abuse in foster care - Aussie gov't report

May 26, 2010

FYI - The Ombudsman of the state of Victoria in Australia released the following report about out of home care.

Excerpt (page 32)

Unfortunately my investigation has found many instances of children who have been subject to abuse and neglect in [FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]out of home care[/FONT][/FONT], including children who have:

been physically and sexually assaulted by foster and kinship carers [FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]•

[/FONT][/FONT]had limbs broken or been knocked unconscious by residential carers[FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]•

[/FONT][/FONT]been physically assaulted or raped by other children[FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]•

[/FONT][/FONT]been placed with adult ‘friends’ who have then engaged them in sexual acts[FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]•

[/FONT][/FONT]engaged in prostitution[FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]•

[/FONT][/FONT]made allegations regarding carers selling drugs to children in [FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]• [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]residential care [/FONT][/FONT]units.

It should be noted that these serious incidents occur in an environment where more than 5,200 children are in [FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]out of home care [/FONT][/FONT]at any given time. For a large number of these children [FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]no concerns have been raised with my office. It should also be noted that the department [/FONT][/FONT]reports that more than 90 per cent of children placed in [FONT=Palatino,Palatino][FONT=Palatino,Palatino]out of home care [/FONT][/FONT]each year are not subject to a category one critical incident report indicating that many children do not experience the serious harm referred to above.

Excerpt (page 42):

The Child Safety Commissioner’s ‘Annual Report of Out of Home Care Incident Reports 1/7/08 – 30/6/09’ details that over 30 per cent of incident reports reviewed identify the carer, the carer’s child or a staff member as the alleged perpetrator of abuse.

Here's the article in The Australian newspaper:

[URL="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/ombudsman-george-brouwers-report-finds-sex-abuse-of-foster-children-in-victoria/story-e6frgczf-1225871543410"]Ombudsman George Brouwer's report finds sex abuse of foster children in Victoria | The Australian[/URL]

Here's the report itself:

[URL="http://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/Own_motion_investigation_into_child_Protection_-_out_of_home_care_May_2010.pdf"]http://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/Own_motion_investigation_into_child_Protection_-_out_of_home_care_May_2010.pdf[/URL]