Children and Young People (Safety) (Inquiry into Foster and Kinship Care) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (11:08): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The purpose of this legislation is to ensure the children and families involved in foster and kinship care in South Australia are receiving the best services and support from the state government. Foster and kinship carers are the backbone of the child protection system, caring for approximately 4,000 children in this state.

The bill seeks to establish an independent inquiry into foster and kinship care in South Australia to review the adequacy of existing complaints mechanisms, consultation processes, internal processes and arrangements within the department, and documentation and information held by the department. The bill intends to establish an independent inquiry into foster and kinship care in South Australia to review:

complaints mechanisms in the Department for Child Protection;

consultation processes between the department, foster and kinship carers, as well as other relevant people and organisations;

documentation and information held by the DCP;

internal processes and arrangements within the DCP and other persons and bodies to examine that there is a sound partnership with foster and kinship carers; and

ensure that the rights of children in foster and kinship care are realised, respected and addressed.

It must be a sensitive inquiry due to the nature of the matters being discussed, especially protecting the identity of the children in care, and led by a person such as retired Coroner Mark Johns.

The inquiry will run for a duration of six months and will report to the relevant minister, who must table a copy of the report with both houses of parliament. In addition, the inquiry will identify the needs and concerns of carers, and how carers can be better supported in order to achieve better outcomes for children under the guardianship of the chief executive by making recommendations to improve the current relationship between foster and kinship carers and the state government. The timing of the report will coincide with the review of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act, scheduled for October 2022.

When drafting this legislation, the Hon. John Darley MLC consulted with a key advocacy group of foster and kinship carers. During consultation, concerns were raised over what has been occurring in the foster and kinship care sector. The carers in this group are adamant this inquiry will allow for the voices of carers to be heard and provide them with protection from repercussions. Many individuals have reached out to my electorate office and myself personally to demonstrate support of the passage of this bill through the house today. They feel current mechanisms are not working.

Carers believe they are not currently being treated impartially and/or fairly when making complaints and this is affecting the retention of carers. They are concerned their voices will not be heard in the legislative review next year and, as such, an independent inquiry is needed ahead of the legislative review.

No-one disputes the need for delivering the best outcome for children in care. A positive and supportive system of true partnership between carers and the government is essential for achieving these outcomes, and I hope that this inquiry will deliver the critical information for a truly effective framework to achieve this.

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (11:12): Thank you very much to the member for Florey and, I understand, the member for Waite, who have assisted in bringing this bill into this place. I also thank the Hon. John Darley for preparing this bill for progression through the upper house and I also thank the Hon. Emily Bourke and the Hon. Clare Scriven, who helped to progress this bill, together with others in the upper house for Labor.

I have now been the shadow minister for child protection for around 15 months. I am very pleased to undertake that role because I have a lifelong, very deep commitment to ensuring that every child in South Australia is enabled to physically, mentally, emotionally and socially thrive. I have a great deal of respect for those who work in the sector, trying to advance that interest. I have a great deal of respect for foster carers who open their hearts and homes to children, some of the most vulnerable children in South Australia, and I have a great deal of respect for families who are doing what they can to strengthen their family and rebuild their family after some difficult circumstances. I care deeply about the journey of those children in care who are amongst the most vulnerable children in our state.

I know the member for Florey touched on the Children and Young People (Safety) Act, and I want to reflect on the passage of that act because it is very pertinent in terms of where this bill brings us to today. Belatedly, at the end of last year, the minister brought forward a bill to this house that was a review of that act, and Labor put forward multiple amendments to that bill. We did so because we had had countless stakeholders and countless community members approach us to voice their concerns with the content of that bill and some very serious omissions from that bill.

In good faith, as we should always do, we very carefully listened to those stakeholders and, again, I was incredibly impressed with all those stakeholders in terms of their commitment to working with and for the most vulnerable children in our state and their commitment to supporting and empowering them however they could.

On the basis of what they spoke about with me, we put forward a number of amendments—really, really important amendments—that included ensuring that Aboriginal children, families and communities' voices would be empowered and amendments that focused on a range of things to ensure there was fairness in the child protection system for all who engage with it.

One of those very important amendments was a very simple amendment, and that was an amendment to insert a clause to ensure there was procedural fairness available to foster and kinship carers in all of their dealings with the Department for Child Protection. Various bodies, including Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers and the Carers Project, advocated very strongly around those amendments and rightly Labor responded, because we know the work that foster and kinship carers do with and for vulnerable children in our state and we also know, because we have deeply listened to them, that they collectively are deeply frustrated about the way they are treated by the system.

Both the Carers Project and Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers have done extensive surveys of foster carers and, frankly, have come up with some highly alarming commentary about the way they are treated by the child protection system. Those survey results are available, and I would urge every member in this house, if they have not done so already, to consider those reports because, frankly, they are alarming.

Also alarming is the number of foster and kinship carers who come to my office echoing the sentiments in those reports. Almost daily, I have foster and kinship carers speaking with myself and my office about their frustrations with the department.

We thought the amendment we moved for procedural fairness was a very, very sensible one that would have gone some way to making sure that foster and kinship carers knew that they were being heard and that their concerns were being taken seriously. Sadly, the minister refused to accept that amendment and when this amendment was moved again in the upper house, alongside a number of other amendments focused on making sure we have the best possible system in which people's voices are heard and acted upon and that enable children to emotionally, physically and socially thrive, sadly, the bill simply stalled altogether.

Hence, it is my understanding that that is one of the reasons that the Hon. John Darley, who has also clearly heard from these foster and kinship carers, has brought this bill forward to make sure that we can have the fairness, the procedures that work and the listening that foster and kinship carers so passionately want and so absolutely deserve in our system.

So I am proud to support this bill. I think it is a great pity that we could not progress amendments that would have provided foster and kinship carers with the fairness they deserve and need via the many other opportunities that were available through this house and the upper house, but here we are. I support this bill, Labor supports this bill, and we will certainly look forward through the inquiry to continue to closely hear from and act on the wishes of foster and kinship carers.

In closing, can I say thank you to every single one of them who opens their hearts and their homes to children in our state and to the courageous advocates who speak for them so passionately.