0

17 years

1. Each child is only counted once.
2. Only children in out-of-home care at 30 June are counted.
3. Age is calculated as at 30 June.
4. For the numerator, ‘relatives’ and ‘kin’includes both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relatives or kin.
5. ‘Other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers’ excludes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family group homes and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residential care. Children in these placements are included in the denominator and reported in data tables as being ‘In another care arrangement’.
6. Children for whom the relationship of carer was not stated are included in the denominator.

100 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0–17,  in out-of-home care who were living with relatives, kin or other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers or non-indigenous relatives at 30 June

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0–17, in out-of-home care at 30 June.

2016–17 to 2018–19

By state and territory and by care giver type.

Identifying children in preferable placement with available data

This indicator is intended to measure the application of Placement element of the ATSICPP. A summary of how caregiver type data are used to identify children living in accordance with the placement hierarchy is presented in Table A2.

As shown in Table A2, children living in the second or third level of the placement hierarchy are recorded as being living with an ‘other Indigenous caregiver’. This means that it is not currently possible to differentiate between children living in the second or third level of the placement hierarchy. It is, however, possible to identify the total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in ‘preferable’ placements (that is, in the top 3 placement options; see Chapter 2 of the associated report), which is the focus of Indicator 1.1.

Table A2: Placement options in the placement hierarchy, corresponding caregiver type categories in the child protection data collection and corresponding category reported in data tables

Comparability of caregiver type disaggregations across jurisdictions

There are currently no nationally consistent guidelines on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kin are defined and/or recorded across states and territories. This may affect the comparability of disaggregations by caregiver type across jurisdictions depending on how jurisdictions define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kin.

For the Northern Territory, counts of children living with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or non-Indigenous relatives or kin or other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander caregivers only include children for whom the process of making a placement decision was considered by caseworkers to be in accordance with the ATSICPP. This means there may have been a higher number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living with relatives, kin or other Indigenous caregivers than is counted in this indicator. All children who were not considered to be living in accordance with the ATSICPP are included in the ‘in another care arrangement’ category, regardless of who they were living with.

Comparability with similar reporting

The placement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by caregiver type are also reported in Child protection Australia 2018–19 Table S5.12 (AIHW 2020a), the Report on Government Services 2020 Table 16A.21 (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision 2020) and NFPAC Indicator 5.2/NOOHCS Indicator 3.1 (AIHW 2020b). ATSICPP Indicator 1.1 differs from these reports in one or more of the following ways:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residential care and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family group homes are not counted in the ‘Other Indigenous caregiver’ category. This is on the basis that residential care and family group homes are very low order placements in the ATSICPP placement hierarchy. Children in these placement types are counted in the ‘in another care arrangement’ category.
• Children in independent living arrangements are counted in the ‘in another care arrangement’ category.
• Children for whom caregiver type was not known are counted in totals.
• Only children who are in out-of-home care as per the national definition of out-of-home care are counted.

Fourth Action Plan under the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009–2020

Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (AIHW)