Almost a third of Queensland children in care have unmet mental health support needs and 20 percent unmet needs in relation to their disability.
The stark statistics were revealed in a 2024 Census report that has prompted the State Government to launch a Commission of Inquiry into the Child Safety System.
Premier David Crisafulli said the Commission of Inquiry was needed to uncover the system’s failures.
“This is the Commission of Inquiry the State must have if we are serious about the safety of Queensland children and our communities,” Premier Crisafulli said.
“Reforming the State’s broken Child Safety System is critical.”
He said the 2024 Census of more than 3000 children in care was sobering in its severity and significance and showed the generational trauma of some of the State’s most vulnerable young people living in out-of-home care.
“Almost a third of children in care have unmet support needs in relation to their mental health and two in 10 have unmet needs in relation to their disability.”
Premier Crisafulli said the 2024 Census found that children who were entering the out-of-home care system had suffered significant trauma:
- 11 percent had been sexually abused.
- 46 percent had been physically abused.
- 83 percent had suffered emotional abuse.
- 88 percent had been neglected.
- 68 percent had been exposed to domestic violence.
- 69 percent had experienced three or more abuse types.
He said children who lived in residential care had significantly higher needs than those in foster or kinship care:
- 42 percent have limited to severely limited intellectual functioning/developmental delay.
- 51 percent have a diagnosed or suspected disability.
- 40 percent have a diagnosed or suspected mental illness.
- 48 percent have extreme instability/extreme emotional responses that limit functioning.
- 44 percent self-harm now or in the past.
- 22 percent have attempted suicide.
- 61 percent have been excluded or suspended from an education facility in the past.
- 52 percent have poor social skills/disconnected.
The report found there were 650 children living in residential care in December 2015 and that number had grown to 2212 in December 2024, including 116 children aged five and under living in these homes.
“Of the children in residential care, with all their needs and traumatic histories, 73 percent will be placed in four or more homes during their time in care and more than half of children living in residential care will spend more than five years living in these homes.”
Premier Crisafulli said the Commission of Inquiry would be led by Paul Anastassiou KC, with its broad terms of reference:
- Reforming the Residential Care System: investigate models of care and the factors contributing to the growth and reliance on a billion-dollar residential care sector.
- Repairing a broken system: reviewing the effectiveness of Queensland’s child safety system to keep children safe.
- Safer Children: failures both systemic and policy that have impeded the ability of the Department responsible for the Child Safety portfolio (the Department) to provide support to families and protection to children at risk of harm in Queensland.
- Safer Communities: evaluate the effectiveness of the Department as a corporate parent and whether it is able to meet community expectations around parenting.
- Delivery Failures: prosecute failures of Government and elected Ministers to implement policy to keep Queensland children and the community safe.
- Legislative Reform: reviewing Queensland legislation about the protection of children, including the Child Protection Act 1999 and Adoption Act 2009.
