Search for: within: Child Safety Services Child Safety Practice Manual Department of Communities

Our performance

• Child Protection System Framework
• Intake phase
  • Child Concern Reports data
  • Notifications data
• Investigation and assessment phase
  • Investigation and assessment data
  • Assessment orders data
  • Substantiations data
• Ongoing intervention phase
  • Intervention with parental agreement data
  • Short-term protection orders data
  • Living away from home data
  • Indigenous Child Placement Principle data
  • Carers data
• Ongoing intervention phase (Permanency planning)
  • Long-term protection orders data
  • Exiting out-of-home care data
  • Adoption data
• Child death case reviews data
• Matters of concern data
• Re-entry data
• Demographics data
• Human resources data
• Service centre zones and data
  • Brisbane South and Gold Coast
  • Brisbane North and Sunshine Coast
  • Central
  • Far Northern
  • Ipswich and Western
  • Logan and Brisbane West
  • Northern
• Glossary
• Table notes
• Maps
• Contacts
• Library

Indigenous Child Placement Principle data

• Graphs
• Tables
• Map
• What is the Indigenous Child Placement Principle?
• Why this topic is important
• Trends

---

Graphs

Top of page

Tables

• Indigenous children living away from home, by Indigenous status and relationship of carer, Queensland, as at 30 June 2004 to 2008 (Excel 24 KB)
• Percentage of Indigenous children living away from home with a kinship or Indigenous carer, by departmental zone, Queensland, as at 30 June 2004 to 2008 (Excel 23 KB)

Quarterly data

• Indigenous children living away from home with kinship or Indigenous carers, by type of placement and relationship of carer, Queensland, as at 30 June, 2004 to 31 March 2009 (Excel 28 KB)
• Proportion of Indigenous children living away from home with kinship or Indigenous carers, by departmental zone, Queensland, as at 30 June, 2004 to 31 March 2009 (Excel 24 KB)

Top of page

Map

• Service centre zones and data
  Map of zones and service centre data for the years 2004 through to 2008.

Top of page

What is the Indigenous Child Placement Principle?

When placing an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child or young person in out-of-home care, the department is required to give consideration to a culturally appropriate placement in accordance with the legislated Indigenous Child Placement Principle (section 83 of the Child Protection Act 1999).

The Act requires that in making a decision about who a child should be placed with, the Chief Executive must give proper consideration to placing a child, in order of priority, with:

• a member of the child’s family
• a member of the child’s community or language group
• another Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person who is compatible with the child’s community or language group
• another Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.

Where the department is unable to place a child in accordance with the legislated placement hierarchy, consideration must be given to placing a child, in order of priority, with:

• a person who lives near the child’s family
• a person who lives near the child’s community or language group.

Secondly, before placing a child with a non-Indigenous carer, the department must assess the carer’s commitment to:

• facilitating contact between the child and their parents and other family members, subject to limitations on the contact under Section 87 of the Act
• helping the child maintain a connection with their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture
• preserving and enhancing the child’s sense of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander identity.

In placing an Indigenous child outside of the home, the department must provide opportunity for a Recognised Entity to be involved in the placement decision.

Top of page

Why this topic is important

It is desirable that a high proportion of children are placed in accordance with the Indigenous Child Placement Principle, given the evidence of long-term detriment caused to Indigenous children who are raised without knowledge of, and links to, their cultural background.

This is one factor among many that must be considered in the placement decision, with the child's ongoing safety needs being paramount.

Furthermore, the legislation aims to support a child's links to their family, culture and community or language groups in instances where the department has been unable to place a child in accordance with the placement hierarchy.

Top of page

Trends

As at 30 June 2008, 56.7 per cent of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care were placed with a kinship or Indigenous carer, or an Indigenous residential care service. This is a decrease of 1.8 percentage points since 30 June 2007 (58.5 per cent).

Since 30 June 2004, the proportion of children placed with kinship or Indigenous carers has continued to decrease, from 63.4 per cent as at 30 June 2004, to 56.7 per cent as at 30 June 2008. This fall may reflect that demand for placements for Indigenous children is exceeding the supply of Indigenous carers – over the period 30 June 2004 to 30 June 2008 the number of Indigenous children placed with an approved carer family or residential care service rose by 117.6 per cent. Over the same period, the number of Indigenous approved carer families increased by 47.6 per cent.

Top of page

Last updated

28 August 2009