{"id":33353,"date":"2025-06-24T21:19:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T11:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33353"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:19:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T11:19:27","slug":"rebuilding-services-for-young-people-in-out-of-home-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/24\/rebuilding-services-for-young-people-in-out-of-home-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebuilding services for young people in out-of-home care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Minns Labor Government is delivering the largest investment in out-of-home care (OOHC) and child protection in NSW history, with a commitment to rebuild the neglected system and keep our most vulnerable children safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A landmark&nbsp;<strong>$1.2 billion<\/strong>&nbsp;Child Protection Package in the 2025-26 Budget will increase support and protection for children and young people in out-of-home care, significantly increase allowances for carers, and deliver reforms that ensure every dollar spent delivers better outcomes for vulnerable families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Significantly, the package includes the first real increase to the Foster Care Allowance in 20 years, with&nbsp;<strong>$143.9 million&nbsp;<\/strong>budgeted to recognise the critical role of foster carers to keep NSW children safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tax-free allowance will rise by 20 per cent, meaning the carer of a typical 14-year-old will receive an increase from $880 per fortnight to $1056 per fortnight, equating to&nbsp;$4,576 more per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the carer of a typical 5-year-old child, the tax-free allowance would rise from $656 to $787.20 per fortnight, meaning a $3,411.20 increase per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A record&nbsp;<strong>$1 billion<\/strong>&nbsp;investment to rebuild the out-of-home care system also includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>$797.6 million\u00a0<\/strong>to continue supporting children and young people in out-of-home care as reforms are designed and implemented, while also setting aside investment for a reformed OOHC program. This will improve the out-of-home care system and ensure all children and young people can thrive in supportive and stable environments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>$49.2 million<\/strong>\u00a0for 44 government owned, purpose-built or upgraded residential care homes that will deliver safe and stable housing for children over 12 years of age with complex needs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>$10 million<\/strong>\u00a0to support the Office of the Children\u2019s Guardian to continue to oversee organisations and uphold children\u2019s rights to be safe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, $191.5 million will ensure we can recruit more than 200 new caseworkers and retain 2,126 caseworkers with higher pay and more specialised training, including 100 new leading caseworker roles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This record investment provides stable funding for the child protection system for the first time in at least a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It underscores the Minns Labor Government\u2019s commitment to improve the lives of children and young people in a system that was neglected under the Liberals and Nationals for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know we have more to do, but this announcement builds on strong foundations. In our first two years, the Minns Labor Government has:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ended unaccredited emergency accommodation for vulnerable children \u2013 meaning no children are living in places like hotels and motels as of April this year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduced the number of children placed in all types of High-Cost Emergency Arrangements (HCEA) by 35 per cent since November 2023<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Restarted the recruitment of foster carers in the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), a critical program which was disgracefully abandoned by the Liberals and Nationals more than a decade ago<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Recruited more than 240 emergency carers so far, who have kept hundreds of children out of emergency arrangements<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Delivered a record $350 million investment for family preservation programs delivered by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Created DCJ-managed Waratah Care Cottages to better support children and sibling groups who would otherwise be stuck in emergency placements<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Redeployed our best and brightest casework specialists back to the frontline. Already this means more than 300 additional vulnerable children have been given support<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Insourced 300 family time workers, directly employing staff to keep children in OOHC connected to their parents<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Minns Labor Government has released a comprehensive roadmap for reform.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This includes a commitment to overhaul the former government\u2019s failed Permanency Support Program (PSP), a model that outsourced the care of our most vulnerable children to non-government providers, without the oversight or accountability needed to keep children safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of these reforms, key services will return to direct government delivery through the Department of Communities and Justice, restoring public accountability and responsibility for children\u2019s care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With reform underway and historic funding now secured, the NSW Government is focused on building a system that delivers the care, stability and support that every child deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minns Labor Government is delivering the largest investment in out-of-home care (OOHC) and child protection in NSW history, with a commitment to rebuild the neglected system and keep our most vulnerable children safe. A landmark&nbsp;$1.2 billion&nbsp;Child Protection Package in the 2025-26 Budget will increase support and protection for children and young people in out-of-home &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/24\/rebuilding-services-for-young-people-in-out-of-home-care\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Rebuilding services for young people in out-of-home care&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33354,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33353\/revisions\/33354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}