21 June 2023

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) is bringing together doctors, policy makers, stakeholders, and politicians at a national roundtable in Canberra today to address a crisis in child care and protection.

RACP President and paediatrician, Dr Jacqueline Small says “Adequate and appropriate service provision and funding is critical, and we call on the Commonwealth to commit to and prioritise this.

“The Commonwealth released a framework to address these issues in 2021, but there’s no evidence of implementation or prioritisation and it needs to step up to address this shameful situation in a first world nation like Australia.

“There is already extraordinary work being done by those providing health care and care and protection services, but they can’t do it all by themselves.”

The issue is particularly urgent for First Nations children who are almost eleven times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be placed in out-of-home care.

“First Nations children represent a significant portion of children in out-of-home care settings around the country, so we must make sure that First Nations solutions are embedded at each stage of policy development, service planning, design, implementation, and oversight of programs related to care and protection services.

“Culturally appropriate support must be prioritised by care and protection services.”

“We are releasing a position statement today, setting out a vision for how to transform the care and protection space to ensure children, young people and their families and carers get both the health care and the support they need,” Dr Small says.

“Right now, there is a very divided approach in our States and Territories to addressing the health and wellbeing needs of children involved with care and protection services. This roundtable will provide an opportunity for decision makers to pave a better, coordinated and collaborative way forward.”

Nationally in 2022, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0–17 years in out-of-home care was 56.8 per 1,000 children in the population[1], compared with the non-Indigenous rate of 4.8 per 1,000 children[2].

The RACP calls on the Federal Government to commit to and invest in:

1.     Full implementation of the Safe and Supported National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-31[3] and the National Clinical Assessment Framework, with focused attend on funding comprehensive health assessment and health management plans, investing in specialised multidisciplinary services, and developing specific Medicare item numbers for initial comprehensive and follow-up health assessments delivered by health care workers for children and young people involved with care and protection services.

2.     Evidence informed prevention, early intervention, support programs and best practice models of health care as alternatives, to reduce the number of children and carer/s involved with care and protection services and the risk of statutory intervention.

3.     Achieving Target 12 under Closing the Gap, which aims to reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45% by 2031.

4.     Appointing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner roles in each jurisdiction.

5.     Raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years of age and act on the findings of the Council of Attorneys-General Draft 2020 report.

Today’s child health roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra will be co-hosted with the Parliamentary Friends of Child & Adolescent Health & Mental Health, which is co-chaired by Dr Michael Freelander MP, Dr David Gillespie MP and Dr Monique Ryan MP, who are all RACP members and will be speaking at the event. Leading physicians working with children and young people involved with care and protection services will be attending, as well as key stakeholders and representatives from First Nations organisations and community organisations.

[1] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not overrepresented in the child protection system - Dashboard | Closing the Gap Information Repository - Productivity Commission (pc.gov.au)

[2] Child protection Australia 2021–22, Supporting children - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (aihw.gov.au)

[3] Safe and Supported National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-31