Concern after 12-year-old children escorted from unruly party

Some children as young as 12 were escorted home from an out-of-control party in Rockingham earlier this month, prompting Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan to call for authorities to be tougher on neglectful parents.

Mr O’Callaghan said there should be more children in State care if parents were shirking their responsibilities.

“Sometimes those kids will come out (at night) because they feel unsafe in the home and because the parents are in such crisis they’re not capable of providing support, so what we need is some way of breaking that cycle,” he said.

According to the Department of Child Protection and Family Support, in February there were 4599 children and young people in State care, of which there were 270 in Rockingham and 218 in Peel.

Of those, 49 were in relative carer households and 37 were in general foster care in Rockingham, with 38 and 36 in Peel, respectively.

Department director general Emma White said parents and families had the primary responsibility to care for their children and that its role was to support families who were struggling or in crisis.

“Parental drug and alcohol abuse, family and domestic violence, and mental health issues resulting in neglect and emotional abuse are the most common reasons children are referred to the department,” she said.

“Taking children into care is never taken lightly and is always the last resort when sufficient safety cannot be achieved.”

Mr O’Callaghan warned parents against turning a “blind eye” to what their children were doing, saying police were told of parents who dropped their children at the Rockingham warehouse party.

“My view is that its a risk if you’re sending kids to a place unsupervised and there are 200 (kids) in a vacant building somewhere in the back blocks of a suburb. There is a high degree of likelihood that alcohol will be involved and there is a high degree of likelihood that there will be drugs available,” he said.

Ms White said it was the department’s best hope that children who came into care could return to live safely at home with their parents, and actively worked with families to help them demonstrate they can safely look after their child.

“When it is not safe for a child to live with their parents, the child is placed with extended family wherever possible, or they may be placed with a general foster carer, a community organisation foster carer or in residential care,” she said.

“Children need safe, continuous, stable care arrangements, lifelong relationships and a sense of belonging so they can overcome the trauma they have suffered and achieve the very best life has to offer.”

Ms White said the department was always looking for committed and suitable people willing to offer a permanent, safe and stable home to children and young people in care.

She said carers could be either gender, single or couples, same-sex relationships and with or without children of their own.

For more information about becoming a foster carer, she urged people to visit www.cpfs.wa.gov.au .