2. Introduction

The Australian Government, state and territory governments and the non-government sector are committed to addressing the needs of vulnerable children and young people, in particular those at risk of abuse and neglect.

State and territory governments have responsibility for statutory child protection and provide a range of services to enhance the safety of children and young people through:

• universal interventions that target whole communities and families, to prevent maltreatment and abuse;
• early interventions to help vulnerable families, children or young people who are at risk of maltreatment, in order to alleviate problems and prevent their escalation; and
• targeted interventions focused on families where an incident has already occurred, in order to reduce the long-term implications and reduce the likelihood of repeat incidents.³(Opens in a new tab/window)

These interventions span a number of different areas including early childhood, physical and mental health, family support, education, community services and justice.

Recognising that the safety and well-being of children is the responsibility of all levels of government, the first National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children 2009-2020 (the National Framework) was developed by the Commonwealth in partnership with state and territory governments and the non-government sector.

In order to measure the effectiveness of the National Framework, the government and non-government sector have set the following target:

"a substantial and sustained reduction in child abuse and neglect in Australia over time."

Under the National Framework there are 12 national priorities,⁴(Opens in a new tab/window) including:

• Joining up service delivery - Implement a ‘joined up' approach to service design, planning and delivery, targeted to the hard-to-reach, most disadvantaged families and children, by leveraging services and support from Commonwealth, state and territory governments.
• Closing the Gap - Support Indigenous community-building activities in areas such as culture and connectedness, strengthening families and communities and speaking up about abuse.
• Improving support for carers - Continue to explore options for improving financial and non-financial support to grandparents, kinship and foster carers, provide specialist supported playgroups for grandparents and other carers, and provide enhanced support for grandparents and kinship carers as a specified target group under the Communities for Children program.
• Developing National Standards for Out of Home Care - These standards will aim to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people who are unable to live with their families.
• Transitioning to independence - To increase support through non-government organisations for young people leaving care to better establish their independence and for state and territory government initiatives to better support young people as they leave care.

The development of National Standards for Out of Home Care (National Standards) is one of the important, early actions under the National Framework, and all state and territory governments and the non-government sector have agreed to collaborate in developing these standards.

The KPMG Project Team was engaged by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) to develop National Standards for Out of Home Care.

2.1 Methodology

The approach to the project included:

• A review of current Out Of Home Care policy and practice in Australia and internationally, including New Zealand, United Kingdom and Europe;
• Key stakeholder consultations with members of the National Framework Implementation Working Group (the group that has a hands on role in the implementation and delivery of actions under the National Framework);
• Development of a consultation paper as the basis for a consultation process on the National Standards for Out of Home Care;
• Stakeholder consultations in all capital cities and five regional locations, including:
  • 14 workshops with representatives from government and non-government organisation's across Australia (317 participants);
  • 12 workshops with carers across Australia (96 participants);
  • 7 workshops with young people who live or have lived in Out of Home Care (64 participants); and
  • 52 written submissions.
• An overview of the consultations is provided in Section 5.
• Development of a final report which will include the proposed National Standards.

2.2 Structure of the report

This report is structured as follows:

• Section 3 - Setting the scene
• Section 4 - The chance to grow up safe and well
• Section 5 - Stakeholders perspective
• Section 6 - Proposed National standards for Out of Home Care
• Section 7 - Implementation issues.

The report also has the following appendices:

• Appendix A - Alignment to current standards
• Appendix B - Consultation attendees.