A report on children in out-of-home care throughout Australia has found that Indigenous Australians face particularly dire conditions.
The report by the CREATE Foundation is based on a survey of more than one-thousand children, including three-hundred Indigenous children.
It found Indigenous children move six times on average during their time in care, and that their cultural needs are not being properly addressed.
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The report's author Dr Joseph McDowall says Indigenous children are more likely to be disadvantaged by the out-of-home care system than other ethnic group.
"Placement stability is a really big issue in the out-of-home care sector because the more instability there are, the more placements you have during your time in care, obviously shifting locations, shifting houses, making new relationships, it just disrupts your whole life experience."
KEY FINDINGS:
- 83 percent of respondents were feeling 'quite' or 'very' happy in their current placement
- The longer the period a person is in care, the less satisfied they were.
- Over one third of respondents had not been able to have a say in issues that impacted directly on them daily.
