To reduce child removal rates, we must invest in a different form of capital – one that’s social at heart.
In April 2023, BetterStart, a research group funded by the University of Adelaide, released disturbing data about the state of out-of-home care in Australia. Most notably, the research found that over a one year period, approximately 12%, or 1 in 10 of all Australian children aged 17 and under, had been reported to the Department for Child Protection.
Before I took the helm as CEO of The Australian Centre for Social Innovation, I spent ten years working in the child protection system. I’ve been out of the system now for 12 years, and not only has nothing changed, it’s getting worse.
Every royal commission or inquiry brings with it a new promise of hope, yet we continue to see increases in notifications and substantiations. Between 2017 to 2020, the number of children in out-of-home care rose by 7%, from 43,100 to 46,000. Out of those, 67% had been continuously in out-of-home care for two years or more.
Australia’s social services are buckling under the strain of economic pressures, and this is directly affecting vulnerable families
While appropriate services at the right time are critical, and addressing economic levers of cost of living and housing affordability are necessary, they alone will not lead to the transformation needed to keep our kids out of the care system and at home, safe with their families.
During my 10 years working on the inside, it became increasingly clear which families would never leave the system and which ones had a fighting chance. The ones who made it out were the families with people in their lives who wanted them to succeed. There was always someone – a neighbour, a friend, a colleague – on the other side, helping to pull them through. Someone who was there because they wanted to be, not because they were paid to be. They had social capital.
But what is social capital, and how does investing in it help address Australia’s social issues?
Social capital refers to the resources that come from our relationships with trusted others, be it family, friends, neighbours, communities, or services. Data from the ABS suggests that social capital has been steadily declining since the 50s: in 1967, the number of Australians who were active members of an organisation was 33%; by 2004 that proportion had fallen to just 18%.
Without social capital to draw on, resilience drops and stress builds. This creates ripple effects that include unemployment, reduced psychosocial health and wellbeing, family breakdown, domestic violence, child abuse, neglect and a multitude of other risk factors associated with disadvantage and social exclusion. Social capital and mutual support is fundamental to our wellbeing, yet few governments in the world have the policies in place needed to grow it.
Services alone can’t provide the support that our communities need – that’s why we need to invest in building social capital.
If we want to find sustainable solutions, we need to move beyond service systems alone as the only instrument of change. We need to restore our ability as a community to provide the kind of environments in which children and families can thrive. We need to re-create community for the 21st century, one that takes us beyond service systems and helps to rebuild social capital from the ground up.
But we can only do this by investing in policy, innovation and strategy that rebuilds capacity back into our communities. Imagine if, before being referred to Child Protection or crisis services, the first line of defence was reaching out to the community. Imagine if we invested in R&D that helped us understand what kinds of platforms would support mutual support. Imagine if we built the agency, leadership and skills into our communities so they could actively tackle the government can’t reach.
It’s time to stop fobbing social capital off as the “fluffy stuff” and see it as the fundamental fabric that holds our communities and society together.