Kinship Care

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister advise why kinship care was removed from non-government organisations and is now carried out in-house by Families SA?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (14:47): I think that the question refers to a time prior to my being minister. I believe that that has largely been handled within the department since I have been the minister, so I will have to look back on what the history of that is. I would point out that since 2001—I think they are the figures usually used—kinship care has increased 700 per cent, so it is absolutely a success story.

That is not to say that we cannot have more kinship carers; I think we absolutely can. It is one of the areas I am most interested in expanding our offering of out-of-home care for children who are unfortunately not able to be with their birth parents. In terms of the history of who is responsible and why it is that way, I will look into it and provide an answer back to the house.