NSW to review child protection screening algorithm over concerns about racial bias

About 45% of the 14,723 children in out-of-home care in NSW are Aboriginal. The government is to review a child protection tool that disproportionately affects Indigenous children. Photograph: Alex Linch/Alamy

The New South Wales government will review a child protection tool that disproportionately affects Aboriginal children – and that has not been updated in the state for more than a decade.

The controversial system known as “structured decision making” (SDM) has been in use since 2010 to screen for at-risk children.