NSW Government ignoring children’s views and not giving them permanency, says foster care review

The NSW Government is ignoring the views of foster care children and generally failing to restore them to birth parents or provide them with permanency through adoption, according to the latest review of the state out-of-home care system.

A report by former senior bureaucrats Gelina Talbot and Lauren Dean, publicly released on Monday (2 December), is highly critical of the state’s child protection authority, the Department of Communities and Justice, better known by its former acronym, DOCS.

“During the review, we consistently heard the voice of children and young people, families and carers was missing,” the report says.

“We saw decisions being made in isolation and on the basis that system workers knew best. We heard that decisions were often made without consultation and when challenged, we heard those decisions were allegedly being made ‘in the best interests of the child’.

“The review team impresses upon all those working in the system that the best interests of the child or young person need to include their voice and the voice of the people who know them best.”

The NSW Government generally places children in foster care after forcibly removing them from their birth parents due to persistent abuse or neglect. The aim is to keep them in state care temporarily and eventually either restore them to their families or give them permanency through adoption.

The review, however, noted that fewer foster care children are being restored to their families or being placed in permanent homes through adoption or guardianship.

Last year, just under 14,000 children were in NSW state care. But only 419 were restored to their birth parents, down 24 per cent from five years earlier.

Just 69 children were adopted, a fall of 57 per cent since 2019/20, when the previous Liberal-National Coalition Government was in power and trying to make adoption easier.

The review also found the care system was “characterised by a profound lack of accountability and ineffective oversight”.

Families Minister Kate Washington blamed this on the previous government.

“The Minns Labor Government has been open and honest about the spiralling out-of-home care system we inherited,” she said.

“Now we have the evidence and the recommendations we need to start turning the ship around so that vulnerable children and young people get the supports they need.

“It’s shocking that some out-of-home care providers are failing to provide basic supports to children despite being paid hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of taxpayer dollars to do so.”

Natasha Maclaren-Jones, the families minister under the previous government, said her successors were not improving the system.

“The Minns Labor Government has been in power for over 18 months and they promised ‘significant structural reform’ and nothing has happened,” she said.

“Over the past 12 months, over 1100 foster carers have left, and the NSW Government has no plans to support current carers, recruit more carers or prevent them from leaving. To stop vulnerable children entering the child protection system, the NSW Government must invest in early intervention.”

The review made several recommendations, including urging the department to “empower and elevate the voice of children, young people, carers, and families across the out-of-home care program to ensure services are responsive to their needs and they can raise issues and influence system design, improve services and outcomes”.

It also called for more transparency and accountability.

Minister Washington said the NSW Government was closely reviewing the report’s findings and recommendations, and would formally respond in the coming months.