Safety and Wellbeing Responding to Indigenous children, families and communities Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found Steve Kinmond Deputy Ombudsman Community & Disability Services Commissioner ACWA 08 1.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 1.Introduction Numbers of children and young people in out of home care in NSW Numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in out of home care in NSW Law and policy Placement principles Strategic commitment Overview of our review 2.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Methodology 3.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (a)Caseworker allocations Survey responses –Children placed with relative carers were much less likely to have caseworker support – 60% for relative carers; 83.5% for non-relative carers. –Of the 138 children with an allocated caseworker, 43 children (31.2%) had an Aboriginal caseworker. –Of the 68 Aboriginal carers, 61.8 % said they would prefer an Aboriginal caseworker; 25% of non-Aboriginal carers said they would prefer an Aboriginal caseworker. 4.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (b)Information provided to foster carers before a placement is made Survey responses –Carers felt well-briefed about the child’s circumstances before accepting the placement in relation to 55.7% of the placements. –Only 53.1% of carers said that they had been provided with relevant information about local carer support groups. The figure was lower for Aboriginal carers (45.3%) and much higher for non-Aboriginal carers (69%). The figure was dramatically lower for children with relative carers (17.1%) and much higher for children with non-relative carers (69%). 5.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (c)Financial entitlements Survey responses –67% had never had problems receiving their carer allowance. –59% had never had problems regarding establishment costs. –70% had never had problems regarding reimbursement for contingency costs. 6.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (d) Caseworker support Survey responses –Overall 52% of carers said that they felt adequately supported by the Department. The figure was significantly lower for relative carers (35%) and higher for non- relative carers (59%). 7.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (e) Case conferences and planning Survey responses –Carers of 51.9% of children said that they had not been given an opportunity to participate in case conferences for the child. Relative carers are much less likely to have participated in a case conference – 61.4%, compared to 46.1% of children with non-relative carers. 8.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (f)Cultural issues (i)Compliance with the Aboriginal placement principles (ii)Cultural support planning Survey response –According to the carers we interviewed, the Department had only provided support to 8% of children in relation to addressing culture and identity needs. –86% of all carers that we interviewed said that at some stage they had arranged activities to ensure that the child retained links with their community and culture. However, these activities usually consisted of organising occasional visits to family in other areas and participating in NAIDOC-related activities. 9.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (e) Carer support initiatives Survey responses –Over 50% of carers had no knowledge of local carer support groups –Only 17% of relative carers were aware of local advisory groups –Only 25% were aware of regional advisory groups –89% of those who participated in local groups rated them as effective 10.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (h)Complaint handling –Forty-two (42%) of carers said they had made a complaint at some stage to the Department. –Of the 42 carers who made complaints, 33 were not satisfied with how their complaint was handled by the Department. –The most common complaint issue type was ‘poor response when requests were made for assistance’ – 17 complaints. 11.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (i)Health and development needs (1) Our recent Under 5’s Review: –39% of children had not received a paediatric assessment –78% had not had a dental assessment, and –53% had not received a developmental assessment. 12.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found (2)Programs to address health issues (i)Partnerships with NSW Health (ii)The KARI Clinic – how it operates Figure: Identified health problems of Aboriginal children entering care in South West Sydney Health problems identified % of children affected Incomplete immunisations Hearing problems Abnormal vision Dental Speech delay Behavioural problems Educational problems 47% 43% 44% 38% 61% 46% 66% Source: Kari Clinic presentation. N = 89 NB: 14% of children were doing well at first visit and 34% showed an improvement with stable care. 13.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found (2)Programs to address health issues (cont’d) (iii)The Child Protection Unit, Sydney Children’s Hospital (3)Other initiatives (i)Memorandum of Understanding between Department of Community Services and NSW Health on prioritising access to health services (ii)Blue Book health records (iii)Expression of interest 14.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found (3)Other initiatives (cont’d) (iv)Wraparound Services Policy (v)Children’s Guardian case file audit 15.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (j)Education Survey responses –80.1% of these children felt that the child’s educational needs were being met. –Carers for 53.5% of school age children said that the child had special educational needs and 76% of these carers felt that these special educational needs were being met. –Only 19.2% of carers felt that the child was educationally disadvantaged in some way because they were in the out-of-home care system. 16.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 2.Major Themes (k)Critical data DoCS data The data we requested from the Department included: (i)The total number of children in out-of-home care and the number of these children in each DoCS region (excluding residential care). (ii)The total number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care and the number of Aboriginal children in out-of- home care in each DoCS region (excluding residential care). (iii)The total number of Aboriginal foster carers and the number of Aboriginal foster carers in each DoCS region. 17.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found DoCS data (cont’d) The data we requested from the Department included: (iv)The total number of Aboriginal kinship carers and the number of Aboriginal kinship carers in each DoCS region. (v)The total number of Aboriginal children placed with Aboriginal foster carers and the number of these children placed with Aboriginal foster carers in each DoCS region. (vi)The total number of Aboriginal children placed with Aboriginal kinship carers and the number of these children placed with Aboriginal kinship carers in each DoCS region. (vii)The total number of Aboriginal children placed with non- Aboriginal foster carers and the number of these children placed with non-Aboriginal foster carers in each DoCS region On 21/2/2008, we received advice from the department that its Statistical Information Service could only provide us with data in relation to points (i) and (ii) above. 18.

Aboriginal children & foster care in NSW – What the Ombudsman found 3.Concluding Remarks 19.