THE carer allowance for parents of foster kids is long overdue for an overhaul, last reviewed almost 20 years ago.
That is one of the key drivers behind the dwindling number of authorised carers in NSW, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal says.
IPART is conducting a review of the cost of delivering out-of-home care, and the pricing arrangements with the non-government providers who deliver care under contract with the NSW Government.
Releasing its interim report this week (September 10), Tribunal Chair Carmel Donnelly said the system is facing "a range of challenges" that include growing costs and a shortage of carers and caseworkers.
"We have made some preliminary findings about the way the current system is operating and the costs of providing foster care for both the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and non-government providers, and we welcome feedback on these," Ms Donnelly said.
"While we have found that these costs do vary, there are likely to be a range of reasons for this which we will continue to investigate as the review progresses."
Carer numbers dwindling
IPART is also looking at the allowance foster carers, relatives and kinship carers receive to meet the costs of providing care and support to children and young people.
"The number of authorised carers in NSW is decreasing at a faster rate than the number of children in out-of-home care and the rate of decline is accelerating," the report says.
Between June 2021 and Jund 2024, there was a 14 per cent decrease in the number of authorised carers, from 18,369 to 15,871.
Changes in community standards and expectations since it was last reviewed over 20 years ago mean that it may no longer cover the costs of caring for a child.
System under review
The NSW Government requested the review to help improve financial sustainability of the out-of-home care system which the Minister for Families and Communities and Port Stephens MP Kate Washington has repeatedly described as 'broken' and 'spiralling out of control'.
The troubled out-of-home-care and child protection system has come under fire in recent reports from the Auditor-General, the NSW Ombudsman, the Children's Guardian and the NSW Advocate for Children and Young People.
There are more to come from the NSW Ombudsman, along with a DCJ out-of-home care system review due in October.
"Around 14,000 children and young people are currently in some form of out-of-home care across NSW and the system is facing a range of challenges that include growing costs and a shortage of carers and caseworkers," Ms Donnelly said.
"So far we have received a lot of valuable input from providers and workers in the out-of-home care sector, including Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, as well as carers of children and young people, and we look forward to this continuing," Ms Donnelly said.
The Public Service Association (PSA) which is campaigning for higher wages for caseworkers and de-privatisation, said the report points to the need to "purge costly out-of-home-care providers from the child protection system".
Failed 'experiment', says union
Troy Wright, PSA Assistant General Secretary, said the experiment with for-profit and not-for-profit organisations in child protection had failed.
"The previous government dismantled the foster care system and replaced it with a patchwork of for-profit and not-for-profit outfits to look after kids taken from their parents," he said.
"As a result over 500 kids went to sleep each night in hotels, motels and caravan parks around NSW supervised by labour hire workers on rotating eight hour shifts.
"This is not a situation any child should be in - they should be in family-like environments."
Overdue reform
Minister Washington has announced that alternative care arrangements, such as hotels and motels, will be banned as part of a suite of significant reforms of the child protection system.
The report mentions some of those reforms already in play, which include increasing and strengthening partnerships with Aboriginal communities, given the continuing over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home-care, and more targeted recruitment of emergency foster carers to reduce the number of children going into high cost emergency care arrangements.
It says that while a child under the care of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) cost less per child than those looked after by non-government organisations, it was not a like-for-like comparison.
Foster care placements delivered by non-government providers (NGOs) cost around $18,000 more per year than those delivered by DCJ, the report says.
The main difference in delivery cost (of $13,000) is higher expenditure on casework at non-government providers, it says. It also found, however, that NGOs care for a larger proportion of children with high needs.
While the average DCJ caseworkers caseload was 17, the average for NGO caseworkers was nine.
"High caseworker turnover and inexperience have been raised with us as key problems within the sector," the report says.
Room for improvement
IPART also found, along with other reviews, that DCJ has limited oversight of how funding is spent, or the outcomes achieved, by non-government providers.
"We have found that there is lack of clarity around what services are covered in each funding package and for what additional services non-government providers can request top-up funding," it says,.
"This impacts the way care is delivered. There are also inconsistencies around what payments carers receive and cost pressures within the system, with some costs rising significantly (for example, insurance) and shortages in skilled staff and carers."
IPART will be holding a public hearing on Tuesday 22 October and the final report will be submitted to the Premier and the Minister for Families and Communities and Disability Inclusion in May 2025.
Responses to the report can be submitted up until October 29, 2024.
