Below we’ve compiled a range of key statistics about our work in child protection. These figures refer to current data either:
- at a point in time - eg children in care at 31 October 2017
- over a full month - eg notifications during October 2017.
Full year or 30 June point in time data for the previous 5 years is also reported for comparative purposes.
Unless indicated otherwise, this data refers to children or young people aged under 18 years.
Combined publicly released monthly figures will vary from final figures reported nationally for the financial year once the data for that period is finalised.
Monthly data is subject to change as data entry can be delayed by court processes, approval process and case manager workload. On 22 October 2018, Department for Child Protection reporting was affected by substantial changes to our main information system (C3MS) to incorporate new legislative requirements. The legislation changed some foundation aspects of child protection and as a result of this, there may be issues with comparing current data to old data.
Children in care
Total children in each type of care
Type of care | On 31 January 2024 | 30 June 2023 | 30 June 2022 | 30 June 2021 | 30 June 2020 | 30 June 2019 | 30 June 2018 | 30 June 2017 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total children aged under 18 years in care | 4868 (0.2%↑) | 4864 | 4740 | 4646 | 4370 | 3988 | 3695 | 3484 |
Children aged 0-17 years placed in care under a court order or administrative authority. A 'Voluntary Custody Agreement' is an administrative authority to place children incare. Orders granted under the Children's Protection Act 1993 will continue as if they were issued under the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017. | ||||||||
Family based care total | 4102 (84.3%) | 4115 (84.6%) | 4031 | 3992 | 3771 | 3420 | 3147 | 2896 |
The Family based care total is the sum of foster care, kinship care and family day care placements. | ||||||||
Foster care | 1637 (39.9%) | 1666 (40.5%) | 1669 | 1706 | 1641 | 1540 | 1434 | 1333 |
Foster care is provided by approved carers. Foster carers are recruited, assessed, trained and supported by non-government service providers. | ||||||||
Kinship care | 2424 (59.1%) | 2406 (58.5%) | 2327 | 2245 | 2090 | 1852 | 1684 | 1563 |
Kinship care is one of the following:
For Aboriginal children, a kinship carer may be another Aboriginal person who is a member of their community, a compatible community or the same language group. This count includes Specific Child Only placements as per national reporting rules. | ||||||||
Family Day Care | 41 | 43 | 35 | 41 | 40 | 28 | 29 | NA |
Family Day Care (FDC) refers to the Guardianship Family Day Care response which provides short term family-based care to children under 6 while seeking kinship or foster care placements. The program was established by a Memorandum of Administrative Agreement between the Department for Education and the Department for Child Protection. | ||||||||
Non-family based care total | 766 | 749 (15.4%) | 709 | 654 | 599 | 568 | 548 | 588 |
The non-family based care count comprises Residential care, Independent Living and Commercial property placements. | ||||||||
Residential care | 713 | 701 | 649 | 604 | 413 | 415 | 408 | 388 |
Residential care is care provided by the Department for Child Protection in a residential building. Carers are provided by Department for Child Protection funded non-government organisations. | ||||||||
Independent living | 53 | 48 | 60 | 50 | 63 | 50 | 47 | 38 |
Independent living includes children living in:
| ||||||||
Commercial property | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0* | 123 | 103 | 93 | 162 |
Commercial care is provided at any suitable commercial premises such as private rental house or unit, and is staffed by carers who work shifts on a rotating 24 hour, 7 day per week roster. |
*Commercial care contractual arrangements ceased as at 9 October 2020 inclusive.
Children placed on orders
Children placed on an order in the last month
January 2024 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | 2018-19 | 2017-18 | 2016-17 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total children placed on orders | 372 | 1723 | 1895 | 2728 | 2583 | 1831 | 1371 | 1458 |
The number of children who were placed on a new legal authority. This is a total count including children placed on an order for the first time and those with a previous order. This includes both court orders and administrative authorities such as voluntary custody agreement. | ||||||||
Children placed on orders for the first time | 43 | 872 | 809 | 1013 | 911 | 758 | 620 | 682 |
The number of children who were placed on a legal authority for the first time. This includes both court orders and administrative authorities such as voluntary custody agreement. |
Total children on orders
On 31 January 2024 | 30 June 2023 | 30 June 2022 | 30 June 2021 | 30 June 2020 | 30 June 2019 | 30 June 2018 | 30 June 2017 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total children currently on a Guardianship to 12 months order | 605 | 550 | 496 | 550 | 610 | 513 | 470 | 481 |
An order granting guardianship of the child or young person to the Chief Executive for 12 months. | ||||||||
Total children currently on a Guardianship to 18 years order | 4124 | 4133 | 4054 | 3907 | 3653 | 3406 | 2932 | 2815 |
An order granting guardianship of the child or young person to the Chief Executive until the child or young person is 18 years of age. |
Call centre lines and eCARL reports
January 2024 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | 2018-19 | 2017-18 | 2016-17 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Call Centre contacts | 7388 (5.5%↓) | 114299 | 104359 | 108113 | 102830 | 105275 | 92404 | 94955 |
Call Centre contacts is the sum of phone calls made and eCARLs submitted to the Call Centre. An eCARL is an online alternative to calling the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL) for non-urgent notifications. | ||||||||
Total calls made to the Call Centre | 4921 (10.5%↑) | 62980 | 61328 | 66833 | 65334 | 70297 | 61360 | 64899 |
Total number of phone calls to the Department for Child Protection Call Centre. | ||||||||
Number of calls answered | 4276 | 50345 | 49934 | 53474 | 50751 | 57270 | 48205 | 41304 |
Number of phone calls to the Call Centre that were answered. | ||||||||
Average wait time to the Child Abuse Report Line | 6 min | 12 min 33 sec | 11 min | 11 min 49 sec | 15 min 22 sec | 11 min 15 sec | 15 min 46 sec | 42 min 22 sec |
The average wait time on the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL). | ||||||||
Number of eCARL submissions | 2467 (26.6%↓) | 51319 | 43031 | 41280 | 37496 | 34978 | 31044 | 30056 |
eCARL is an online alternative to calling the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL) for non-urgent notifications. |
Reported notifications and screened-in notifications
January 2024 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | 2018-19 | 2017-18 | 2016-17 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reported notifications | 5784 (14.4%↓) | 92951 | 80374 | 80175 | 75552 | 78199 | 64200 | 52979 |
A notification is recorded in the system when a report is made to the Child Abuse Report Line. This could be in the form of a phone call or an eCARL. If more than one report is received about the same child they are recorded in the same notification for a period of time (usually 6 weeks), so information about the same matter is grouped together. | ||||||||
Screened-in notifications | 2532 (6.3%↓) | 39515 | 34736 | 38473 | 39508 | 28786 | 23909 | 21546 |
Reported notifications that meet the child protection threshold for further Department for Child Protection assessment and response as defined by policy and regulations. |