Pathways from out-of-home care

Key findings

For children discharged from out-of-home care in 2021–22, 46% were reunified with their families

For children who were reunified in 2021–22, 43% were reunified within 6 months from admission to out-of-home care

85% of children who were reunified with their families in 2020–21 did not return to out-of-home care within the next 12 months

In 2021–22, around 11,000 children were discharged from out-of-home care. There are multiple pathways these children can take when transitioning from out-of-home care. These pathways include being:

  • reunified with their families
  • placed in a third-party parental responsibility care arrangement 
  • adopted from care
  • aged-out of care once they turn 18 years old
  • transitioned to other placements that are out-of-scope for out-of-home care (for example, a non-funded placement where they live independently). 

Source: CPA 2021–22: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.13.

Refer to the Glossary for more information on the different pathways from out-of-home care. 

When children enter out-of-home care, state and territory child protection departments undertake permanency planning processes. Planning processes include supporting families to have children returned home where it is safe to do so, as well as exploring alternative long-term arrangements for children when safe reunification is not possible.  

The Permanency Outcomes Performance Framework (POPF) was developed to measure jurisdictional performance on achieving permanency outcomes for children in out-of-home care (Seselja 2017; CSM 2018). 

Refer to the POPF indicators page for more information on 14 indicators relating to permanency outcomes. 

Considerations for pathways from out-of-home care

The different jurisdictional policies and practice can affect the comparability of pathways data, including:

  • There is no nationally agreed definition for reunification. As such, reporting of permanency events relating to reunification is based on local definitions of reunification.
  • Third-party parental responsibility orders vary across jurisdictions with the biggest difference relating to the provision of ongoing case management in some cases in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.

Refer to the Appendices for more information on differences in jurisdictions’ policy and practice.

Types of pathways from out-of-home care

Across Australia, for children discharged from out-of-home care in 2021–22: 

  • 46% (5,000) were reunified
  • 11% (1,200) were placed on third-party parental responsibility orders
  • 0.9% (96) were adopted 
  • 18% (2,000) aged-out
  • 25% (2,700) included but were not limited to those that were transitioned to out-of-scope placements (Figure 1).   

Source: CPA 2021–22: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.13.

Figure 1: Children who were discharged from out-of-home care, by exit pathway

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and percentage of children who were discharged from out-of-home care in 2021–22, by exit pathway. Data are displayed for each state and territory and Australia.

How many children were reunified?

Safe reunification of a child with their family is a policy priority for all states and territories (Cunningham et al. 2021). The aim of reunification is to return a child home quickly and safely after time spent in care, and to enable that child to stay at home. 

Of the 5,000 children in 2021–22 who were discharged from out-of-home care to reunification: 

  • 94% (4,700) were reunified with their birth parents,
  • 27% (1,300) of those reunified were aged 1–4 years, followed by those aged 5–8 years at 22% (1,100) (Figure 2),
  • 43% (2,200) were reunified within 6 months from admission to out-of-home care, followed by 20% (980) who were reunified between 1 to less than 2 years (Figure 3).

Sources: CPA 2021–22: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data tables 10.14, 10.17 and 10.18.

Figure 2: Children who exited out-of-home care to reunification, by age group

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and percentage of children who were reunified in 2017–18 to 2021–22, by age group. Data are displayed for each state and territory and Australia.

Figure 3: Children who exited out-of-home care to reunification, by time from admission

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and percentage of children who were reunified in 2017–18 to 2021–22, by time from admission to out-of-home care. Data are displayed for each state and territory and Australia.

How long were children in out-of-home care before discharge?

Of the 11,000 children who were discharged from out-of-home care:  

  • 30% (3,300) were in out-of-home care for less than 6 months,
  • 26% (2,800) were in out-of-home care for 5 years or more (Figure 4). 

Source: CPA 2021–22: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.12

Figure 4: Children who were discharged from out-of-home care, by time from admission 

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and percentage of children who were discharged from out-of-home care in 2021–22, by time from admission. Data are displayed for each state and territory and Australia.

When are children leaving out-of-home care?

Children in the oldest age group (15–17 years) were most likely to leave out-of-home care (4.4 children per 1,000 compared with less than 2.0 per 1,000 for other age groups) (Figure 5).  This includes children who leave out-of-home care to transition to adulthood. 

Source: CPA 2021–22: Insights, data table S5.2.

Figure 5: Children who were discharged from out-of-home care, by age group 

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and rate of children who were discharged from out-of-home care in 2021–22, by age group. Data are displayed for each state and territory and Australia.

How many children did not return to out-of-home care?

Data on whether children re-entered out-of-home care following an exit from care are reported for the previous financial year (2020–21), this allows time for follow-up 12 months after exiting care.

Around 5,300 children aged 0–16 years were reunified in 2020–21. Of these, 85% (4,500) of children did not return to out-of-home care within 12 months of reunification (Figure 6). 

Source: CPA 2021–22: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.19.

About 1,300 children aged 0–16 years were placed on third-party parental responsibility orders in 2020–21. Of these, almost all (99.5%) did not return to out-of-home care within 12 months (Figure 7).

Source: CPA 2021–22: Permanency Outcomes Performance Framework (POPF) indicators, data tables 11.5.

None of the 91 children aged 0–16 years who were discharged from out-of-home care to adoption in 2020–21 returned to out-of-home within 12 months. 

Source: CPA 2021–22: Permanency Outcomes Performance Framework (POPF) indicators, data table 11.6.

Figure 6: Children who exited out-of-home care to reunification, by whether they returned to out-of-home care within 12 months

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and percentage of children who exited out-of-home care to reunification in 2016–17 to 2020–21, by whether they returned to out-of-home care within 12 months.

Figure 7: Children who exited out-of-home care to a third-party parental responsibility order, by whether they returned to out-of-home care within 12 months

This interactive data visualisation shows the number and percentage of children who exited out-of-home care to a third-party responsibility order in 2017–18 to 2020–21, by whether they returned to out-of-home care within 12 months.

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