Indigenous children continue to be disproportionately represented in Australian out-of-home care statistics, despite overall rates falling, AAP reports.
A 118-page annual report, released on Tuesday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, shows one in four of the roughly 46,000 children in out-of-home care in mid-2020 were Indigenous.
At the time there were about 18,900 Indigenous children in out-of-home care, which includes living with a relative or foster carer.
That represents one in 18 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia, and is 11 times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous kids.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of that group were living with family or other Indigenous caregivers, with the rest in other arrangements including foster care.
AIHW spokesman Dinesh Indraharan said:
In positive news, over 80% of Indigenous children who exited out-of-home care into more stable and permanent arrangements, did not return to care within 12 months.
The number of Indigenous children receiving child protection services in 2019-20 was 55,300 – a rate of 166 for every 1,000 Indigenous children, up from 151 for every 1,000 in 2016-17.
Some 14,300 Indigenous children had reports of abuse substantiated, with emotional abuse (47%) and neglect (32%) the two most common forms of mistreatment.
Indraharan said:
Children from very remote areas were three times as likely as those from major cities to be the subject of a substantiation …
That is, when a notification has been investigated and there was reasonable cause to believe the child had been, was being, or was likely to be, abused, neglected or otherwise harmed.
Victoria had the highest reported rate of Indigenous kids in out-of-home care of all states or territories, followed by WA and the ACT.