Page 1278 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 2021
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practice. As a result, the current carer measures have not been updated, as the data is not comparable. The new measures will be included in the next snapshot report presented to the Legislative Assembly during the October 2021 sitting week.
The snapshot report highlights the following. The number of new entries into care for the first half of the 2020-21 financial year is 72, which is higher than in the past two financial years but is lower than the 2016-17 and 2017-18 financial years. The number of children and young people exiting care, 68, is higher than it has been in the past three years—58 for 2018-19 and 2019-20, and 65 for 2017-18. Of the 68 children and young people exiting care in the current quarter, 23 identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Placement types within the out of home care system remain relatively stable, with the majority of children and young people in kinship care placements, 394, as at 31 December 2020.
We continue to see a lower number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people entering care over the past years, given our investments in functional family therapy and family group conferencing as an extension of the implementation of A Step Up For Our Kids. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people represented 26 per cent of those entering care in the first half of the year, which remains an unacceptable level of over-representation. Disappointingly, this compares with 20 per cent in the same period in 2019-20 and only 13 per cent in the same period in 2018-19.
While it represents a reduction from 34 per cent in the same period in 2017-18 and 30 per cent in the same period in 2016-17, the situation calls for a renewed focus and a clear understanding of what is driving the increase in this period. What this means in terms of numbers is 19 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entered care in the first half of 2020-21. This compares with 12 in the same period in 2019-20, seven in 2018-19, 28 in 2017-18 and 33 in 2016-17.
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the care of the director-general with a cultural care plan in place has again declined slightly. As at 31 December 2020, 180 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children had a cultural care plan in place, which is 85 per cent, compared to 181, or 93 per cent, in the same period the previous year.
Child and Youth Protection Services remains committed to ensuring quality cultural plans are in place and has recently established a new cultural panel to support this work. In addition to the step-by-step procedure and practice guide to support staff to develop and maintain a cultural plan, all outstanding care plans will be referred to the cultural panel for review.
We continue to support children, young people and their families through prevention services, with a positive trend towards those being supported not entering care. Between 1 July and 31 December 2019 there were 90 children and young people whose families had agreed to participate in a uniting prevention service. Of the 90 children and young people 12 months after commencing with the preservation service, 84 did not enter care within six months of support commencing and 80 had still not entered care within 12 months of support commencing.
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