Aboriginal Children and Family Centres

173 Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (25 September 2015). In relation to the Aboriginal child placement principal in Budget Paper 4, Volume 2, page 30, 'Performance Indicators'—

1. What is the percentage of children placed in accordance with the Aboriginal child placement principal in 2014-15?

2. Given this figure was 74.4% in 2011-12 and dropped to only 67% in 2012-13, can the minister explain the reason for the drop and what is being done about it?

3. Has the capacity been reached? If so, what does the minister plan to do?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills): I have been advised:

Compliance with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle reported annually as part of Report on Government Services (ROGS) national reporting. Preliminary 2014-15 data from ROGS indicates a slight decrease in the proportion of children placed in compliance with the Principle from 67.2% to 66.5%. However this slight decrease occurred at a period where there was an increase in the number of Aboriginal children in out of home care. This was an increase of 57 Aboriginal children to a total of 844 Aboriginal children at 30 June 2015, from 787 Aboriginal children at 30 June 2014. South Australia increased by 34 the number of children placed in accordance with the Principle measure to 559 at 30 June 2015 from 525 at 30 June 2014.

It is acknowledged that the overall percentage for SA decreased from 2012 to 2013 as noted by the member for Adelaide. This decrease coincided with a change in the accommodation reporting data base from the retired CIS system to C3MS. An investigation into this decrease indicated that this result was due to a correction of a counting error in the old system rather than a decline in actual performance.

Capacity has not been reached as children continue to be placed in accordance with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. Despite an over 7% increase in the number of Aboriginal children placed in out-of-home care at 30 June 2015, 66.5% were placed in accordance with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle

The government is continuing to develop strategies to increase kinship care and when that is not possible foster care for children in out of home care.

The government is continuing to develop strategies to increase the pool of carers including:

Increasing funding for current foster care agencies for recruitment, support and training of foster carers

Reviewing and improving processes to identify, assess and support kinship carers

Increasing the use of Other Person Guardianship Orders and Specific Child Only Carers.

The government is actively working to increase placement options available for children coming into care which is expected to improve appropriateness and stability of placement:

Increasing kinship and other home based care placements

Transitioning children from residential care to family-based placements

Late stage reunification of young people within residential care to increase the capacity in residential care

Families SA continues to strengthen the cultural proficiency of its practice and improve its cultural competency through a range of measures focusing on practice, staff knowledge, service improvements and community engagement. This includes reviewing the assessments, supports and engagement of our clients' family to strengthen kinship placements.

Senior Aboriginal Families SA staff assess and review Aboriginal clients in out-of-home care to ensure that meaningful and appropriate activity is undertaken to ensure stable long-term placements preferably with family or kin.