This report provides a retrospective analysis of past Victorian government responses to the health needs of children in statutory Out-of-Home Care.

The closure of state-wide reception centres for children and young people entering statutory care in the early 1990s marked the end of an era in health care for the ‘children of the state’.
Reception center Medical Superintendents have offered influential, and at times controversial voices, which significantly shaped government responses to children’s health needs. They provided regular clinical oversight for large numbers of children in statutory care and reported regularly to Parliament on children’s health status.

Over the past two decades successive public audits and inquiries concluded that Victorian governments have lost sight of the health picture for children in statutory Out-of-Home Care. How and why did this happen? What became of the work of doctors? What were the implications for some of the state’s most vulnerable children?