http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24702060-2702,00.html


Justice James Wood wants DOCS removed

November 25, 2008
Article from: The Australian

THE business of sheltering abused and neglected children should be taken away from government and handed to the private sector, with only the most serious cases, and those involving infants, handled by government welfare workers.

Private agencies, which operate on a fee-for-service basis, should instead take on the role of recruiting foster parents and managing the long-term care of children who cannot live with their parents.

The proposal is among the 111 recommendations of the three-volume Wood report, released yesterday after a year-long review of child welfare in NSW.

The report by retired judge James Wood QC suggests that the private sector could not do a worse job than the NSW Department of Community Services, which has 14,000 children living in out-of-home care after they were removed from their parents.

This includes more than 4000 Aboriginal children - four times the number that were in state care at the height of theStolen Generations period last century.

The report says the number of children in out-of-home care isexpected to rise to 19,495 by2012.

In contrast, numbers are falling in Victoria and Queensland, both of which have overhauled their welfare systems to give more responsibility to the private sector.

The Wood report says the non-government sector has "smaller and less formalised management structures and often (has) greater capacity to implement reforms and innovative service models more quickly than government agencies".

It also says that many clients - children, families and foster carers - "do not want to deal with a government agency".

The report says DOCS "appears to be the cheaper provider" of welfare services, since fee-for-service can cost up to $6000 per child, per week.

"This, however, is misleading as it does not adequately reflect the number of unallocated cases and the poorer quality of casework which inevitably occurs when a caseworker is faced with a greater number of children and young persons," the report says.

It gives one example of overloading of government workers, saying the private agency Barnardos provides services to 214 children, compared with one large DOCS in Campbelltown, "which alone was responsible for 615 children".

The report says children and young people move around the foster care merry-go-round whether in DOCS foster care or non-government foster care. "In 2006-07, 49 per cent of those in non-government foster care had three or more placements, compared with 37 per cent in DOCS foster care," it says.

The report is critical of the evidence that DOCS presents to the Children's Court, and says there is "little reliable research that tracks children and young persons" who have been taken away from their parents.

The report also recommends an end to the system of mandatory reporting, saying only children who are at "serious risk" of harm should be reported to the main welfare hotline, with other cases to be handled by special units in state hospitals and community health centres.

It says Aboriginal children who cannot live with their parents should be accommodated in boarding homes, and the use of night patrols in remote communities should be encouraged to ensure "children are not wandering the streets at night in circumstances where they might be at risk or (engaged) in criminal activities".

The report says there should be limits on the sale of alcohol in Aboriginal communities, and all families, regardless of their race, should face "management" of their welfare payments if there is evidence of child neglect.

It recommends that children who are not being taken to school should be transported there and those who are not being fed should get meals.

Children who are not going to be able to return to their parents should be placed in good, loving homes on a permanent basis.

The Wood inquiry was called in response to community outrage over the deaths of two children in NSW. A two-year-old boy was found folded into a suitcase, floating in a lake in Sydney's southwest, then a girl starved to death in her home in Hawks Nest, north of Sydney.
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