The annual Report on Government Services (RoGS) provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia.
Minister for Child Safety, the Honourable Di Farmer, said the Report, released on 22 January 2019, shows that Queensland is making progress in strengthening the child protection service system but there were still improvements to be made.
Ms Farmer said the report showed a 7.5 percent increase from the previous year in the number of children who were receiving Intensive Family Support services. “We know that early intervention is the key to keeping families and children out of the child safety and youth justice systems and our commitment to this is evident in these figures,” Ms Farmer said.
Other highlights include slight improvements in child protection investigation commencement and completion timeframes from the previous year, and Queensland has among the highest rates in the nation of documented approved case plans for children in out of home care (over 90 percent). As Minister Farmer noted, there are still some ongoing challenges reiterated in the Report. Most concerning is overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out of home care remaining over 41 percent, the need to increase the proportion of relative/kinship care, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and the need to address placement instability (more than two placements) which impacts more than half the children who exited care after 12 months.
Read the full RoGS report on the Productivity Commission website.