Seven Foster Carers Investigation

Our recent series on foster care in New South Wales has sparked an enormous response – bigger than any other investigation undertaken by Seven News Sydney.

As the case with these types of stories there has been praise and criticism.

People who have lived through foster care have praised us, the Minister who is responsible for the area has called for a review, while his department head has criticised us.

So you can follow the debate we have posted the stories, the department documents on which the stories are based and various responses.

Response from News State Political Reporter Lee Jelosek

Experts say there is a childcare crisis in NSW. The minister is so worried he’s demanded a review by his department head, Michael Coutts-Trotter, as to whether children were placed in the care of alleged abusers.

So what does Mr Coutts-Trotter do? He blames the media.

There's always a lot of emotion in this issue.

Hard working foster families who go above and beyond to support children feel they are unfairly tainted.

Former wards of the state remember their pain and become angry that history is repeating itself.

This series of reports triggered an overwhelming response. I have spoken to many former wards who have thanked us for shining a light on a system they believe needs reform.

Anyone suggesting we criticised foster parents is wrong. Have another look at our stories. Repeatedly we stressed the great and important work undertaken by many carers. Without them, the system would be much worse.

Part of the reason I am passionate about that is because I have seen first-hand the benefits of providing options, love and support to a child seemingly without any.

Nearly 30 years ago my mother did just that with a teenager from her school. She’s still a much-loved member of our family today.

So let’s look at the facts.

We reported more than 4000 emergency intervention calls to the child protection hotline. That's not our term - it's the department's.

That included hundreds of reports of abuse and other allegations too disturbing to repeat.

We know they include children already in state care and “emergency intervention calls” trigger departmental records allowing caseworkers to monitor and, hopefully, protect those children.

We requested basic information from Family and Community Services about allegations of abuse involving children in state care.

That initial request was over a year ago. It wasn’t just “released” – it followed 12 months’ worth of requests and an apology from Mr Coutts-Trotter for those delays.

The reason we eventually reported extensively on this issue is because it's important. For too long, too many children have been let down.

Disturbingly, the department would not tell us the total number of children previously abused in care, the number sent back to abusive carers or how many have been moved to emergency accommodation.

This is information Mr Coutts-Trotter’s interstate colleagues have provided. Why won’t he release it?

The information we received was alarming. Dr Joe Tucci from the Australian Childhood Foundation has spent 20 years working in child abuse intervention in both the government and non-government sector.

He said NSW has a crisis on its hands.

It's not the first time he has said that.

It's a call he made recently following the tragic death of toddler in foster care, now being investigated by the coroner.

In our investigation, we also revealed the dozens of children in state care returned back to places of suspected abuse.

In just one year more than 30 allegations were "sustained" against the carer.

Even the minister was alarmed by this – he’s demanded Mr Coutts-Trotter review those cases.

This is crucial. Did the department expose children to abuse by knowingly returning them to places of suspected abuse?

Instead of writing letters to the media, surely Mr Coutts-Trotter should be responding to the minister’s concerns.

I’m happy to keep responding to Mr Coutts-Trotter’s letters but what we really want is action.

This is important. Too important to be dismissed as a media issue.

As the minister said, anything more than one child being at risk is one child too many.

Response by Chris Willis - News Director

Dear Coutts-Trotter,

Thank you for your response to our stories.

Firstly, I stand by our reports.

I am concerned that the tone of your letter suggests that we were not diligent and thorough in our research and reporting. Nothing could further from the truth.

The purpose of our series of reports, was to inform the public of significant problems that had been brought to our attention by citizens of New South Wales.

It took us a year to get the information because your department repeatedly refused to supply what should have been readily available.

To refresh your memory, that information revealed:

• 4112 emergency intervention calls

• 343 allegations of sexual indecent acts/molestation or risk of sexual harm

• Another 322 involved physical (hit/kick/strike) or risk of physical harm

• Of those, 7 comprised shaking a baby/child, 4 strangulation/suffocation and 5 poisoning

• 45 related to drug abuse by the carer

There were many other complaints that were too graphic for us to broadcast or repeat here.

In our reports (over 3 nights) we stressed the majority of foster carers are great people doing tremendous work.

In relation to your claim that we refused “help” to interpret the data, nothing could further from the truth.

We spoke to the Minister, his advisors and your own media officer at length.

We also spoke at length to independent experts. It was their assessment, which we reported, that your department was in crisis.

When we interviewed the Minister, he was so disturbed by the fact your department had overseen the return of children to places of suspected abuse, he demanded a review from the Secretary of the department. That is you. We look forward to the publication of that report.

It saddens me to say that your letter is an attempt to distract from a very real problem affecting some of our most vulnerable people.

We hope that these reports lead to real change, which will benefit thousands of children, rather than prompting an attack on the messenger.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Willis

You can read the original letter from Mr Coutts-Trotter here

Response by Alison Sandy - Freedom of Information Reporter

There is nothing more precious than the lives of our children. The NSW State Government is responsible for almost 19,000 of them. This week, Seven News revealed from documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws, that there were more than 4000 emergency interventions by the Families and Community Services (FACS) department in just three years. About half of those didn't contain reasons as to why they required an intervention.

But for those that did, often the explanation was heartbreaking.

The documents stated there were:
- 343 allegations of sexual indecent acts/molestation or risk of sexual harm
- Another 322 involved physical (hit/kick/strike) or risk of physical harm
- Of those 7 comprised shaking a baby/child, 4 strangulation/suffocation and 5 poisoning
- 45 related to drug abuse by the carer
- 37 were because the child was considered a suicide risk
- And 57 were due to abandonment

When asked about repeated abuse, Seven Network was told there were 340 allegations of abuse investigated involving the child's carer. Of those 173 carers were already known to authorities.

It is unclear from the documents what type of carer they were and in the cases of abuse, the Government has not distinguished between whether the alleged culprits were foster carers, guardians or the child's parents.

Several former victims of abuse while under state care have come forward though and that abuse did involve foster carers but again, it was clear they represented a very small portion of the total foster carer population.

Unfortunately, rather than own up to the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of wards of the state, have been let down by the system, head of the department, Michael Coutts- Trotter, is trying to muddy the waters by claiming Seven misrepresented the facts.

He claims that foster carers are only a small part of the system and the implication was that all the abuse was undertaken by foster carers.

Seven News never reported this. The State Government won't provide a breakdown of the type of carers, whether it be foster carer, parent or guardian, who committed the abuse. If that information was provided, we would only be too happy to report it.

Sadly, Mr Coutts-Trotter seems set on distracting from the real issue which is addressing the substantive flaws in the system responsible for neglected children, and finding a way to keep them safe.

The public response to our stories has been overwhelming and the main concern is that this abuse occurs at all and that children are being returned to the place of abuse.

The Minister has called for an inquiry.

Any manager worth their salt would be saddened that the system has failed so many and want to ensure it doesn't continue to do so, rather than shoot the messenger.

This is about people's lives and the focus needs to be on them, not trying to abrogate responsibility.