Child and family

• Support for children and families
  • Support for parents and families
  • Independent person
    • Information for children and young people
    • Information for families
    • Information for independent persons
• Protecting children
  • About child protection
    • Reporting and referring concerns
    • Child protection legislation
    • Mandatory reporting
    • Children and young people's rights
    • Parents' rights
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • National approach to child protection
  • What is child abuse?
    • Signs of child abuse and neglect
    • Why does child abuse happen?
    • Effects of harm
    • Child sexual abuse
  • How to prevent abuse
    • Protecting children from harm
    • Prevention and early intervention
  • Reporting child abuse
    • If you suspect harm
    • What happens when we are contacted?
    • What happens when a report is made?
    • Reporting child abuse in other states
  • Responding to child abuse
    • Moving a child to a safe place
    • Investigation and assessment
      • Unborn children
      • Assessment orders
    • Care Agreements
    • What you can expect
  • Ongoing intervention
    • Case planning
      • Service referrals
    • Support Service case
    • Intervention with Parental Agreement
    • Child Protection Order
    • Family group meetings
    • Court processes
    • Youth justice
    • Contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Handbook
• Foster and kinship care
  • Carer training
    • Foster carer training
      • Foreword
      • Procedures and guidelines
      • Frequently asked questions
      • Orientation
      • Learning outcomes
      • Pre-service training
      • Water safety for carers
      • Learning journal
      • Standard training
      • Caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
      • Advanced training
        • Attachment
        • Whose problem is this?
        • Foster Parent College
        • Independence and connections
        • I'm an individual...
        • Infectious diseases
        • Ready, set, fly! A parent's guide to teaching life skills
        • Loss and grief for children in care
        • Participation
        • Positive and Protective series
        • Reality fostering
        • Strategies for Managing Abuse Related Trauma (SMART)
        • Whose job is this?
      • Recognition of prior learning (RPL)
      • Acknowledgements
  • Rights and responsibilities
    • Standards of care
    • Statement of commitment
    • Charter of rights for a child in care
    • United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
    • Child Placement Principle
  • Regulation of care
    • Concerns about the standards of care
    • Community Visitors and Child Advocates
  • Contacts
    • Community foster care agency contacts
      • Brisbane Region
      • Central Queensland Region
      • Far North Queensland Region
      • North Coast Region
      • North Queensland Region
      • South East Region
      • South West Region
    • Indigenous foster care agency contacts
    • Peak body and advocacy group contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Information for existing carers
    • Information for prospective carers
    • Recruitment of foster carers
    • Children and Young People's Participation Strategy
• Adoption
  • Resources and publications
• Child and family reform
  • Sharing responsibility for children's safety and wellbeing
  • Supporting families earlier
  • Working better with families in contact with the child protection system
  • Meeting the needs and requirements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities
    • Empowering Families Innovation Fund
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service Reform Project
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Wellbeing Services
    • Family Participation Program
    • Indigenous career progression - cadetships and scholarships
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protection sector and service development
  • Improving care and post-care for children and young people
  • Delivering quality services to children and families through a capable, motivated workforce and client-focused organisations
    • Quality Improvement Program
  • Building an accountable, transparent and cost-effective system
  • Child protection legislation reform
  • History of child protection legislation reforms
  • Specialist Services
• Queensland Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
  • Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Taskforce
    • Taskforce members
  • National Redress Scheme in Queensland
• NDIS transition and implementation
  • Information for young people with disability in care
  • Information for foster and kinship carers of children with disability
  • NDIS information for parents and families of children in care
  • NDIS information for Family Support Providers
  • NDIS information for Residential Care services
• Our performance
  • Summary statistics
    • Child protection orders
    • Protective orders
  • Family Support and Child Protection System Framework
  • Family Support Services
  • Intake phase
    • Child concern reports
    • Notifications
  • Investigation and assessment phase
    • Assessment orders
    • Investigation and assessment
    • Substantiations
  • Ongoing intervention phase
    • Intervention with parental agreement
    • Short-term child protection orders
    • Living away from home
    • Carer families
  • Ongoing intervention phase (Permanency planning)
    • Legal Permanency - Long-term child protection orders
    • Exiting out-of-home care
  • Improved safety
    • Re-entry
    • Standard of care reviews and harm reports
  • High quality services and improved wellbeing
    • Case plans
    • Child health passports
    • Physical Permanency: Stability and permanency of placements
    • Transition to adulthood
    • Relational Permanency – Placement with siblings
    • Cultural support plan
  • Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
    • Our Way Strategy and Action Plan
    • Placement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
  • Family and household characteristics
  • Demographics
  • System and Practice Reviews - Child deaths
  • Regional data
    • Central Queensland region
    • Moreton region
    • Northern region
    • South East region
    • South West region
  • Adoptions
  • Glossary of terms
  • Table notes
  • Contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Child protection partnerships reports
• Child Safety Practice Manual
• Child and family resources
  • Protecting children: an inquiry into abuse of children in foster care
  • Managing child safety information
  • Assessment of the OneSchool Referral Process

You are here:

1. Home
2. Child and family
   • About us
   • Contact us
   • News
   • Our stories
   • Violence prevention
   • Women
   • Youth
3. Our performance
   • Adoption
   • Child and family reform
   • Child and family resources
   • Child Safety Practice Manual
   • Foster and kinship care
   • NDIS transition and implementation
   • Protecting children
   • Queensland Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
   • Support for children and families
4. Ongoing intervention phase
   • Adoptions
   • Contacts
   • Demographics
   • Family and household characteristics
   • Family Support and Child Protection System Framework
   • Family Support Services
   • Glossary of terms
   • High quality services and improved wellbeing
   • Improved safety
   • Intake phase
   • Investigation and assessment phase
   • Ongoing intervention phase (Permanency planning)
   • Regional data
   • Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
   • Resources and publications
   • Summary statistics
   • System and Practice Reviews - Child deaths
   • Table notes
5. Living away from home

Graphs

Number of children living away from home in home-based care, Queensland, as at 30 June 2015 to 2019

Proportion of children living away from home, by age group, Queensland, as at 30 June 2015 to 2019

Proportion of children living away from home, by primary placement, Queensland, as at 30 June 2019

 Number of children in out-of-home care, by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, as at 30 June 2015 to 2019

Tables

Table notes

What is living away from home?

In conjunction with ongoing intervention, the department sometimes needs to remove a child from their home to ensure their safety.

A child may be removed from their home during the investigation and assessment phase, or during ongoing intervention. Removing a child from their home is a means to provide safety, support and a therapeutic environment.

When a child is placed in the custody or guardianship of the chief executive (Director-General) of the department, it is the department's responsibility to find an appropriate placement for the child.

The department uses various placement services for the children in its care including family-based care (foster, kinship and provisionally approved carers) and residential care services.

Wherever possible, the department seeks to place a child with extended family (kinship carers) in order to maintain family connections.

Children may also be living in other locations such as youth detention centres, mental health facilities, hospitals, as well as independent living arrangements.

When placing an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child in care, a culturally appropriate placement is sought in accordance with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle placement hierarchy.

Why this topic is important

Some Queensland families are unable to provide a safe, secure and caring environment for their children. When this becomes apparent, the department must act to ensure that the response provided is in the best interests of the child or young person. If necessary, this can result in children and young people being placed away from home.

Trends

The number of children and young people living away from home increased by 6.4 per cent from 9,629 as at 30 June 2018 to 10,248 as at 30 June 2019. Over the last five years, the number of children living away from home has increased by 16.3 per cent from 8,812 as at 30 June 2015 to 10,248 as at 30 June 2019.

Of the 10,248 children living away from home as at 30 June 2019, 84.9 per cent (8,696) were in home-based care, 9.3 per cent were placed in a residential care service and 5.9 per cent were in other locations (including hospitals, Queensland youth detention centres, independent living and all other locations).

Of the 8,696 children placed in home-based care, 48.9 per cent (4,253) were placed with kin and 51.1 per cent (4,443) were placed with other family-based carers. The proportion of children in home based-care placed with kin increased from 45.8 per cent as at 30 June 2015 to 48.9 per cent as at 30 June 2019.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are significantly more likely to be living away from home than non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children. At a rate per 1,000 children aged 0 to 17 years, 46.2 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were living away from home, compared with 5.4 non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children as at 30 June 2019. The higher rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children has been a consistent trend over the last five years.

Children in out-of-home care

Data for the measure 'children in out-of-home care' is provided in Table OHC.1 (XLSX, 15 KB) Table OHC.1 (CSV, 3 KB). In accordance with nationally agreed reporting definitions, this measure includes only those children placed in foster care (including kinship care) or a residential care service.

The number of children in out-of-home care increased over the last year from 9,074 as at 30 June 2018 to 9,647 as at 30 June 2019 (an increase of 6.3 per cent). The number of children in out-of-home care has increased by 14.6 per cent since 30 June 2015, from 8,415 to 9,647 as at 30 June 2019.