Over-representation snapshots

Statewide and Regional snapshots of over-representation in the statutory child protection system

In August 2021, we released the Principle Focus: A child-rights approach to systemic accountability for the safety and wellbeing of Queensland’s First Nations children and committed to monitor and examine the dynamics and drivers of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people across Queensland’s child protection system.

The Principle Focus paper emphasises that reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care will require:

• exits to exceed entries
• a reduction in the duration of time children spend in care
• a short-term focus on reunification to increase exits from out-of-home care
• a long-term focus on reunification to reduce duration of time in out-of-home care.

The 2021-2022 snapshots highlights:

• A 3% decrease in entries and 9% increase in exits.
• More than 7% increase in kinship care placements.
• The QFCC needs to further understand what is happening for the 519 children that exited from care but did not age out or were not reunified with family.
• A 5% increase in long-term guardianship orders to Chief Executive.
• A 3% increase in children spending more than 5 years in care.

The annual release of these snapshots will be one method used by the QFCC to monitor over-representation on both a state and regional level.