A one-year-old baby is living in a motel in NSW supervised only by their 14-year-old sibling and the unaccredited staff of a for-profit labour hire company contracted by the state to supervise children with nowhere else to go.
In another motel, four siblings woke up to their 598th day living under the same arrangement on Saturday.
The Minns government is considering drastic reforms to fix a system ‘spiralling out of control’ which could see it take back control of the care of at-risk children from private providers which currently operate in NSW.
This system, the reality for more than 100 children across NSW, has cost taxpayers half-a-billion dollars over the past two years.
And yet, according to NSW Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington, there are empty beds they could be sleeping in.
But due to what Washington called “perverse financial incentives” written in contracts with not-for-profit providers meant to supply accommodation for the most at-risk children, the state is powerless to force them to fill places despite vacancy rates as high as 47 per cent.
While the government is working to fix shortages by attracting more foster carers into the out-of-home care system, Washington is also considering more drastic reforms which could see the Minns government take back control of the care of at-risk children from the labyrinth of private providers which currently operate in NSW.
“The entire outsourcing of the sector has cost more, overall,” she said.
Despite the government announcing a $200 million rescue package for the sector in the May budget, costs continue to rise due in part to a shortage of foster carers which have forced more children into expensive emergency care arrangements.
Most pressing are the emergency care arrangements which see children living in hotels, motels and caravan parks. In total, there were 141 children living in that type of emergency accommodation in October. They are supervised for by labour-hire staff who have working with children checks, but no accreditation with the Office of the Children’s Guardian.
In an interview with the Herald, Washington was blunt about the role of for-profit providers, saying they were “exploiting a broken system”. But while she was “deeply uncomfortable” with the status quo, it would not change overnight: “because then where do those children go?”
The government is already taking small steps to bring elements of the system back into public hands by seeking to ramp up the number of foster carers employed directly by NSW. But Washington is also not ruling out bringing services provided by not-for-profit agencies back into public hands.
Washington is particularly frustrated by contracts signed by the previous government with not-for-profit operators containing clauses meaning the state cannot force them to take on children even when they have vacancies.
Source: NSW child protection system issues laid bare with hundreds of children caught in ‘dire’ situation
“Minns government take back control of the care of at-risk children from the labyrinth of private providers which currently operate in NSW.” Should get right onto this. The public and private sectors are both very average at being parents, but sub contracting this service was destined to corporately further neglect children.