THE use of high-cost emergency accommodation options for children removed from their families has dropped and remains the state government's focus in addressing an out-of-home-care system.
The Minister for Families and Communities, Kate Washington, says there are now 71 fewer children in NSW living in emergency accommodation like hotels and motels following the creation of a specialist team within the Department of Communities and Justice.
The dedicated team, established in November, has shifted 42 per cent of those living in the worst types of emergency care, where for-profit labour hire firms often provide unqualified staff who can change at short notice, robbing vulnerable children of stability.
In a budget estimates hearing on Monday Ms Washington said the former government was "obsessed with privatisation" and had created a system that was spiralling out of control.
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"While we are managing the crisis end of the system and trying to turn that around, we are seeing fewer children now for the first time going into (high cost emergency accommodation), until we undertake significant reform of the system," Ms Washington said.
That was the only way to see the changes that needed to come, including a greater emphasis on targeted early intervention, particularly for Aboriginal children, she said.
"We have 45 per cent of kids in out-of-home-care that are Aboriginal and we need to ensure there are, on the ground, the Aboriginal organisations that are able to provide culturally safe services to Aboriginal children.
"We are taking a whole-of-government approach to some of the issues that bring children into this system."
More foster carers were urgently needed to ensure children who cannot live safely with family had a loving and secure home, and recruitment efforts were ongoing to establish a "pipeline" of suitable foster carers, Ms Washington said in a press release issued Monday morning.
"When I was sworn in as Minister, I was shocked by the number of children and young people in these high-cost emergency arrangements. We want to see children in safe and loving homes with people who care about them, not in a hotel or motel with rotating shift workers who might never see the child again," Ms Washington said.
One child she spoke to could only describe her experience living in that type of environment as isolated, Ms Washington said, and she was there for "far too long".
"Under the former government, the use of hotels and motels for vulnerable children skyrocketed, and the child protection system was left to spiral out of control. I've made it very clear to the Department and to the sector - these arrangements are not appropriate, and the NSW Government will be doing everything it can to find stable, loving homes for these children.
"A 42 per cent reduction in alternative care arrangements in just three months demonstrates how seriously the government is taking this issue.
"The work done by the (High Cost Emergency Accommodation team) is an important step towards rebuilding the child protection system, which has been neglected for so long."
RELATED:
-
Broken system: foster child allegedly assaulted by male care worker
- $280m OOHC budget shortfall; system at breaking point, says NSW Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington
- Hunter academic Tamara Blakemore pushes for better training and support for frontline workers
- Last-resort style accommodation on the cards for Hunter kids in crisis
Ms Washington was also asked in Monday's budget estimates hearing what is being done to retain Department of Communities and Justice frontline caseworkers who have left the role in droves.
The vacancy rate at last count was 12 per cent, compared to 4 per cent 12 months earlier, while fewer children reported at risk of significant harm are receiving a face-to-face assessment.
"We are doing an enormous amount of work to ensure that caseworkers feel valued," Ms Washington said. "They haven't felt valued for more than a decade. They had a wages cap placed on them by a former government, and had unrealistic expectations on them ... in a system that is not working efficiently and this has been the case of the system that we inherited."
Six state-wide staff forums had been held since she took office, Ms Washington said, during which she has met with about half the work force to understand from them the pressures they are facing.
"I am hearing it every single day that they have concerns, for the children they can't get to sometimes," she said.
