Page 3151 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 9 November 2021
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changed between reporting periods, and caution should be exercised when using and interpreting this data in this report and comparing between reporting systems.
When I spoke to the Assembly in May, I referred to work being undertaken by the Community Services Directorate to further refine the measures being reported against. I am pleased to advise that the updated snapshot report improves how the information is presented for the data related to carers—measures 9 and 10—and the data related to Uniting preservation services—measure 13. The improved reporting and visualisation for these measures provides the directorate with valuable insight into the different approval process and time frames for each type of care and the ability to examine restoration outcomes for children and young people over a longer period of time.
This snapshot report highlights the following: in 2020-21, 141 children and young people entered out of home care and 147 exited out of home care. Whilst the number entering out home care has increased compared to 2018-19 and 2019-20, the number of children and young people exiting care has also increased, resulting in the total number of children and young people living in out of home care remaining steady.
The total for new entries into care for the 2020-21 financial year is 107, which is higher than in the past two financial years but is lower than in 2016-17 and 2017-18. It is still too early to identify if this outcome may be attributable to the impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
In 2020-21, 54 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people exited out of home care, constituting 37 per cent of all children and young people exiting out of home care during the financial year. At the end of June 2021, 29 per cent of children and young people living in out of home care on long-term orders were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. This is lower than for the same time in the 2019-20, 2018-19 and 2017-18 financial years, and is the lowest rate since 2016-17, with the percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people entering and living in out of home care in the ACT gradually decreasing.
We have continued to see a lower number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people entering care since 2016-17 and 2017-18, reflecting investments in cultural training, functional family therapy and family group conferencing as an extension of the implementation effort under A Step Up for Our Kids.
However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people still represented 26 per cent of those entering care in 2020-21, which remains an unacceptable level of over-representation. While this does represent a significant reduction from 32 per cent in 2017-18 and 31 per cent in 2016-17, it highlights the need for continued work.
What this means in terms of numbers is that 16 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people entered care in the second half of 2020-21. This compares to 23 in the same period in 2019-20, 16 in 2018-19, 21 in 2017-18, and 24 in 2016-17.
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