Opinion: There's still a crisis in foster care
Perhaps Bek Knight is smiling in the photo because she thinks it’s how happy little girls should appear.
Her smile tells a story but it’s not the one you may think.
Behind that grin, the sort of cheeky grin that makes everyone around her smirk, is a seven-year-old girl who is anything but happy.
By the time this photo was taken, Bek knew more about the state’s foster care system than most adults ever will.
And her next 11 years will take her to dozens of care homes and refuges.
She will be a victim of abuse, experiencing lifelong pain that will define her.
Remarkably though, it will not defeat her.
Bek’s now revealing parts of her case file on a Facebook page called “The little Girl That Nobody Wanted.”
It makes for tough reading – picturing the pain behind the little girl with the cute smile.
Since that photo was taken we have had numerous reviews, reports and now we have the Royal Commission into institutional abuse.
As a society, we hope those painful days have been left behind, that we are caring for the most vulnerable.
For the past 12 months, Seven News has been fighting to find out how much we have improved.
Finally, our Freedom of Information fight has delivered what we wanted.
But like Bek’s Facebook page, it provides pages of pain.
There are dozens of pages listing times, dates and reasons for calls seeking emergency intervention.
In the last three years there were more than 4100 calls for help. Some are from mandatory school reporting, some from parents and others from children themselves.
While not every complaint can substantiated or warrants investigation, experts say the fact there a call for help every seven hours underlines the fact there is still a crisis in foster care.
There are more than 660 claims of violent and sexual abuse, 45 reports of drug abuse by carer, allegations of suffocation, 57 of abandonment and many others too graphic to repeat.
In a system caring for more than 18,000 children, these are huge numbers which disturb. What must not be forgotten though is that they are much more than numbers. Every one of them is a child, like Bek, who should be smiling and telling a far happier story.
Lee Jeloscek is Seven News’ state political reporter. His foster care investigation continues tonight on Seven News.
