and is a strong trend in comparable overseas countries (Child Welfare League of America, 1996). It remains unresearched in Australia. The growth in kinship care can obscure the fact that, in spite of overall substitute care budget increases, the capacity of the New South Wales care system has declined. While the substitute care budget shows an increase of 41% from 1992 to 1996 it has not resulted in increased capacity or greater diversity of placement services. The growth of kinship care can also be used to inflate the apparent level of substitute care activity in the Department. For example, the most recent Department of Community Services Annual Report 1996-97 states >the Department provided 78.3% of the substitute care placements while the funded non-government organisations provided 21.7%< (p.21). Given that more than one third of the placements provided by the Department were children living at home with their own parents or with relatives or friends it is misleading to imply that these placements have been >made< or >provided< by the Department. Kinship care is far more widespread than is perhaps generally recognised and may now be the placement of first choice for the Department. Responsibilities and roles for staff supporting and supervising these arrangements are not clear. 8. Summary of Significant Findings More children are entering substitute care. An increase of 18% between 1991/92 and 1995/96. There are more children in substitute care at a 'point in time count'. 5,826 at 30 June 1996. This is a rate of 3.75 per 1,000 children in the population, up from 2.84 in 1992. The majority of children entering care are "voluntarily" placed by parents because of family conflict, parental illness or a need for respite and are in care for less than six weeks. This should not obscure the needs of the core group of about 3000 children and young people who continue to require extended periods of time in care. Children under one year followed by 13 and 14 year olds are the highest users of substitute care. Infants entering care usually exit rapidly. Young people aged 11 to 15 are most likely to remain in care for an extended period of time. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to be substantially over-represented and numbers continue to rise. The percentage placed in 'same race' placements has risen considerably to around 85%. The average length of placement is decreasing and fewer wardship orders are being made by the Courts. Foster care is the most prevalent form of care consistently accounting for about 60% of placements. Residential care has decreased dramatically and kinship care has increased substantially to now account for a quarter of all care provided. 69% of all substitute care activity is undertaken by the Department and 31% by non-government organisations. 79% of the substitute care budget in 1995/96 went to the Department and 21% to non-government organisations. 1. The data collection system for substitute care needs substantial development. 2. The development of the data collection system should include clarification of terms and definitions, taking out the count of children at home with parents receiving financial payment and should make further improvements to allow for counting of unplanned placement breakdowns, numbers of children experiencing serial placements, greater clarity about reasons for entry. 3. To give a more accurate picture of out-of-home care the data collection system should take account of the number of young people under 18 years of age accomodated in SAAP funded services. 4. The growing use of "kinship care" requires urgent investigation to determine the extent of this form of care, the experience of the children, young people and carers involved, the support and supervision needs and the development of appropriate practices and standards. 5. Planning for substitute care has to take greater account of the increasing numbers of children and young people needing these services and their need for a diversity and choice of placement options. 6. The current allocation of resources to the government and non- government sectors should be reviewed taking into account the proportion of substitute care activity undertaken by the sectors. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Children in out of home placement, 1995-96, 1997 Bath, H., Trends and Issues in the Out-of-Home Care of Children in Australia, forthcoming in the International Journal of Child and Family Welfare Cashmore, J. and Castell-McGregor, S., The Child Protection and Welfare System in K. Funder (ed), Citizen Child, Australian Law and Children's Rights, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 1996 Child Welfare League of America, Kinship Care, Special Journal Issue, 1996 Clark, R., A Framework for the Development of Intensive Out-Of-Home Care Support Services, Deakin Human Services, 1997 Department of Community Services Information and Planning Group, Trends in Care Matters Finalised in NSW Children's Court Jurisdictions, Profiles for Years 1990/91 - 1995/96, 1997 Department of Community Services Information and Planning Group, Trends in the Child Protection Program, Profiles for Financial Years 1991/92 - 1995/96, 1997 Department of Community Services Information and Planning Group, Trends in the Substitute Care Program, Profiles for Years 1991/92 - 1995/96, 1997 Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, One Night Census May 1995, AGPS, 1995 The assistance of Howard Bath, Deirdre Dixon and the ACWA Policy and Research Committee in the preparation of this paper is acknowledged with thanks. |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |
Contents: 4. Leaving Care and Length of Placements | |