The care crisis Victoria cannot afford to ignore

Following the release of two concerning reports on home-based care in Victoria last week, Dr Michele Lonsdale discusses the urgent need for reform in the system intended to protect our most vulnerable children. Dr Lonsdale is the Interim CEO of the Centre for Child and Family Welfare, the peak body for child and family services in Tasmania and Victoria.

Last week’s Victorian Auditor-General’s report into out-of-home care shows that change is urgently needed if children in care are to grow up in safe and nurturing homes.

The report confirms what families, carers, and community organisations have been saying for a long time: the system designed to protect our most vulnerable children is not meeting their needs.

Children, young people, and carers are paying the price of a system under considerable strain.

A system struggling to find care

Children are removed from their families when their home environments are judged by professionals to be unsafe, unable to support the child’s development and growth, and/or not in the best interests of the child. This decision is never made lightly.

Wherever possible, child protection practitioners will try to place the child with other family members or ‘kin’. The aim is always to find a more secure and stable environment.

For many children, being with a kinship carer best meets their needs. For Aboriginal children, being with their community and connected to their culture is critical. For a smaller number of children, being with a foster carer in the carer’s home as part of their family, can provide the stability and love they need. For an even smaller number of children, a group home might be the best option where they can be supported by qualified professionals. 

However, as the Auditor General’s report shows, Victoria does not have enough carers to support the number of children in need.

At the same time as demand is rising, the number of faster carers across the state is declining. Kinship carers are often grandparents with minimal income, struggling to meet the costs of caring for their grandchildren.

The decline in foster carers is an urgent issue. It means children are being placed further from their communities, separated from siblings, or moved repeatedly when the home placement breaks down.

As the VAGO report highlights, too many children and young people in care are missing out on safe, stable, and appropriate home environments.

A second report, released last week by the Commission for Children and Young People, tells us what happens when children and young people experience instability in care – they can carry the harms of system failure throughout their lives.

The foster care crisis is real

The drop in foster carers is not new, but the Auditor-General joins carers, workers, and organisations sounding the alarm about how dire the situation is becoming.

Without an appropriately supported pool of dedicated carers, stability becomes almost impossible to achieve for children and young people who have already experienced so many life-altering changes in their lives.

This shortage places more pressure on existing carers and increases reliance on already stretched alternative home settings.

If we want better care for children, we must urgently address barriers to fostering, as well as increase recognition and support for kinship carers.

Supporting our carers

The support received from government is not enough to enable carers to meet all the costs of raising a child in the middle of a financial crisis.

The Auditor-General recommended increasing the recruitment and retention of foster carers and reviewing care allowance levels for foster and kinship carers. This was the only one of VAGO’s five recommendations that was accepted in principle, rather than in full.

If we do not address these pressures, demand on the system will continue to grow and children will not receive the stable and safe homes they need to be happy and healthy.

A moment for leadership

Both the Commission and VAGO highlight ongoing inequities, particularly for Aboriginal children, who remain significantly over-represented in care. Progress against Closing the Gap targets is too slow.

While the Commission and VAGO’s reports differ in their focus, both point to a broader truth: we are intervening too late. If we want to improve the lives of children, young people, and families, we need to invest more heavily in supporting families early so they can stay together, have a secure roof over their heads, have sufficient food on the table, access medical and dental services, and cover school expenses.

A system that is mostly responding to crisis will always be overwhelmed.

With evidence-backed investment, coordination, and decisive leadership, we can build a system that is proactive rather than reactive, which supports families earlier, adequately equips carers, and puts children’s needs first.

VAGO, the Commission, our sector, and countless others, have made recommendations about how we can best achieve these goals. What we need now is urgency. Every delay means more children without stable homes, more families reaching breaking point, and more opportunities missed.

About the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare

The Centre is the peak body for child and family services in Tasmania and Victoria. For over 100 years, the Centre has advocated for the rights and wellbeing of children, young people and families, ensuring their right to be heard, to be safe, to access education and to remain connected to family, community and culture. Visit www.cfecfw.org.au for more information.

Content moderator: Sue Olney