Case Study 24: Out of Home Care

Case study 24 is examining preventing child sexual abuse in out-of-home care and responding to allegations of child sexual abuse occurring in out-of-home care.

The hearing is specifically looking into the incidence of child sexual abuse in contemporary out-of-home care settings, recruitment, assessment and training of carers, monitoring and oversight of children.

It is also looking into systems and policies for reporting and responding to allegations and also supporting children who have been sexually abused in out-of-home care.

This is the first policy focused Commission public hearing and will not be hearing directly from survivors who have been abused in out of home care.

The Commission will hear evidence concurrently from a range of witnesses from all state governments as well as non-government out of home care providers including the Catholic Church’s Mary MacKillop family Services, Marymead Child and Family Services and CatholicCare

The primary purpose of the hearing is to understand how providers of out of home care protect children from sexual abuse and how they respond when allegations are raised.

The hearing is scheduled from Tuesday 10 March in Sydney.

Witness List and Order