The Queensland government’s “overreliance” on residential care is unsustainable and failing to meet the needs of disadvantaged children, advocates say.
The sector’s peak body said it was concerned the withdrawal of Churches of Christ from youth residential care would increase the strain on organisations that were already struggling to meet demand.
A Churches of Christ spokesperson confirmed the charity would stop providing youth residential, supported independent living and family support services.
The spokesperson described the decision as a “commercially necessary one” and said the charity would transfer these services to other providers in the sector, as well as continuing its foster and kinship care services.
The chief executive of the Youth Advocacy Centre, Katherine Hayes, said she was worried about the effects on vulnerable children if other providers also terminated contracts with the government.
“These kids have already been let down by all of the adults in their lives, and they are now faced with even more uncertainty,” Hayes said.
Hayes also said an independent inquiry was needed because the state – who is the guardian of these children – was not fulfilling “even its most basic duties”.
“In any event, the residential care model needs to be reviewed as many of the young people housed in these facilities have suffered significant trauma requiring intensive support, and anecdotally the requisite level of support is not being provided,” she said.
PeakCare Queensland’s executive director, Tom Allsop, said the number of children in residential care in Queensland was almost 1,700, which far exceeds any other Australian state or territory.
One in three of these children were under 12, he said.
“Despite the incredible work being done by residential care services and workers, this increase is unsustainable,” Allsop said. “And we know for the majority of children, residential care is not the best model for their care and developmental needs.”
He said funding to the sector had not kept pace with increasing service costs.
“We don’t need another inquiry,” he said. “We know what the problems are and what we need now is genuine and shared commitment to work in partnership with government to solve them.
“The non-government sector wants to work with government to reduce the overreliance on residential care … we have the solutions and we want to be at the table.”
Allsop said he was concerned about the conflation of residential care with youth justice and the children in the system being demonised as a result.
“Only a small minority of children in residential care have had contact with the youth justice system,” he said.
“We have children in these homes with significant disabilities. Children who are in residential care because it means sibling groups can stay together. Children who are there because … there is nowhere else safe for them to go.“
The state’s child safety minister, Craig Crawford, confirmed the government was negotiating with other charities to fill the gaps that Churches of Christ would leave in the coming months.
“We’re already in conversations with the other NGOs in [Mount] Isa about taking the property over and the staff and the young people there and I believe those conversations are good,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
A department of child safety spokesperson said increasing demand, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, had led to a higher number of children in residential care.
They said while the government was committed to reducing the number of children in residential care, these services remained an important option particularly “for children with high-need behaviours, disabilities requiring 24-hour medical care and large sibling groups”.
“In the meantime, we working hard to increase the number of kinship carers while our foster carer recruitment campaigns encourage more Queenslanders to take on the important role of caring for children in need, and we encourage anyone interested to find out more,” the spokesperson said.
