NSW ‘effectively abandoned’ strategy to have fewer Indigenous children in care, ombudsman finds

The proportion of Indigenous children in out-of-home care actually grew while the Aboriginal Outcomes Strategy was running, according to a report. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

The New South Wales government has been lashed for effectively abandoning its own strategy to reduce the representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care and failing its own targets.

The state ombudsman, Paul Miller, handed down a scathing report into the five-year Aboriginal Outcomes Strategy (AOS), noting that since its 2017 launch the Department of Communities and Justice appears to have abandoned it without explanation.