Wednesday, 3 June 2026

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (17:34): I am pleased to speak on the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office’s Out-of-Home Care Services report that has just been tabled today. I attended a briefing earlier today, and I think it is really important to highlight – it is very concerning, really – that in Victoria we have 9353 children in out-of-home care; that was last year, at 30 June. That is a significant number of kids in our state that need support. The report found the state government is focusing on kinship care, which is important, but foster carers provide the flexibility in the system that is so important, and it is very concerning to see the number of foster carers in Victoria declining. We have seen quite significant numbers. I know in 2022–23 there were 550 foster carers that left the system. There are more leaving the system than are coming in, and that is a big concern.

It is interesting to note that Victoria lags behind other states with the foster care allowance. It is quite low in comparison to other states, and the recent state budget saw an increase to the foster care allowance, but that simply covers inflation. When we speak to foster carers, they flag a number of concerns just with the costs continuing to rise. It is very difficult to afford the extra care that is needed, and sometimes there are very complex needs that kids have. They may have specialist appointments, medical appointments that they need to get to, and being able to afford those additional costs is difficult. With the cost of petrol going up, I know in regional areas the additional costs involved in travelling long distances is very difficult for families, and I remember speaking to a foster carer from Castlemaine who talked about some of those issues.

One of the elements highlighted in this report is that the data kept by the department is not very easy to follow. It is free-text fields, which make it very difficult to monitor. They cannot use it very effectively to see how a child is travelling and for people to know their history. We also hear about the high staffing turnover that seems to occur, and that is a big concern when you want that continuity of care, from the department’s perspective, in helping to look after these children that are in desperate need. It is concerning to see the number of kids that are going into residential care. We have seen the media reports on some of the situations that have occurred, and it is evidently a place of last resort. But we need to get more foster carers in the system. I just want to acknowledge the incredible work that these families do. I know some people that are involved in foster care and others more recently that I spoke to, who simply went to an information session and they were really moved and wanted to do the training needed to do to be able to assist. Some of the examples that you hear of kids turning up with just their bags and a sleeping bag or a backpack and being left with a family without a wraparound care service or time – I think there is just so much that needs to improve in the system. To have 10,000 kids in our state that are in this need is just significant, and we need to acknowledge that in this chamber. I think a lot more needs to be done to support foster carers, to listen to the concerns that they are raising and to review that allowance and increase it, because there is a real need to retain them in our system to provide an environment of care for these children.