New government initiative shows early results: 71 children out of emergency accommodation, hotels and motels

There are now 71 fewer foster children in NSW living in emergency accommodation – like hotels and motels – following the creation of a specialist team within the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ).

The Minister for Families and Communities, Kate Washington, labelled the initial results an early indication of the NSW Government’s resolve to address the spiralling child protection system.

Following a request from Minister Washington, DCJ established a dedicated team in November 2023 to shift children from High-Cost Emergency Arrangements (HCEA) to more suitable arrangements.

HCEAs place children in hotels, motels, serviced apartments or rental accommodation, where they are cared for by a rotating roster of shift workers. These arrangements can cost up to $2 million a year for each child.

The work of the HCEA Team, alongside local DCJ casework teams, has resulted in the number of children in HCEAs dropping by 71 in three months, from 506 (in early November last year) to 435 on February 22.

The least desirable form of HCEA is an Alternative Care Arrangement (ACA), where for-profit labour hire firms often provide unqualified staff who can change at short notice, giving children a lack of stability. The use of ACAs has dropped 42 percent from 139 children in November, to 80¹ on February 22.

Some of the work being done by the HCEA Team and caseworkers includes:

• Intensive family finding, where caseworkers search out possible family connections who might be able to care for the child under kinship care arrangements.
• Matching children to newly recruited emergency foster carers.
• Working with NGO partners to fill vacancies in their contracts with government.
• Renegotiating the amount paid to HCEA providers.

Since the team began, $49 million in avoided costs has been saved to the NSW taxpayer.

More foster carers are urgently needed in NSW to ensure children who cannot live safely with family have a loving and secure home, with recruitment efforts ongoing to establish a pipeline of suitable foster carers.

To learn more about becoming an authorised carer with a non-government organisation, visit myforeverfamily.org

To learn more about becoming an emergency foster carer with DCJ, email fosteringwithdcj@dcj.nsw.gov.au

Minister for Families and Communities, Kate Washington, said:

“When I was sworn in as Minister, I was shocked by the number of children and young people in these high-cost emergency arrangements. We want to see children in safe and loving homes with people who care about them, not in a hotel or motel with rotating shift workers who might never see the child again.

“Under the former government, the use of hotels and motels for vulnerable children skyrocketed, and the child protection system was left to spiral out of control.

“I’ve made it very clear to the Department and to the sector – these arrangements are not appropriate, and the NSW Government will be doing everything it can to find stable, loving homes for these children.

“A 42 per cent reduction in alternative care arrangements in just three months demonstrates how seriously the government is taking this issue.

“The work done by the HCEA Team is an important step towards rebuilding the child protection system, which has been neglected for so long.”