A commission of inquiry into Queensland’s child safety system has heard a lack of financial support and growing demands are driving foster carers away from their roles.<\/p>\n
One carer told the inquiry she had been left without superannuation after 16 years caring for “hundreds” of vulnerable and often violent children with complex needs, leaving her paid employment to do so.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Paul Anastassiou KC said Far North Queensland was chosen for the inquiry’s first regional hearings in part because of “a disturbingly high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the care of the child safety system”.<\/p>\n
The first witness at the Cairns hearings described having to wait a year for a child with complex needs to undergo a medical review because of a near-total reliance on the public health system.<\/p>\n
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In his opening remarks in Cairns, Commissioner Paul Anastassiou KC said the inquiry was “not a contest between different sides”. (AAP: Darren England)<\/p>\n
The boy went on to suffer a “massive breakdown,” causing $17,500 in property damage at his carers’ home, the inquiry heard.<\/p>\n
“He smashed all the windows in my house, he put holes in the wall, he ripped the pool fence down,” the witness said.<\/p>\n
“He stabbed my husband, yes, with a pair of scissors.<\/p>\n
“We are threatened every day when we get children like that in our house.”<\/p>\n
About five months later, the boy was sent to Cleveland Youth Detention Centre, where a medical review finally took place, she told the inquiry.<\/p>\n
“[His] ADHD medication and the anti-anxiety medication were fighting each other so it caused his fight-or-flight mode,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cost burden on carers<\/p>\n
The inquiry has heard there has been an unsustainable growth in the residential care sector, on track to cost taxpayers more than $7 billion by 2030.<\/p>\n
Foster care is an alternative to residential care, however the inquiry heard carer retention has become a growing problem.<\/p>\n
Residential care workers call for complaints system overhaul<\/a><\/p>\n The ABC has spoken with several workers who are urgently calling for an independent complaints mechanism that allows reports to be made anonymously and without fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n A veteran carer told the inquiry she lost her job shortly after she began as a foster carer because of the amount of time she had to take off work when a child in her care was frequently suspended from school.<\/p>\n She said there were growing demands on carers that had “exceeded the volunteer position,” including the requirement to meet departmental demands for visits to take place during business hours.<\/p>\n She has only just returned to work.<\/p>\n “I have no super and who is going to look after me when I retire? Not child safety,” she told the hearing.<\/p>\n ‘Only one side’<\/p>\n The commissioner also heard evidence about children in foster care being relocated to live with family members in remote communities, against the child’s wishes.<\/p>\n “I’ve got one [a child] at the moment who is fighting not to go back to his parents,” the hearing’s first witness said.<\/p>\n “I support returning to family \u2026 but not at the detriment of the child.”<\/p>\n The witness also said there was a lack of information provided to foster carers about the behavioural needs of children.<\/p>\n She said one child was placed at her home 14 years ago immediately after his brother had drowned in a swimming pool, but she was not told the circumstances of the death.<\/p>\n “The first thing I said [when he arrived] was, ‘Oh, we’ve got a pool at the back’, because I wasn’t aware.”<\/p>\n A witness told the inquiry there was a lack of information provided to foster carers about the behavioural needs of children. (ABC News)<\/p>\n In his opening remarks, Mr Anastassiou said the inquiry was “not a contest between different sides”.<\/p>\n “In my view, there is only one side \u2014 the children’s side,” he said.<\/p>\n “My ambition is to leave no stone unturned with the view that in the end I will be in a position to make cogent, practical and implementable recommendations for reform.”<\/p>\n ‘Landmark day’<\/p>\n Speaking in Brisbane on Monday, Premier David Crisafulli characterised the start of the public hearings in Cairns as a “landmark day”.<\/p>\n “I can’t stress how important this is and how vital that these hearings take place,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n “The hearings will be raw. They will be real. But they are the reality of the broken childcare system.”<\/p>\n Mr Crisafulli said the government wanted to act in order to stop the number of children in the system growing.<\/p>\n He’s acknowledged there are no simple solutions to fixing the “complex” system which he said worked with the state’s most vulnerable.<\/p>\n David Crisafulli acknowledged on Monday that there are no simple solutions to fixing the “complex” system. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n Two children ‘missing’ in care, government says\u00a0<\/p>\n Also on Monday, Queensland Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm announced the “shocking” outcome of a census into more than 750 children in care who had been “missing” from the system.<\/p>\n Costs of Qld residential care to blow out to $7 billion a year, report warns<\/a><\/p>\n In some cases, a lack of places in residential care means children have to be placed in high-cost options like hotels.<\/p>\n It found 27 of those children had been aged under 12, while 51 were on bail.<\/p>\n Eight of those children were homeless, it found, while two “adolescent” children could still not be accounted for, although the government has said police investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n Ms Camm said the census had been commissioned to find out where children were, as it wasn’t good enough not to know, or simply to say they were “self-placing” when their location was unknown.<\/p>\n “We must care and know where these children are,” she said.<\/p>\n “The reality of a department not knowing … where children are [creates] enormous risk.”<\/p>\n Amanda Camm revealed on Monday a census of children in care revealed 27 children “missing” from the system were under the age of 12. (AAP: Darren England)<\/p>\n Ms Camm accused the former Labor government of having allowed that situation to continue.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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