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4. Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
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5. Our Way Strategy and Action Plan

Delivering the best possible outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families is one of the Queensland Government’s highest priorities.

To achieve this, the government in partnership with Family Matters Queensland and community organisations has released Our Way: A generational strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families (PDF).

Guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, Our Way outlines our approach, across 20 years, to work differently together to improve life opportunities for our state’s vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. A key commitment in Supporting Families Changing Futures, Our Way represents a fundamental shift in how child protection, family support and other services work with, and for, Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

Changing Tracks

Changing Tracks: an action plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families 2017-2019 (PDF, 4.3 MB) (PDF) and 2020-2022 (PDF, 4.9 MB) (PDF) 2020-2022 (DOCX, 4.3 MB) (DOCX) set the foundation for change focusing on the systems and policy settings required to achieve the Our Way vision

Priority areas

The key priorities of Changing Tracks: an action plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families 2020-2022 (PDF, 4.9 MB) (PDF) (DOCX, 4.3 MB) (DOCX) include:

• growing investment in community-controlled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and their workforce to better reflect the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accessing these services
• implementing delegated authority to permit one or more of the Chief Executive’s statutory functions or powers under the Child Protection Act 1999 to be delegated to the Chief Executive of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entity
• all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families will have the opportunity to participate in child protection decisions that affect their lives including through an independent person or entity and the Family Participation Program
• applying the Wellbeing Outcomes Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people (PDF, 179 KB) (PDF) to ensure their safety and wellbeing through appropriately targeted investment and strengthened accountability of government and service providers
• supporting the development and implementation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing strategy to address intergenerational trauma, grief, loss, violence and abuse.

Performance

We have developed an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child and Family Wellbeing Outcomes Framework Wellbeing Outcomes Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people (PDF, 179 KB) (PDF) in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, communities and organisations as part of the first action plan. The accompanying Wellbeing Outcomes Framework Report will be published shortly.

This is a whole-of-government and cross-sectoral tool to identify outcomes, indicators and measures to inform investment decisions, align efforts and help track progress.

The department will also report additional measures on the level of representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in the child protection system for each of the Changing Tracks priority areas (see Tables below). These measures will be refined and added to over time.

Graphs

 Children aged 0 to 2 subject to an intake for the first time, by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, Queensland, 2015-16 to 2019-20

 Proportion of children subject to ongoing intervention who are subject to Intervention with Parental Agreement, by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, Queensland, as at 30 June 2016 to 30 June 2020

Tables

Table notes

Why this topic is important

Changing Tracks: An action plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families (PDF) (PDF) and Changing Tracks: an action plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families 2020-2022 (PDF, 4.9 MB) (PDF) (DOCX, 4.3 MB) (DOCX) recognise that now is the time that we — government, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, children and families and support services — need to ‘change tracks’ if we are going to reach our generational vision under Our Way: A generational strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families (PDF).

This action plan sets the foundations for change and will put us on a new track to ensure all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in Queensland grow up safe and cared for in family, community and culture.

Trends

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children subject to an intake increased by 32.9 per cent from 13,925 children in 2015-16 to 18,511 children in 2019-20. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people comprised 24.3 per cent of all children subject to an intake in 2019-20.

In 2019-20, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children subject to a notification was 7,826, an increase of 34.2 per cent compared with 2015-16 (5,832). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people comprised 33.6 per cent of all children subject to a notification in 2019-20.

Between 2015-16 and 2019-20 the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children subject to a substantiation increased by 26.0 per cent (from 1,925 in 2015-16 to 2,425 in 2019-20). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people comprised 37.0 per cent of all children subject to a substantiation in 2019-20.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are significantly more likely to be living away from home than non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. As a rate per 1,000 children aged 0 to 17 years, 51.4 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were living away from home, compared with 5.9 for non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children as at 30 June 2020. The higher rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children has been a consistent trend over the last five years.

The demand for placements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continues to exceed the supply of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers. As at 30 June 2020 there was 1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carer family for every 4.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in home-based care. By contrast, there was 1 non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carer family for every 1.1 non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in home-based care.