Child protection Australia 2022–23

Introduction

When children enter out-of-home care, state and territory child protection departments undertake permanency planning processes to provide children with safe, stable, and ongoing care arrangements. State or territory child protection services will work towards reunifying children with their families where it is safe to do so and it is in the best interest of the child. Alternative long-term arrangements for children are explored when there is a high level of risk determined by child protection or when parents cannot care for their children for a time (DSS 2021), for example:

• Placement in third-party parental care.
  • This refers to placement for children under third-party parental responsibility orders. These orders transfer all duties, powers, responsibilities and authority to which parents are entitled by law to a nominated person(s) whom the court considers appropriate. The nominated person may be an individual such as a relative or an officer of the state or territory department.
• Adoption from out-of-home care.
• Transition to other placements.
  • Other placements refer to placements that are out-of-scope of the national definition of out-of-home care. For example, a non-funded placement where the child or young person lives independently.

Finally, young people may also leave out-of-home care due to aging out at 18 years old. All state or territory child protection departments have policies and legislation that provide continued support until they reach at least 21 years of age (AIFS, 2016).

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

The Permanency Outcomes Performance Framework (POPF)

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 dashboard for more information on the 14 indicators relating to permanency outcomes.

Pathways from out-of-home care

In 2022–23 around 11,100 children exited out-of-home care through various pathways, of these:

• 45% (5,000) were reunified with their family
• 10% (1,100) were placed on third-party parental responsibility orders
• 71 children were adopted
• 20% (2,200) aged-out
• 25% (2,700) included (but were not limited to) those that were transitioned to out-of-scope placements (Figure 1).

Source: CPA 2022–23: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.13

Figure 1: Children who have exited out-of-home care, by exit pathway

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). Reunification is often the preferred goal when children are placed in out-of-home care, provided that it is safe for the child to return home.

Of the 5,000 children in 2022–23 who exited out-of-home care to be reunified:

• Most were reunified with their birth parents (94% or 4,700)
• 43% (2,200) were reunified within 6 months from admission to out-of-home care, followed by 19% (950) who were reunified between 1 to less than 2 years (Figure 3).

Children aged 0 years had the highest proportion of reunifications, with 23% (365) being reunified, followed by 14% (1,400) of children aged 1–4 years.

Sources: CPA 2022–23: 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

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

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

The length of time a child spends in out-of-home care varies. Generally, the goal is to ensure that children exit out-of-home care as quickly as possible. However, this must be balanced with prioritising their safety, stability, and well-being (Seselja 2017).

In 2022–23, of the 11,100 children who exited out-of-home care, 30% (3,300) were in out-of-home care for less than 6 months. This then decreased to less than 10% for children in out-of-home care for 6 to 12 months, and then increased back up to 26% (2,900) children who were in out-of-home care 5 years or more. 

Source: CPA 2022–23: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.12

Figure 4: Children who exited out-of-home care in 2022–23, by time from admission

At what age were children exiting out-of-home care?

Children aged 14 and under exited out-of-home care at a consistent rate of 1.3 to 1.5 per 1,000. Children aged 15–17 exited out-of-home care at a higher rate of to 4.4 per 1,000, which includes children who exited due to aging-out (Figure 5).

Source: CPA 2022–23: Insights, data table S5.2

Figure 5: Children who exited out-of-home care, by age group

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

The aim of reunification is not only to return a child home safely after time spent in out-of-home care, but also to ensure that the child remains in a stable and supportive home environment (Osmond and Tilbury 2012).

Around 4,900 children aged 0–16 years were reunified in 2021–22. Of these, 85% (4,200) of children did not return to out-of-home care within 12 months of reunification.

Source: CPA 2022–23: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.19

About 1,200 children aged 0–16 years were placed on third-party parental responsibility orders in 2021–22. Of these, almost all (99.6%) did not return to out-of-home care within 12 months.

Source: CPA 2022–23: Permanency Outcomes Performance Framework (POPF) indicators, data table 11.5

Of the 91 children aged 0–16 years who exited out-of-home care to adoption in 2021–22, 98% (89) did not return to out-of-home within 12 months.

Source: CPA 2022–23: Permanency Outcomes Performance Framework (POPF) indicators, data table 11.6

Figure 6: Children who exited out-of-home care to reunification in the reporting period, 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 or adoption in the reporting period, by whether they returned to out-of-home care within 12 months