Queensland’s child protection system is facing a crisis measured not merely in statistics, but in the lives of thousands of children growing up without the stability, permanency and sense of belonging that every child deserves.

The recently released Child Safety Commission of Inquiry report, From Pressure to Purpose: Reforming Child Protection in Queensland, paints a deeply troubling picture of a system that has become increasingly reliant on state care while delivering poorer long-term outcomes for many of the children it is intended to protect.

At the centre of the Commission’s findings is a stark reality: Queensland has more children in care, proportionately and in total, than any other Australian state. As of March 2025, approximately 13,568 children were living in out-of-home care in Queensland. The Commission did not describe this as evidence of a functioning system. Quite the opposite. It described the increasing number of children entering and remaining in care as a measure of systemic failure.

The growth has been steady and relentless. The number of children in care increased from 12,327 in 2021-22 to 13,568 by March 2025. Behind every increase is a child removed from their family, often because of exposure to abuse, neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness or chronic instability. While removal may be necessary to ensure immediate safety, it was never intended to become a long-term destination for thousands of children.

Yet that is precisely what appears to be happening.

Reunification Has Become the Exception Rather Than the Goal

Perhaps the most concerning finding of the Inquiry is Queensland’s extraordinarily poor record in reuniting children with their families.

Reunification is widely recognised as the preferred outcome where it can be achieved safely. Child protection systems are not intended to permanently replace families wherever a safe restoration of care is possible. However, Queensland’s performance in this area is among the worst in the country.

In 2023-24, only 572 children were reunified with their families from a care population of almost 13,000 children. The annual reunification rate sat at just 4.4 per cent. Nationally, 41.3 per cent of children exiting care did so through reunification. Queensland’s equivalent figure was only 31.6 per cent.

These figures reveal a system increasingly capable of removing children, but far less capable of helping families address the issues that led to removal in the first place.

The consequence is that many children spend years moving through a system characterised by placement instability, uncertainty and prolonged separation from their families and communities.

The Child Protection-to-Prison Pipeline

The Commission also highlighted the significant overlap between child protection and youth justice systems.

This is not a new phenomenon, but the statistics remain alarming.

As at May 2025, Queensland identified 388 serious repeat youth offenders. Of those children, 111-or almost 29 per cent-were already subject to child protection orders.

The overrepresentation of children in care within youth justice systems is so pronounced that researchers and advocates increasingly refer to the phenomenon as the “care-to-crime” or “care criminalisation” pathway.

Children entering care often bring with them significant trauma arising from abuse, neglect and family dysfunction. When those underlying issues are not adequately addressed, the consequences frequently emerge through behavioural difficulties, school disengagement, mental health challenges, homelessness, self-placement, substance misuse and contact with police.

The Commission heard evidence that youth detention has increasingly become a de facto response for some of the state’s most vulnerable children-children whose primary issues are trauma, disability, exploitation, mental illness or unmet care needs rather than criminal intent.

The concern does not end when children leave care.

International and Australian research consistently demonstrates that children who grow up in state care are significantly overrepresented in adult correctional systems, homelessness services, mental health services and welfare systems. When permanency, stability and supportive relationships are absent during childhood, the costs are often borne throughout adulthood.

Adoption: Queensland’s Forgotten Permanency Option

One of the most controversial findings of the Inquiry relates to adoption.

The Commission concluded that adoption in Queensland has effectively been “mothballed.”

While adoption remains available under Queensland law, it has virtually disappeared in practice.

The figures are extraordinary.

No child has been adopted from Queensland state care since 2019.

Between 1996 and January 2026, only 16 children were adopted from care.

During the five years following the Carmody Inquiry’s recommendation that adoption be more actively considered, only nine children were adopted.

The Commission found that successive governments and departments failed to genuinely implement earlier recommendations designed to ensure adoption was considered as a permanency option where reunification was no longer realistic.

Importantly, the Commission does not advocate indiscriminate adoption. Rather, it argues that where reunification is not achievable within a child’s developmental timeframe, adoption should be considered as one of several permanency options capable of providing a child with legal certainty, lifelong belonging and stable family relationships.

The debate is not about ideology. It is about whether children should spend their entire childhoods moving through temporary arrangements when a permanent family could be available.

The Commission’s findings suggest Queensland has become so cautious about adoption that it has effectively removed a permanency option that may benefit some children, particularly younger children unlikely to be reunited with their birth families.

Listening to Children Earlier and More Meaningfully

Another recurring theme throughout the Inquiry is the failure to genuinely hear children.

The Commission repeatedly emphasises that children are often the least powerful participants in decisions that profoundly affect every aspect of their lives.

Too often, decisions are made about children rather than with them.

The report advocates for a child-centred system in which children’s views are actively sought and genuinely considered at much earlier ages. It emphasises that children should have greater influence over decisions regarding where they live, who they maintain relationships with, how contact with family members occurs and what support they receive while in care.

This is particularly important given evidence that placement stability improves when children feel heard, respected and involved in decision-making processes.

A system designed around children’s best interests cannot function effectively if children’s voices are treated as secondary considerations.

The Systemic Failures Driving Rising Care Numbers

The Inquiry ultimately concludes that Queensland’s difficulties cannot be explained by a single policy failure.

Instead, they arise from a combination of interconnected systemic problems:

• Insufficient early intervention and family support services.
• A system heavily focused on crisis response rather than prevention.
• Delays in achieving permanency for children.
• Poor implementation of permanency planning requirements.
• Excessive reliance on long-term guardianship orders.
• Placement instability and shortages in family-based care.
• Inadequate therapeutic responses to trauma.
• Weak accountability mechanisms.
• Poor coordination between child protection, health, education and youth justice systems.
• A failure to translate decades of inquiries, reviews and recommendations into lasting reform.

The Commission notes that Queensland has spent decades analysing child protection while the number of children entering care has continued to rise.

The challenge is no longer identifying what is wrong.

The challenge is finding the political will to implement reforms that place children’s long-term wellbeing ahead of bureaucratic caution, institutional inertia and ideological resistance.

A System at a Crossroads

The Commission’s report presents Queensland with a choice.

One path continues the status quo: increasing numbers of children entering care, low reunification rates, limited permanency options, overrepresentation in youth justice and growing demand on already strained services.

The other path requires difficult but necessary reforms focused on prevention, family restoration, genuine permanency planning, stronger therapeutic support and meaningful participation by children themselves.

The measure of success is not how many children government can care for.

The measure of success is how few children need to enter care in the first place, how many can safely return home, and how many are given the stability, belonging and opportunity to thrive when returning home is no longer possible.

For too many Queensland children, those outcomes remain out of reach.

The Commission’s findings make clear that continuing to do more of the same is not a solution. It is simply a guarantee that the number of children growing up in state care will continue to rise.