Minister congratulates Child Safety’s key partners – foster carers

New Child Safety Minister and Member for Cairns Desley Boyle today congratulated foster carers around the Far North for their terrific contribution to child protection.

Ms Boyle met foster carers at a BBQ on the Cairns Esplanade to hear firsthand their experiences as foster parents.

“Foster carers do a wonderful job, taking children into their homes and their families,” Ms Boyle said.

She said there were about 6000 children in care in Queensland, including about 460 in the Far North, with just over half of those (260) Indigenous children.

“In times past, foster carers and the department didn’t always get on well,” Ms Boyle said.

“The new Child Safety Department is working much better with foster carers and providing better support, such as training, for carers of children with special needs.”

The Child Safety Department was formed in 2004 following the Crime and Misconduct Commission’s inquiry into abuse in the foster care system.

“The new department has a record half a billion dollar budget - more than double the $182 million allocated in 2003-04 to the former Department of Families for child protection,” Ms Boyle said.

She said as she was learning about her new portfolio, she was looking for areas for improvement and has called for debate on the issue of reunification.

“The Child Protection Act 1999 aims for children to be returned to their natural parents, and I am not convinced that is the best outcome,” Ms Boyle said.

“Too many times children are reunited with their parents, who again show themselves unable to provide a safe home for their children.

“This can be frustrating for foster carers and child safety workers – and worse for the children involved.

“We need to have another look at what is best for the children.”

Ms Boyle said she was also looking at ways to balance protecting a child’s privacy with correcting inaccuracies in the media and telling people about the successes of foster parents and foster children.

“We have kids in care who are achieving greatness. One is studying law, another is a top swimmer and there’s a champion tennis player,” she said.

In the Far North there are Child Safety offices in Cairns, Innisfail, Atherton and Thursday Island, working in partnership with foster carers and community and indigenous organisations.

Other partners in child protection include Queensland Police, Queensland Health and Education Queensland.

“Child protection is everybody’s business and only be working together can we protect Queensland children,” Ms Boyle said.

The Department of Child Safety receives 40,000 calls about kids each year suspected of being neglected or emotionally, physically or sexually abused.

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