NEARLY one-third of all children in out-of-home care in the region are Aboriginal.

Anglicare figures show that in November, Aboriginal children made up 30 per cent of children and young people in foster care across the organisation’s St Luke’s region, which covers much of central and northern Victoria.

Fifty per cent of children in residential care, or group homes, are Aboriginal, and Aboriginal children make up 20 per cent of those living with family or someone close to them.

Anglicare’s St Luke’s regional director Tom Hadkiss said about 145 children, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, were in one of these forms of out-of-home care.

The figures closely reflect the statewide trend.

The Commission for Children and Young People’s Taskforce 1000 investigation into Aboriginal children in Victoria’s child protection system found nearly 20 per cent of children in out-of-home care were Aboriginal, despite Aboriginal people making up less than 1 per cent of the state’s population.

The investigation’s report said there was a 59 per cent increase in the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in Victoria from 2013 to 2015, and numbers were continuing to grow.

Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative home-based care program manager Trina Dalton-Oogjes said there were several possible reasons behind this trend, including past policies of assimilation and forced child removal that affected Aboriginal people.

“It still impacts on our community today,” she said.

“If you’re removed from your family and never taught to parent, then you’re trying to parent – it can be hard.”

Family violence, alcohol abuse and drug use were also issues affecting some families, she said.

While central Victoria’s proportion of Aboriginal children in care was higher than what the Children and Young People’s Commission’s investigation uncovered statewide, Mr Hadkiss said this might partly be reflective of a higher Aboriginal population than Victoria’s as a whole.

Foster Care Association of Victoria chief executive officer Katie Hooper said there were not enough support systems in place for Aboriginal parents in need of help.

She said there needed to be more tools available to help parents break free of entrenched disadvantage and keep children out of care. 

The Taskforce 1000 report reinforced recommendations from an earlier Royal Commission that included increased investment in early intervention programs to prevent children entering the child protection system, funding for Aboriginal organisations to provide culturally appropriate family violence services, and working in partnership with Aboriginal communities.