The Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS) is funded and managed by the New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ). It is the first large-scale prospective longitudinal study of children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) in Australia.

Information on safety, permanency and wellbeing is being collected from various sources. The child developmental domains of interest are physical health, socio-emotional wellbeing and cognitive/learning ability. The overall aim of this study is to collect detailed information about the life course development of children who enter OOHC for the first time and the factors that influence their development.

Children in OOHC are generally over-represented in the juvenile justice system. This study investigates the likelihood and timing of the first offence among vulnerable young people in OOHC. Based on the linkage data from the POCLS and through modelling of event occurrence, we found that young people who were older at placement (i.e., 12-14 years of age) are more likely to offend as are young males and Aboriginal young people. Young people who were exposed to neglect or who had a history of risk behaviour (e.g., drug and alcohol misuse) prior to entry to OOHC also had an increased risk of offending. Being placed in residential care or ‘other’ types of placement (e.g., supported accommodation) is significantly associated with offending while a longer stay in OOHC was found to be significantly related to a decreased risk of offending. Findings highlight the importance of placement setting and duration of OOHC in reducing the risk of offending among young people in care. Implications of the findings for policy and social work practice are discussed.