Four Corners Investigation Blows “˜Resi Homes’ Wide Open

In Australia there aren’t too many groups more vulnerable than the children in our state care systems, yet they are being shockingly failed by the very system that is supposed to protect them.

As Four Corners revealed recently, there is widespread abuse and neglect of children at all levels occurring in Australia’s residential care homes. In the segment, Broken Homes: On the frontline of Australia’s child protection crisis, reporter Linton Besser shows the harsh truth of what life looks like for these ‘resi kids’. During the three-month investigation Besser admits to being shocked at just how much neglect and abuse were to be found in the system.

“I’ve never seen a more unjust scenario than this,” he said to news.com.au.

“Children through no fault of their own are taken from their parents, which can be traumatic in itself, and are then placed into a residential home where they are subjected to neglect and abuse.

“It’s really confronting and unfair.”

Speaking to more than 50 people at all levels of the system, from those who worked for it to those who lived in it, it became clear to Mr Besser that the system was failing. While procedures in place were certainly recognising that many of the kids were troubled, he noted that the vast majority had no access to the amount of care they needed to become functioning citizens of this country.

Residential Care

Residential care is a system that some have described as the darkest corner of Australia’s child protection system. It is a last resort for children who cannot be placed with foster families. Homes are full of children that can’t be placed, and are told they aren’t wanted. Instead of regular carers, children deal with a rotating door of staff, often working alone and without proper training. It’s a prison until the kids turn 18, and which point they’re on their own and their bed is filled by another ‘resi kid’.

During his investigation into the residential care homes, Mr Besser uncovered a system that was often run by third party operators, a mix of charities and amazingly even for-profit companies.

“These staff are often poorly trained, low paid and ill-equipped to cope with these kids and give them the help they need,” he said.

Children in the homes are abused, and in some cases go on to become abusers themselves. Yet despite massive criticisms the homes are still in place, and they are making a mint.

In 2015 Bernie Geary, the Victorian Commissioner for Children and Young People, called residential care homes “barns for children” and recommended to the royal commission into child abuse that they be removed from the system. His comments it seems, were not heeded. As a result the system is plainly broken, and it is the children who are suffering.

“Around a third of these kids end up homeless, the girls end up pregnant and losing their babies and the guys end up in jail,” Mr Besser said.

“They face a grim future.”

Although Mr Besser can certainly see that residential homes aren’t serving the children well, he doesn’t necessarily believe they should be shut down. He noted that the issue was a complex one, and there needed to be better trained staff and a total funding overhaul before it would have any chance of working.

If you haven’t caught that Four Corners segment, we highly recommend watching it. Awareness of this issue is the best way to combat it.