20 Jul Worrying Increase in Australian children ‘At Risk’
An annual report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has revealed the number of children who received children protection services increased to about 180,000 in 2022-23. This was compared to 177,556 the previous year.
There were more than 500,000 reports made to child protection authorities in Australia in 2022-23. Of those, 45,400 children were confirmed to have experienced abuse and neglect throughout Australia, slightly decreasing by 148 from the previous year.
Act for Kids CEO, Dr. Katrina Lines, emphasized the need for better societal support to prevent children from becoming statistics and highlighted the large number of reports of harm to children in 2022-23 showed the community was aware of the need to disclose their concerns.
Key Points from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report are:
Increase in Child Protection Services:
Approximately 180,000 children received child protection services in Australia in 2022-23, up from 177,556 the previous year.
Rising Rate of Child Protection Notifications:
The rate of children who were subjects of child protection notifications rose from 48 to 51 per 1,000 over the five-year period from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
Over 500,000 reports were made to child protection authorities in 2022-23.
Confirmed Cases of Abuse and Neglect:
45,400 children were confirmed to have experienced abuse and neglect in 2022-23, a slight decrease from the previous year.
About 50% of these confirmed cases were girls, and 48% were boys.
13,700 of the confirmed cases were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Geographical and Demographic Disparities:
Children in very remote areas were almost four times more likely to be maltreated than those in major cities.
Emotional abuse was the most common type of maltreatment.
Infants under one year old were the most likely to be maltreated.
Out-of-Home Care:
The rate of children in out-of-home care remained stable at around 8 per 1,000 between June 2019 and June 2023.
Act for Kids is a national child protection organisation established in 1988, providing professional therapy and support services to children and families at risk or who have experienced harm. The organisation operates over 30 centres with a team of more than 450 staff across Australia.
