Brad Hazzard

Minister for Family and Community Services

Minister for Social Housing

MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday, 22 September 2016

NSW RESIDENTIAL CARE GETS MULTI MILLION DOLLAR

OVERHAUL
Vulnerable children will receive intensive intervention to help them recover from
trauma under a NSW Government plan to overhaul residential care, Minister for
Family and Community Services Brad Hazzard announced today.
Mr Hazzard said the NSW Government would put the new services out to tender,
with a focus on evidence-based, therapeutic care. There will also be new
requirements for mandatory training and qualifications for those working with
children.
The reforms are backed by $8.5 million in new funding over four years for trauma
treatment services for children. This year, the NSW Government is spending
approximately $160 million on residential care.
There have been some disturbing cases reported recently where children have not
been kept safe and cared for in residential care, Mr Hazzard said.
Earlier this year the NSW Government commissioned consulting firm Verso to
advise on how we could reform the system to keep children safe and help them
achieve better outcomes.
We have also looked internationally at evidence-based treatment models that we
will implement in NSW.
We are working with our NGO partners to determine whether all or part of the Verso
recommendations will produce the best outcomes for children in NSW.
There is no doubt we all want the best outcomes for children and contracting new
therapeutic services is the key.
The new system draws heavily on reforms in New York and Illinois on the benefits of
therapeutic care, which in one case saw the numbers of children in residential care
fall from 370 to zero.
Changes being considered , in discussion with specialist Out of Home Care services,
include:

Introducing a new intensive model where children will be assessed and

receive health, developmental and other expert care for up to three months.
Treatment for children as they move into either intensive foster care, homes
with foster parents, return home, or therapeutic residential care.
People working with children will be required to meet minimum standards
qualifications and be trained in trauma-informed/therapeutic care, as well as
undergo strict probity checks.

Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection, Professor Leah
Bromfield, welcomed the reforms and the focus on therapeutic care.
We need more evidence-informed services that are designed around the needs of
children and young people, located in places that connect children to the people and
services important to them, and which offer genuine therapeutic care to aid children
to recover from abuse and neglect, she said.
Mr Hazzard said: There are good arguments to say that models that dont include
residential care are likely to give kids a better chance at life.

MEDIA: LEONIE LAMONT 0407 591 926