Evaluation of Out of Home Care Transition Outcomes

Centre PersonnelRebecca Cassells, Alan Duncan
External PersonnelIlan Katz, Kylie Valentine, Aron Shlonsky, Christine Eastman
Research PartnersUniversity of New South Wales, University of Melbourne
Project FundingDepartment of Family and Community Services (NSW)
Project StatusComplete (January 2015 to January 2016)

Project Summary

One of the key recommendations of the NSW Wood Inquiry was that ‘‘the responsibility for out-of-home care should similarly be progressively transferred to the non-government sector’. This recommendation has been implemented as part of the Keep Them Safe Action Plan, where the gradual transition of most out-of-home care to the non-government sector.

Following this policy change, the NSW Department of Family and Community Services commissioned research to conduct an independent evaluation of Out of Home Care (OOHC) Transition Outcomes.

A consortium including the Social Policy Research Centre, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and University of Melbourne were tasked with assessing the impact of the transition of OOHC service delivery to the NGO sector and outcomes for children, young people and their families.

The Bankwest Curtin Econoimcs Centre led the analysis using data from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (PoCLS) to understand the characteristics of children in care, how these have changed over time and how characteristics differ between children in out of home care with NGO and FACS caregivers.