Child Protection

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (11:58): By leave, on behalf of the member for Badcoe I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises Child Protection Week;

(b) recognises Foster and Kinship Carer Week;

(c) acknowledges that protecting children and young people is everyone's responsibility;

(d) recognises the individuals, organisations and communities that have played their part in creating safer communities for children and young people;

(e) appreciates the invaluable work of foster and kinship carers and the contribution they make to the lives of children and young people; and

(f) recognises the enormous impact a foster or kinship carer can have in improving outcomes for children and young people who have faced significant challenges in their early life.

I rise as Labor's lead speaker on this motion. In doing so, I heartily thank the member for Badcoe for bringing it to this house and for the excellent work that she has undertaken as the shadow minister for child protection.

This week is National Child Protection Week, and this year's theme, 'Putting children first', means relentlessly prioritising the health, safety and wellbeing of children. It is important that we acknowledge National Child Protection Week, think deeply about what actions are needed to ensure that all South Australian children are nurtured, loved, heard and engaged, and reflect on what actions must be taken every single week to enable all children, no matter their background, their postcode or their starting place in life, to experience equality of opportunity.

This year, we reach the milestone of 30 years of marking National Child Protection Week—and what a year it is. With the added strain of the COVID-19 crisis, it is crucially important that we reflect on what we can do as a parliament and as a community to ensure the safety, protection and equality of opportunity for all children in the difficult environment that we navigate. I know that many people and organisations are marking this week in different ways, many through online forums and events. Despite not physically being together, the enduring message remains, and that is that we all have a part to play and that we can make a difference.

Putting children first is about prioritising a child's right to be safe and to be loved and cared for. It is about ensuring children have food, shelter, health care, access to education and the opportunity to safely play, explore, connect with others and grow. It is about putting the welfare of children at the centre of every decision, every policy and every action, and it is about all of us taking collective responsibility for that welfare.

Last week, I was appointed as Labor's shadow minister for child protection, a role that I was honoured to take on and that I accepted in full knowledge of the huge responsibility that comes with it. It is a role to which I bring compassion and empathy, and a long-term steadfast commitment to do whatever I can to improve the lives of South Australian children, particularly those who most need us. Over many years, I have been driven by this commitment, and it is my solemn intention to thoroughly explore ways that as a community and as a parliament we can positively and collectively impact some of the most difficult and complex social issues impacting children, their families and communities.

It is also my intention to explore the ways forward through listening to and working with the many people with expertise, knowledge, understanding and deep, sometimes difficult, experience in this area. In saying this, I thank all the hardworking dedicated South Australians employed in the child protection sector, those working in the Public Service and the many working in community organisations. I commend their work in empowering South Australians to heal if they may need to, to build strong resilient family units, to access good support and to provide the care, love and support children need.

Many of these jobs are not as well remunerated as they should be, rightly require ongoing training and the constant updating of skills and knowledge and can be in settings that need increased resources and improved opportunities for effective resourced collaboration. I say to these workers, the leaders of the organisations for whom they work and the unions that represent them, that your hard work, compassion, knowledge and experience make a difference in the lives of our youngest South Australians.

I very much look forward to listening to you, to working alongside you and the outstanding organisations for which you work, to advocating with you for South Australian children and to working together for positive change. Thank you for what you do and thank you for being willing to share your knowledge, wisdom and experiences, and for your willingness to be responsive in the development of policy, actions and evaluation.

It is through working together as a strong, compassionate and connected community, and through listening, engaging and acting with all who are committed to positively impacting the lives of our children and young people, and with children and young people themselves, that we will make a lasting and positive impact. I acknowledge the many individuals, organisations and communities that ensure the focus with our most vulnerable children is on early intervention, prevention and wellbeing and that rightly relentlessly advocate for it.

Prevention and early intervention supports and services are critical to building resilience in families, to keeping children safe and to family and community wellbeing. We currently have more than 4,300 children in some form of care in South Australia, a figure we all know we have to do more to improve upon. Following the Nyland royal commission, the then Labor government invested a further $432 million into the child protection system. As part of this investment, Labor refocused the sector on prevention and early intervention.

Many services and advocacy organisations enable children at risk of being placed in out-of-home care to stay together with their families. They also play a vital role in advocating and promoting the welfare of children and young people who are in care. I thank all who are engaged in those services and supports and all who advocate for them. I also thank the many early childhood educators, the student support officers, the teachers and the school communities who are also integral to children's wellbeing.

I look forward to developing with families, carers, organisations and educators a vision for our state that focuses on supporting strong families and on creating communities that connect and engage families and that enable children to thrive. Next week is Foster and Kinship Carer Week, which highlights and celebrates the extraordinarily generous role foster and kinship carers have in achieving that vision. Foster and kinship carers have been critical to our child protection system and to children's wellbeing for many, many years.

I also look forward to supporting these many family and foster carers. They enable our state to be better placed to deliver effective, long-term improvements that support the health and wellbeing of children right across South Australia. Each one of them deserves our thanks for the tremendous, generous job they do. With enormous hearts and open minds, they provide love and support to children and a valued place in their families. Thank you to every single one of them.

There are also many South Australians who are not formal carers but who take on the role of caring, often for their grandchildren and also for other members of their family. They do not necessarily have formal arrangements and do this incredibly important work out of the goodness of their heart, out of a desire to see their family members get the care and opportunities they need and out of a desire to see the young people in their lives thrive.

They do this sometimes without the support of governments, day in day out, with little or no respite. They do it to ensure the children in their care do not miss out on the attention, love and care they need and deserve. They do this knowing and often feeling that caring for young children can be mentally, emotionally and physically taxing on them. Again, I thank them for this and also acknowledge the role organisations that support those carers play in easing or sharing their burden. I also look forward to working with these carers and all the organisations and groups that support and connect them.

In closing, I thank the member for Badcoe for bringing this motion to the house. I heartily thank her for her outstanding work in her time as shadow minister for child protection. Again, I state how honoured I am to take on the role as Labor's shadow minister for child protection. Today, as we mark National Child Protection Week, I wholeheartedly acknowledge all who generously give their time, energy and support to ensuring that South Australian children are safe, healthy, engaged and enabled to thrive.

This week and always, I will keep them in my mind and above all else I will keep in my mind and in my heart the South Australian children who most need us to hear their voices, to see their experiences and to act.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (12:09): I rise in support of the motion brought forward by the member for Badcoe. I would also like to congratulate the member for Reynell on her new role as the shadow minister for child protection. Child protection is an enormously important portfolio and I look forward to bipartisan support to improve the lives of those who matter most: our children.

National Child Protection Week is from Sunday 6 September to Friday 11 September. Child Protection Week is an initiative coordinated by the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, also known as NAPCAN, who are also celebrating their 30^th anniversary. Yesterday, I launched the online NAPCAN conference with the theme 'Putting children first'. The theme is very relevant to what I as the Minister for Child Protection and my Department for Child Protection strive to do every day, that is, prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.

The aim of the week is to engage members of the community in supporting families and protecting children. COVID-19 has been a particularly challenging time for all families, especially those who have recently become financially disadvantaged through unemployment or those who are affected by mental health, domestic violence or substance abuse. It is important to recognise that the broader economic context at an international, federal and state level directly impacts families and organisations all around us in our local communities.

Coronavirus has placed additional pressures on families, and we are working hard across all levels of government to ensure we can respond early to families under stress; however, it is essential the entire community supports vulnerable parents, children and young people at this time. That is why our government acted swiftly to provide additional assistance of a $200 payment to foster and kinship carers for essential items during the early stages of the coronavirus public health emergency.

Significantly, in South Australia we are shifting our focus to provide services that are trauma-responsive, therapeutic and culturally aware to enable children and young people to feel safe, stable and well supported. One example of how we are prioritising child protection and working hard to improve the very lives of those who matter the most, our children, is my recent announcement of a $600,000 investment to bring the therapeutic residential care model Sanctuary to residential care homes in South Australia.

Foster and Kinship Carer Week is also held annually in September and will be held from the 13 to 19 September. The National Foster and Kinship Care Conference that was planned to be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre in September and hosted by Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers SA Inc. has been postponed until June 2021.

Family-based care offers the best outcomes for the majority of children and young people, as it offers a stable, family environment. We recognise, respect and support the role and contribution of all family-based carers across the state. As part of our acknowledgement of the work of our family-based carers, on behalf of the government, I have provided a public statement of commitment to work in partnership and to support our South Australian foster and kinship carers.

This statement was a combined effort between my Department for Child Protection; our carers advocacy service, Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers SA Inc.; and our industry peak, Child and Family Focus SA. The statement of commitment is a joint acknowledgement of the important role that foster and kinship carers play in looking after children under guardianship. It is also a reminder that many organisations have an important role to play in supporting carers so that they are able to best support children in care.

This commitment is part of the Marshall Liberal government's strategy for children and young people in care 2020 to 2023, 'Every effort for every child'. It outlines the foundation principles that contribute to a strong partnership approach between family-based carers, government and the sector to ensure that children under guardianship receive high-quality care. The statement highlights five key priority principles that guide our work with those carers. Those five principles are that carers can (1) expect to be informed; (2) supported; (3) consulted; (4) valued; and (5) respected in their roles. It also acknowledges the important contribution of Aboriginal carers.

The Marshall Liberal government delivered on its commitment to provide carer payments for both kinship and foster carers of young people to age 21. This is fully funded and now an operational program within DCP. This policy change provides support to valuable carers who have opened their homes to a young person in need by supporting them with the costs associated with a young person to remain in their homes up to 21 years of age.

Prior to this policy change, research showed that approximately 30 per cent of young people exiting care were homeless within 12 months. The future of our care system in South Australia is reliant on growing family-based care. I always encourage those who are interested to become foster carers to go to our website fostercare.sa.gov.au or to call 1300 2 FOSTER for more information.

The Marshall Liberal government is committed to supporting families, protecting children and investing in their futures and recognises that it is a whole-of-government and a whole-of-community responsibility. Last year, we released the 'Safe and well: supporting families, protecting children' strategy. This outlines the actions taken by government to create a connected system that ensures the right support is available to children and families at the right time.

This whole-of-government approach supports families who need help, keeps vulnerable children safe from harm and provides stable and loving care for children who can no longer live safely with their parents. At the centre of this are the voices of the children and young people. I commend the motion to the house.

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (12:15): I am delighted to speak about Child Protection Week, which we are currently marking, and Foster and Kinship Carer Week, which we will celebrate next week. It is a chance to say thanks to all those working hard for families and children and also to reflect on where we need to do better as a state and as leaders ourselves.

This year, I am speaking as the very recently former shadow minister for this vital area, with my great friend and talented, compassionate colleague the member for Reynell now taking up this challenging policy area. I would like to congratulate the member for Reynell on taking up the portfolio. She is an exceptional member of our team, someone I have learned a great deal from in my short time in politics, and someone who listens, understands and seeks to create positive change, which is exactly what the child protection sector needs right now.

Despite the fact that this is no longer my assigned policy area, I really do believe in the third part of today's motion, that is that child protection is everyone's responsibility. To that end, the child protection sector can certainly rely on me to continue to champion the needs of children as I continue my work in Labor's leadership team but also well beyond that. In my case, it is a lifelong commitment.

As many in this house would know, I had some rather rough patches as a kid and my family needed support at times. I was incredibly fortunate to be raised by my grandparents for a significant time when my parents could not look after my younger sisters and me. While some may see that as an unfortunate period in a child's life, I know from those experiences, from having reported on child protection as a journalist and now having worked in the field as a representative and policymaker, that I was very lucky.

I had the care I needed when I needed it and that made all the difference, and it makes all the difference to other children and families who find themselves in similar, or indeed much worse, situations. Bad things do happen to children in child protection but good things also happen. We must continually strive for those outcomes and realise that they are possible. The people who make those good outcomes happen and do their very best when circumstances are not great are our workers in the child protection sector. This week is an opportunity to recognise them.

Whether you are in a non-government organisation or even a private company, whether you are a DCP worker or even in the prevention and early intervention side in DHS, the work you do changes little lives every day. If you are a police officer, a health worker, a domestic violence worker, a teacher or a counsellor working in and with our specialist child protection workers, we thank you too.

I know it is really hard work. I know that if you are a government employee you are often overworked and not given enough support, and that needs to improve. I know that you do it because you believe in opportunities for children and a lifeline for struggling families, and this week we say thanks to you.

If you are on reception taking that first call when someone is reaching out for help, if you are the one who is counselling a new parent with complex needs, if you are the one who enters a home with the horrible but necessary task of taking a child into care or if you are running a family group conference trying to mediate a successful reunion for a child, what you do really matters. What you do is important and we deeply thank you for the work you do on behalf of all of us as a community.

I would also like to thank all of the non-government organisations that have been so generous with their time, ideas and insights during my time as the shadow minister. They are organisations such as Baptist Care, whose innovative thinking is to be admired; Anglicare; and Uniting Communities, who have also kindly given me their time, and I appreciate that. These three groups were also incredibly helpful in connecting me with experts in the UK when I was over there for almost a month, studying child protection innovations for Labor's policy work.

To Lutheran Community Care, Key Assets, ac.care, Centacare and Uniting Country, you have each also given me your time in Adelaide and the regions, and I am grateful and happy to support your work. Thanks also to a few key grassroots groups, who are simply good people doing good things in our community. Sonya Ryan at the Carly Ryan Foundation—I have known Sonya since covering Carly's case many years ago—is a wonderful advocate and a good friend. Thank you. There is the team at Backpacks 4 SA Kids. It is always great to volunteer for you, and I will keep doing that. Rachael moves mountains there, and I would urge all members of this place to support the current effort here in Parliament House to collect goods for Backpacks 4 SA Kids.

Thanks to the child protection groups doing great work in my own electorate of Badcoe. Rikki and the team at Treasure Boxes are fighting for their survival right now. I urge those opposite to have a heart and support their magnificent work. There is Puddle Jumpers, with whom I have a long relationship, and my local VIEW Club, who do great work with The Smith Family.

I would also like to thank the Guardian for Children and Young People in Care, Penny Wright; the Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly; and the Commissioner for Victims' Rights, Bronwyn Killmier. I would also like to thank Rob and the team at CAFFSA. Rob has just completed his PhD, and I look forward to reading it.

I would also like to thank Aboriginal Family Support Services, Kornar Winmil Yunti, SNAICC and the Aboriginal Commissioner for Children and Young People. It is outright appalling that 34 per cent of children in care are from First Nations backgrounds. It is a stain on us as a society. It is disgusting, and it is something that each of us here, myself included, bear responsibility for. It is our job to improve life for all South Australians, and surely vulnerable First Nations children should be chief among those that we turn our time, efforts and talents to assisting. I hope in my time in this place we do see change for Aboriginal people, especially the disproportionate number of First Nations children who grow up in care.

I would like to thank the PSA and the Australian Association of Social Workers for their work. I would also like to thank Cathy Taylor, Fiona Ward and the DCP team for their assistance in my time.

This week and next is also a chance to recognise the work of our carers—foster carers, kinship carers and our many informal carers. I have been so lucky to meet so many carers through my work as the shadow minister. The responsibility you each take on, caring for another person's child in their hour of need, is remarkable. Your sacrifice and dedication to a child, a child that sometimes is a stranger to you, cannot be overstated.

For many of you the task has been much harder than you ever imagined it would be. It has tested you and brought you to your limits, but many carers have also told me it has been the most incredibly rewarding experience of their lives. To see a child move from trauma and complex behaviours to settling into a warm and loving environment is no doubt a joy to be a part of. We on this side, and I am sure the other, recognise your sacrifice, your hard work, your dedication and your love for these children, and it is with deep gratitude that we thank you for your work.

I would also like to thank the hundreds of carers who have taken the time to meet with me, to tell me their stories. It has been very rewarding for me, on the occasions that problems have been raised with me, to be able to get a result. It is a shame that politicians and sometimes media are needed to achieve that, but it is satisfying nonetheless.

I recently met with a group of carers from Life Without Barriers, who shared their time with me. I would like to especially thank them for their insights, which will form part of the policy that Labor goes to the next election with. I would also like to take this opportunity to recognise the work of Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers and a group very close to my heart, Grandparents for Grandchildren. Under the leadership of Fiona Endacott, Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers is in very safe hands. There is fantastic advocacy that goes on in that Prospect office, which I am so glad that Labor supported.

Grandparents for Grandchildren—well, what an organisation! What a bunch of fighters! They fight for young people and their grandparents, and they also had to fight for themselves, for their very existence, when the current minister cut their funding. I am so pleased that I was able to help. Keep fighting for grandparents—grandparents like the ones who brought me up, grandparents who give their retirements, their life's savings to care for their grandchildren. They deserve a lot more recognition and help than this government affords them.

The group I most warmly wish to thank are young people—and some older people—who have been in care. I have been very lucky to hear from young people currently in care or who have left care, as well as older people with care experiences. Their experiences can only really be understood by others who have been in similar circumstances, and even then some of their tales are hard to fathom. I appreciate them having trust in me and telling me some of the shocking things that have happened to them, but also I appreciate their insightful, detailed and incredibly constructive analysis of their experiences and their concrete recommendations for change.

I have also been very fortunate to have young people who have been in care volunteer and work for me in recent years. It has been lovely to provide them with an opportunity for their futures, but it is really me who has benefited from their insights and contributions to the work I do. A big thankyou and good luck to them. I would like to thank the CREATE Foundation, which provided some wonderful experiences. Amy, Fabian and the team do a great job and their young advocates are simply outstanding.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for people who are now in their 60s, 70s and even 80s who were in care as children and who have shared their experiences. They are history makers. They spoke out and stood up against historic sexual abuse of children in care and they have made the world a safer place for those coming after them. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude, but we owe them more than that: we owe them safety and comfort in their older years. Many are now facing the prospect of being re-institutionalised going to aged-care facilities.

Many people are not overjoyed about going into aged care, but these passionate advocates have made me acutely aware of the intensely frightening prospect they face of again being vulnerable in a care system. It is the prospect of being retraumatised and even victimised again. As a community, we owe it to them to find ways they can either stay in their own homes or enter into care with confidence that they will be looked after.

Thank you very much to everyone who has supported me in my work as the shadow minister. I wish you the very best Child Protection Week and Foster and Kinship Care Week and I congratulate the new shadow minister on her appointment.

Ms LUETHEN (King) (12:26): I rise to support this motion and thank the member for Badcoe for introducing it. This year's National Child Protection Week theme is 'Putting children first'. Under this year's theme of putting children first, I invite all South Australians to look at how they can prioritise children's safety and teach their children protective behaviours because putting children first means prioritising the safety and wellbeing of children.

To grow up well, children need to feel safe and loved, have a chance to play and explore, have a say in decisions that affect them, and access to essential things like food, shelter and health care. For children to thrive, we need to be brave and come together as a community and put children's needs first during National Child Protection Week and every week. We need to do this because all children and young people have a right to be treated with respect and to be protected from harm, to be asked for their opinions about things that affect their lives and be listened to, to feel and be safe in their interactions with adults and other children and young people, and to understand as early as possible what is meant by feeling and being safe.

For the past seven years, I have been advocating to and lobbying the previous Labor government to improve the safety of children in South Australia, and now I am so pleased to have the opportunity to work with the hardworking, caring and accountable Marshall Liberal government ministers to more effectively implement our child protection curriculum for our South Australian schools.

The SA Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum is a child safety program for children and young people from age three to year 12. It teaches children to recognise abuse and tell a trusted adult about it, to understand what is appropriate and inappropriate touching, and to understand ways of keeping themselves safe. The Keeping Safe curriculum is mandated in all public preschools and schools and is designed to be taught every year by teachers who have completed a full-day training course. It is a world-class evidence-based child safety program used by a range of other Australian and international schools.

It is a great program, but frequently when I ask local parents what they think of the child protection curriculum being taught at their local school parents are often unaware of the curriculum. This means they are not receiving the information they should about what is being taught or what is not being taught.

Some people argue that we should not have to provide personal safety programs in schools because adults should take responsibility for children's safety; however, the sad reality is that adults and families have an abysmal record in child protection. Evidence of the extent of Australian families' failure can be seen in our statistics: damning data about the rates of domestic and sexual violence, the numerous child abuse inquiries and reports conducted in South Australia, and today's statistics on increasing child exploitation online.

I have been told by South Australia Police that, in over 60 per cent of incidents of domestic abuse they attend, children are present witnessing the abuse, and this is child abuse. In too many South Australian family homes violence is the norm. It is through education at our schools that we can teach children from a young age in an age-appropriate way that this should not be the norm. Just as we teach children in schools to learn how to swim, to be careful with heat, with knives and scissors, schools are the best place to teach children how to be safe with people.

I know personally so many people who were sexually abused as children, and it is estimated that in Australia one in five children will be sexually abused. I speak up again on the sexual abuse of children because these children need a voice, these survivors need a voice, because it is so common and this abuse is not talked about. In order to stop child sexual abuse we need to start talking about it. All children are at risk of sexual abuse regardless of their age, gender, social class, race or religion. Most child victims are abused by someone they know and trust.

Children trust adults to keep them safe, and five year olds are fearless. Without a child protection program they implicitly trust adults to keep them safe. Child abusers use coercion, tricks, bribes, threats, blackmail, secrecy and sophisticated seduction and grooming techniques to manipulate their victims and their victims' families, and without a child protection program that tells children exactly what is unacceptable and reportable, abuse victims are likely to believe offenders when they say things like, 'It's okay. It's fun. It's what guys do. This is what people do when they love each other. Would I ask you to do something wrong when I love you?' or, 'You're safe with me.'

Victims are very confused when offenders are relatives, authority figures or people trusted by their parents. Children are taught to obey adults and taught to keep secrets. Child sexual abuse is made possible by the culture of secrecy, and that is why I keep speaking up. Without the confidence and knowledge that comes from a comprehensive child protection program, children will not risk telling their secrets to the most caring of parents because they fear a negative emotional response and the withdrawal of affection or worse.

I have heard many survivors who have been told that their abuser told them that if they took it then their siblings would not, and many years later they find out that it was not just them. We must take this threat seriously because children's futures depend on it. The early sexualisation of children can cause enormous damage to their development.

At school, most abused children exhibit learning problems. If there is no therapeutic intervention, they are likely to suffer lifelong adverse relationship, career and health outcomes. The financial and social costs of child abuse to society are enormous. Police forces across Australia are this week urging parents and carers to talk to their kids about online safety.

Since January this year, the Child Abuse and Sex Crime Squad has arrested more than 560 people and laid more than 2,800 charges following investigations into child sexual assaults, serious physical abuse, extreme cases of neglect and online grooming. This Child Protection Week we are asking every adult to put children first before their own fears and feelings of being uncomfortable. I urge adults not to think, 'What if I'm wrong?' but to think, 'What if I'm right?'

Most parents and caregivers do not want to think about their children, their nieces, their nephews, their children's friends in class, the children next door being hurt and sexually abused and for this reason there is a high level of denial and complacency in our community today. Most adults trust their partner, their family, their friends, their neighbours, the local sports coaches, the local dance leaders and their children's teachers.

This Child Protection Week I ask parents to (1) ask your school what child protection curriculum is being taught and, if they cannot tell you, then ask why not; and (2) seek your own books and videos to teach body safety and online safety to your children. It is never too early or too late. There are great parent helping handbooks and story books by great Aussie authors.

Eighty-two per cent of children sexually abused are less than 10 years old when their sexual abuse starts. Please put children first. We all have a part to play in protecting all the children in our community. Even small actions can help to improve a child's future and together we can create safer environments for our children to thrive.

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (12:35): I rise to support this motion. A safe and stable home environment is one of the greatest things you can give a child, giving them a sense of belonging and permanency. Young children experience much of their world through parents and caregivers and, in their early life, it has major implications on their future life and relationships.

As of May this year, there were 4,300 South Australian children in the state care system. The term 'state care' takes into account foster and kinship care arrangements, plus those living in non-family based residential care arrangements. There were more than 3,700 children in family-based care, including 1,621 in foster care and more than 2,000 in kinship care.

When a child cannot be cared for by family members, foster care is one of the best options. In a 2006 study looking at permanency in foster care, it was determined that safety and security, along with connections and enduring relationships, were two key elements of permanency. There is a definite shortage of foster carers in South Australia, despite the work of the Department for Child Protection and lead agencies in recent years.

Last year, there was a target of signing up 50 additional carers as part of a push to reduce the number of children in residential care. I give credit to the Minister for Child Protection, Rachel Sanderson, and the efforts of agencies such as ac.care to achieve this. The minister has said previously in this house that she is committed to reform and improvement for the carer experience, and this is essential if we want more carers to join the system.

As of June 2019, there were nearly 1,300 foster carers in South Australia, all with different backgrounds and circumstances. I commend anybody who decides to take on this important role, and there is no such thing as the average foster carer. Elderly people, married couples with children of their own, single men, single women, same-sex couples—people from all walks of life decide to become foster carers for different reasons. They include people like Mount Gambier parents Nicole and Ian, who became foster carers with ac.care and have welcomed 16 children into their home over the last six years for respite and long-term periods, and also Barb, nicknamed Nanna Barbie, who has opened her home to more than 100 children over two decades.

It is truly one of the most selfless and undervalued roles in our society today to dedicate your life and your home to a vulnerable child when they need it. Sometimes foster carers get just a few hours' notice before a placement and will have no idea how long that child will be with them. It is important to recognise that foster care is a team effort. It is not only the people actually caring for the children, but the Department for Child Protection and agencies working together to provide the best support possible.

Since the 1980s, ac.care has been the main provider of foster care services for the Limestone Coast, the Riverland and Murraylands, with a network of carers and support staff available around the clock. When someone takes the first step in deciding to become a foster carer the agency offers training, support and advocacy for carers, links them in with networks and other carers, and conducts regular home visits.

When foster carers need a break, ac.care offers respite. Currently, there are 254 children with 185 foster carers across the Limestone Coast. It is a sad fact that it is unlikely there will ever be enough carers to meet the needs of the growing number taken into state care; ac.care wants to recruit an additional 30 foster carers over the next year across the region and also retain their existing network.

It is an ongoing challenge to find the right placement, the right fit for both the child and the carer. The more carers there are in the system the more choice there is to find that placement. When you start to research the state care system, it is easy to get lost in the data and statistics, but at the centre of all this data is a child, wanting and deserving a family of their own, a safe supportive home and the best start in life.

The old adage that it takes a village to raise a child is correct. Protecting our children is everybody's responsibility. Today, I want to acknowledge and give thanks to those who tirelessly work in difficult circumstances, including DCP, ac.care and our network of foster and kinship carers across the Limestone Coast.

Motion carried.