Child protection Australia 2023–24

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 and territory child protection departments 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.

Where state and territory child protection departments assess there is an ongoing risk of abuse or neglect to the child if they were to remain with their families, alternative long-term arrangements may be explored (DSS 2021), for example:

• Placement in third-party parental care.
  • This refers to placements for children under third-party parental responsibility orders. These orders transfer all legal duties, powers, responsibilities and authority from the parents to a nominated person(s) deemed appropriate by the court. The nominated person may be a relative or an officer of the respective state or territory department.
• Adoption from out-of-home care.
  • This includes both local adoptions and known child adoptions.
• Transition to other placements.
  • Other placements refer to care arrangements 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.

When young people turn 18 years old, they are discharged from out-of-home care as the legal responsibility of state and territory governments ceases. However, all state and territory child protection departments have policies and legislation that provide continued support beyond the scope of out-of-home care on a needs basis 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 (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 2023–24, around 11,000 children were discharged from out-of-home care through various pathways. Of these:

• 41% (4,500) were reunified with their family.
• 21% (2,300) aged-out.
• 9.2% (1,000) were placed on third-party parental responsibility orders.
• 0.7% (77) were adopted.
• 28% (3,000) did not fall into any of the above exit pathways. See Figure 1 for more information.

Source: CPA 2023–24: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.13

How many children were reunified?

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 (Cunningham et al. 2021). In 2023–24, there were 4,600 reunifications for children in out-of-home care (this includes children who had multiple reunifications in the reporting period). Of the children who were reunified:

• Most were reunified with their birth parents (95% or 4,300).
• 44% (2,000) were reunified within 6 months from admission to out-of-home care, followed by 18% (800) who were reunified between 2 to less than 5 years (Figure 3).

Among children in care, those aged under one year had the highest proportion of reunifications, with 20% (320) of all children in this age group being reunified. This was followed by 13% (1,200) of children aged 1–4 years.

Sources: CPA 2023–24: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data tables 10.14, 10.17 and 10.18

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 wellbeing (South Australian Department of Child Protection 2022).

Excluding children who aged-out, in 2023–24, out of the 8,700 children who were discharged from out-of-home care:

• 36% (3,100) of children exited care within 6 months of admission.
• 12% (1,000) exited between 6 and 12 months.
• 14% (1,200) exited between 1 and 2 years.
• 21% (1,800) exited after 2 to less than 5 years in care.
• 18% (1,600) exited after 5 years or more in care.

Source: CPA 2023–24: POPF indicators and Pathways from out-of-home care, data table 11.13

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

Children aged 15–17 (including those who aged out of the system), were discharged from out-of-home care at the highest rate of 4.4 per 1,000. In comparison, children aged 14 and under were discharged at a rate of 1.3 to 1.5 per 1,000.

When children who aged-out from out-of-home care are excluded, the rate of children who were discharged from out‑of‑home care remained the highest among children aged 15–17 (2.0 per 1,000). Rates were lower for children aged less than one year (1.5 per 1,000), children aged 1–4 and children aged 10–14 (1.4 per 1,000), and children aged 5–9 (1.3 per 1,000).  Overall, the rates for children aged 14 and under were consistent across age groups, in contrast to the higher rate observed among children aged 15–17.

Sources: CPA 2023–24: Insights, supplementary data table S5.2 and CPA 2023–24: POPF indicators and Pathways from out-of-home care, data table 11.14

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 (2022–23); this allows time for follow-up 12 months after exiting care. 

When children leave out-of-home care via various exit pathways, it is important to ensure the children remain in living arrangements that are stable and supportive (Tucker et al. 2025).

Around 4,600 children aged 0–16 years were reunified in 2022–23. Of these, 87% (4,000) of children did not return to out-of-home care within 12 months of reunification. The proportion of children who did not return to out-of-home care within 12 months of reunification has steadily increased over time from 83% in 2016–17 to 87% in 2022–23.

Source: CPA 2023–24: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, data table 10.19

Most children who exited out‑of‑home care to reunification, third-party parental responsibility order or adoption did not return within 12 months (Figures 6 and 7). Of the children who exited to these pathways in 2022–23:

• None of the children who were adopted returned to out-of-home care within 12 months.
• 0.2% of children who exited to a third-party parental responsibility order returned to out-of-home care within 12 months.
• 13.2% of children who were reunified returned to out-of-home care within 12 months.