The child protection system aims to protect children and young people under 18 years old from risk of abuse, neglect, and harm. In NSW, child protection services can include investigations of alleged cases of child abuse or neglect, referrals to therapeutic services for family members, the issuing of care and protection orders, or the placement of children and young people in out of home care if it is deemed that they are unable to live safely in their family home.

The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) has primary responsibility for the child protection system in New South Wales. DCJ is both a provider of child protection services and a purchaser of child protection services from non-government organisations (NGOs). As system steward, DCJ has a role to establish the policy environment for child protection services and operations. In addition, DCJ is responsible for all governance and reporting arrangements for the commissioned NGOs that deliver services on its behalf, as well as for the governance and reporting arrangements of its own DCJ staff. DCJ must ensure that the child protection system is achieving its intended outcomes – to protect and support children in ways that meet their best interests - as described in legislation.

Key findings

• DCJ has not succeeded in reorienting the child protection system to focus on early intervention support for families as recommended by multiple reviews.
• DCJ’s organisational structure and governance arrangements are not enabling system reform.
• DCJ does not collate data about the therapeutic service needs of children and families, and as a result, has limited evidence to inform investments in family support services.
• DCJ has created an uncertain contracting environment for NGOs and does not have effective forums for resolving contract and system inefficiencies with its NGO partners.

Key recommendations

As an urgent priority, the Department of Communities and Justice should:

• implement structured measures to understand the experiences of children who are in out of home care, in relation to their physical safety and psychological wellbeing.
• identify the Departmental roles and responsibilities for enacting system reform and ensure that governance and decision-making processes are communicated and published.
• establish protocols to ensure that all families engaged in the child protection system have a guaranteed place at an appropriate and effective therapeutic service.
• ensure that foster carers are surveyed annually, with opportunities to identify the pressures of caring, and describe their ongoing support requirements. Use this information to improve resources and support to the foster carer workforce.