Report finds 'shockingly low' government spend on preventing child removals

A trip to the doctor can be daunting for many, but for some mothers raising their families, it comes with an unspoken fear.

"When something happens to your child, you don't want to come to a service because there is a fear of your child being removed," mother of five Alinta Edge told the ABC.

"And it could be something so little, but because of that fear it becomes a big thing."

Since having her first child almost 24 years ago, Ms Edge has been going to Broken Hill's only Indigenous medical service, Maari Ma Aboriginal Health Corporation, which she says takes a "no judgement" approach.

Reflecting on the days of early motherhood, she remembers Maari Ma midwives coming along to her appointments. When she could not make it to the clinic during her pregnancy, they would arrange transport or organise a home visit.

Since then the organisation has expanded and now offers a myriad of health and education services — a "one stop shop" — focused on building strong families.

Ms Edge, who works as the social and emotional wellbeing team lead at Maari Ma, attends a supported playgroup to assist her daughter and grandchild.

"Sometimes mums feel like they're on their own and they're not doing things right," she said.

"But then you go to playgroup and it's just like, 'OK, it's the same for everyone, we're all feeling the same.'

"Especially for postnatal depression, mums might not want to get out.

"But they come to playgroup and if we see someone just a little bit quiet or not their usual self, we approach them and start a conversation."

Maari Ma chief executive Richard Weston said the organisation's "menu of programs" was about "early intervention, prevention and education" to support mothers from pregnancy through to when their child started school.

He said that helped parents understand milestones for their children and involved testing their communication and motor skills.

"We're trying to get kids to start school on an equal footing with other children so that they are healthy and, if there are any developmental issues identified, they are dealt with early. That's what we're educating parents about," Mr Weston said.

"We've moved to a model that is focused on strengthening families and building up on what is going right instead of being in a deficit approach and looking at what's wrong all the time."

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 9.6 times more likely to be removed from their families than non-Indigenous children.

Mr Weston said the government's approach to child protection was "not working" and that Maari Ma was determined to take a different approach.

"The intent is to protect children from harm, but protection has a different connotation for Aboriginal people through the Stolen Generations era," he said.

"It was the legislation called Protection Acts that were the catalyst for the removal of Aboriginal children from their families.

"We're strengthening families and keeping them away from the child protection system because prevention is better than cure, and once children are in those protection systems it's very difficult to get them out again."

'Invest in families, not crisis'

Despite their effectiveness, early childhood programs such as Maari Ma's are dramatically underfunded, according to the annual report by the peak body for Aboriginal children, SNAICC.

It revealed that only 15.6 per cent of government spending in the child protection system went to "family support" services in 2023-24, with the remainder funding out-of-home care services and managing child notifications.

These are community-based programs designed to help families, including parenting education and services to address housing, financial stress or mental illness.

More intensive programs provide targeted support for families at imminent risk of having their children removed, or where families are being reunited after a separation.

SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle said these preventative programs should be prioritised.

"The biggest common denominator is that children who are removed from their families, whether they're Aboriginal or not, have not had access to quality early education and care settings," she said.

"Invest in families, not crisis."

She said the Aboriginal community-controlled sector was best placed to deliver family supports to First Nations families.

"Where Aboriginal community-controlled services have been involved, children are remaining with their families and families are remaining strong," Ms Liddle said.

The report found the average spend on intensive family support services per child in 2023-24 was $111.

Overall, the report found, spending on family supports was "shockingly low". In Western Australia, only 4.4 per cent of child protection spending went on family supports in 2023-24, it said.

Earlier this year, Closing the Gap data from the Productivity Commission revealed 50 per cent of young people in out-of-home care are First Nations children.

"That number is obscene — it needs urgent attention, it needs urgent reform," Ms Liddle said.

"The system was built to remove children, and until we build the system to strengthen families and invest in families and protect children, we're not going to see a change in the stats."

The report, titled Strong, Loved and Full of Potential, also highlighted a "concerning" trend of children exiting the child protection system — some before they reached adulthood — into precarious circumstances.

AIHW data showed only 7.3 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children exiting care in 2023-24 were reunified with their families, compared to 10.1 per cent for non-Indigenous children.

More than a third of First Nations children who left the child protection system ended up living in "other circumstances", including youth detention, on the streets and non-funded "independent living".

Ms Liddle said she was concerned about the outcomes for these children.

"What we're seeing is an increase in the number of children choosing homelessness, or being moved into juvenile justice settings or disappearing," she said.

"They're calling it 'independent placing' … but we really don't know where those children are going."

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children leaving care to "other circumstances" was highest in Queensland, at 47 per cent.

"Now, Queensland is the state that came in really hard and really fast and earlier with punitive responses to children in juvenile justice settings," Ms Liddle said.

"So it stands to reason that that is the state that is showing an increase in trend of children who are leaving out-of-home care into other settings.

"Now this is something that needs urgent attention."

Queensland Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Fiona Simpson told the ABC its commission of inquiry into the child safety sector would "unpack the systemic issues plaguing the system."

“The Palaszczuk-Miles Labor government turned what should have been a last resort, residential care system into a billion-dollar industry built on the backs of vulnerable children that has caused significant issues for young people," she said in a statement.

“The Crisafulli LNP government wants children in family-based environments - whether that’s kinship care or foster care - where we believe the outcomes for kids will be better.

“We are committed to reforming the system and digging into why these children - regardless of their cultural background - are not in their registered placement."

She said the government was also building the state’s first "SecureCare" facility for young people who need intensive support – a recommendation of the 2013 Carmody inquiry into child protection.

The ABC has approached the federal government for comment.