The New South Wales government spent $68m in the past year keeping children who were removed from their families in motels, hotels and other kinds of “alternative care” and, according to the government’s own figures, these arrangements are on the rise.
According to minutes from the Family and Community Services (Facs) ministerial advisory group, there were 161 children and young people living in motels, hotels and serviced apartments in October last year.
Forty-two per cent of the children ending up in this kind of care are Indigenous, and the average age of the children being housed is 12, though some have been as young as two years old.
Facs’ own documents show the scheme costs about $424,800 per child per year.
The average length of stay is five months, at a cost of about $177,000 per child.
By November 2018, the number of children and young people being housed in alternative care had risen to 175.
“The lack of stable family environment and appropriate evidence-based interventions will likely contribute to very poor short- and long-term outcomes for this cohort. In addition to it being the least preferable level of service provision, it’s also one of the costliest,” according to minutes of the minister’s advisory group, from September 2018.
NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge condemned the practice.
“This is an appalling mix of damaging policy and wasteful expenditure,” he said.
“This government is spending millions warehousing children in inappropriate accommodation money that could be used to help keep families together, or provide secure and stable environments for children who can’t live at home.”
The high-level ministerial advisory group was restructured in April.
The NSW minister for families, communities and disability services, Gareth Ward, said he has provided additional funds to the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies to “find practical solutions to reduce the number of children and young people” in alternative care.
“I am meeting with stakeholders and representatives from the non-government sector to discuss ACAs [alternative care arrangements] in a roundtable setting next month,” Ward said.
