ACWA Conference Presentation Sydney, 18-20 August 2008

1. Outcomes for children in care in Victoria ACWA ConferencePresentation Sydney, 18-20 August 2008

2. Outcomes for children in care in Victoria Presenter: Ruth Champion Senior Policy and Program Adviser, Children Youth & Families Division, Department of Human Services, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Co-author: Sarah Wise Principal Researcher, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

3. Overview of the presentation • Background • Purpose and methodology • Key Findings • Implications for policy and practice

4. Victorian child welfare context • Child welfare responsibilities shared between government and community based sector: • Department of Human Services (DHS) responsible for child protection • Community service organisations (CSOs) provide foster care & residential care placement services • DHS authorises, funds, and monitors placement agencies

5. Project context • Paucity of outcomes data for children in care • LAC Assessment and Action records dual purpose: • Practice tool to prompt good “corporate parenting” for individual children in OOHC • Tool for deriving outcomes information about groups of children in care • Victorian LAC implementation focused on good practice but now sufficient take up to explore potential for deriving, aggregating and analysing outcomes data

6. Purpose of A&AR outcomes data project • To explore the potential of A&ARs to derive, aggregate and analyse outcomes data for children in out of home care • To determine feasibility of doing this on an ongoing basis

7. Project methodology • Current A&ARs sent to DHS March 07 • Identifying information removed and coversheet completed and attached • Electronic database of all A&AR and coversheet items constructed • Data from all returns entered into database

8. Sample • N = 614 • 32 regionally-based services participated (out of possible 46) • 31% of all Victorian children in foster care, resi care or lead tenant care (kinship & permanent care not included) • A&ARs generally completed after 6 months in placement (so 614=approx half of all children in care in placement for six months or longer) • Response rate:56% of those who had ever had A&ARs completed

9. Sample • 79% home-based care • < 5yrs = 25.6%, 5-9yrs = 20.9%, 10-15yrs = 28.7% & 15+yrs = 24.9% • 55% male • 23% ongoing health condition • 51% developmental delay/learning disorder • 42.7% seeing/has seen/on wait list to see mental health professional • Not representative of children in placements provided by Aboriginal CSOs

10. Development of outcome measures • AIFS contracted by DHS to produce aggregate data and analyse approx30 A&AR items X whole sample & child age & gender & X placement type & regional location • 29 measures chosen for data quality, strategic priorities, coverage & comparability • 85% response rate • 12 of the 29 measures are a composite of multiple A&AR items (e.g., outcomes objectives)

11. Education outcome objectives items across the A&AR formats

12. Analyses • Univariate analyses - description of whole sample • Bivariate analyses - show the basic features of the A&AR data • Logistic/poisson multivariate regression analyses - determines which child and service factors are statistically related to each A&AR outcome

13. Findings on health outcomes

14. Findings on education outcomes

15. Findings on identity outcomes

16. Findings on family & social relationships outcomes

17. Findings on social presentation outcomes

18. Findings on emotional and behavioural development outcomes

19. Findings on self-care outcomes

20. Measures affected by age • Attainment of health outcomes • Risky health behaviours • Attainment of education outcomes • Book ownership • Life story book being completed • Attainment of F&S outcomes • Mean number of carers

21. Measures affected by age (cont) • Attainment of E&BD outcomes • E&BD relationships with others score • Child always has suitable clothes to wear In general older children fare worse but some exceptions

22. Attainment of education outcome objectives by age • Children 15+ yrs were significantly less likely to have more than half of the education objectives met than children in each of the other five age groups

23. Mean number of main carers by age • Children 10–14 yrs had 3.2 times the mean number of carers compared to children 1–2 yrs

24. Child always has suitable clothes by age • Children aged 15+ yrs were 3.1 times more likely to always have suitable clothes than children 10–14 yrs

25. Measures affected by placement type • Attainment of health outcomes • Risky health behaviour • Attainment of education outcomes • Book ownership • Attainment of F&SR outcomes • Mean number of main carers • Criminal activity

26. Measures affected by placement type (cont) • Regular contact with at least one family member • Sees friends outside of school • Attainment of E&BD outcomes • E&BD relationships with others score • E&BD anxiety & worries score Overall kids in residential care are doing much worse than kids in foster care

27. Low risk health behaviour by placement type • Children in h-b care were 5.5 times more likely to have less risky behaviour than children in resi care

28. Criminal activity by placement type • Children in resi/lead tenant care were 9 times more likely than children in h-b care to have been involved in criminal activity within the last six months

29. Attainment of education outcome objectives by placement type • Children in h-b care were 2.2 times more likely to meet more than half of the education objectives than children in resi care

30. Sees friends outside school by placement type • Children in resi care were 3.8 times less likely to see friends outside school hours than children in h-b care

31. Regular contact with a birth family member by placement type Children in resi care were 4.6 times more likely than children in h-b care to have regular contact with at least one birth family member

32. Measures affected by gender • Criminal activity • E&BD relationships with others score • E&BD anxiety & worries score Note: On the whole not a lot of variation by gender

33. Criminal activity by gender • Boys were 2.7 times more likely than girls to have been involved in criminal activity within the last six months

34. Low anxieties and worries score by gender • Boys were 1.9 times more likely to have a lower anxiety and worries score than girls

35. Measures affected by region • Some statistically significant regional variation eg book ownership, immunisation rates • Generally very little regional variation • We think kids in care experiencing similar challenges and similar opportunities wherever located across state of Victoria  need system wide response

36. Key findings Several positives: • Immunisations • Health monitoring • Risky health behaviours • Education inputs for young children • Friendships and adult support • Life books • Teasing

37. Key findings Room for improvement in: • Education outcomes • Identity outcomes • Self-care outcomes • Continuity of caregiver • Contact with birth parents • Ability to adjust social behaviour • Social presentation • Peer contact o-s school • Criminal activity • Outcomes for children in residential care • Outcomes for older children

38. Implications for future policy and practice • Reinforces planned development of therapeutic approaches • Need to promote more +ve contacts with family and friends • Need to improve educational outcomes • Need to increase children’s participation in community activities • Need to develop age appropriate daily living skills & support +ve social presentation

39. Next steps in Victoria • Dissemination of findings • Discussion of implications • Use as baseline data from which to try to improve outcomes: practitioners, CSOs, regions, statewide • Use as baseline data from which to evaluate the impact of recent legislative reform • Use to inform current government review of out of home care

40. Some concluding remarks • Possible to obtain outcomes data from A&ARs completed in the course of everyday practice • Aggregation process and content of A&ARs may need a little refinement • Demonstrated benefit of operating in spirit of corporate parenting and shared ownership for outcomes • National and cross-jurisdictional comparisons?

41. Contact information • Ruth Champion, Senior Policy and Program Adviser, Department of Human Services, Level 9, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 Australia email: ruth.champion@dhs.vic.gov.au •  Sarah Wise, Principal Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Family Studies, level 20, 485 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 Australia, email: sarah.wise@aifs.gov.au