Trigger warning: This article contains mention of sexual assault.
Queensland's child protection system has been described as 'broken' by young people who were removed from their families for safety but say they were left in survival mode and exposed to further trauma. Their accounts come as the Queensland Government considers recommendations from an inquiry into the system, which Attorney-General Deb Frecklington called 'neglected' when the landmark report exposed failures in June.
'The system is broken'
Deanna Paylor, 21, told 7NEWS.com.au she entered child protection from birth. By age five, she had been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, a rare stress-related condition caused by social neglect and maltreatment. She says she endured 45 different placements while in care.
'I was always misbehaving or lashing out because I never had that one stable home,' she said. 'I just think I was living in survival mode. I was surviving off adrenaline.'
Shortly after turning 12, Paylor was placed in a residential care home where she said another resident several years her senior sexually assaulted her multiple times. 'I didn't have a secure lock on my door. That's just how rough and raw a residential care home could be for a young female,' she said. 'The system is broken, and as a result I struggle with lifelong complex PTSD and anxiety.'
A friend's mother helped her report the abuse to police. Paylor eventually moved in with that woman under a practice known as 'self-placing', where a child in state care chooses their own living arrangement. She said motherhood helped her challenge ingrained beliefs that she should not have children.
Teen moved 10 times in one year
Emma Griffith*, 15, has been moved 10 times in the last year, which she described as 'the most unsettling thing'. She said placements can end without warning: 'I'm scared that I could go outside and be told you have to pack your whole life and just move. If we don't move, their option is to call the police.'
Griffith also recalled a worker who had 'really unusual conversations with me that were quite sexual'. She said young people in state care lose their childhood but are not given the resources to be independent. 'We don't have anything,' she said.
Self-placing after removal
A government audit found almost 800 children were self-placing across Queensland last year. Jack Smith*, 16, is self-placing with the very family he was removed from. His mother, Eleanor Wright*, said Child Safety has not conducted a single welfare check or meeting in the month he has been back.
Smith described being told by a Child Safety officer while in hospital that 'your mum doesn't want you anymore'. He later spent 10 days homeless, sleeping under a tunnel and stealing dry clothes, after his CSO texted: 'I have been instructed not to collect you until we find an approved placement. These are the consequences of your own actions.'
Wright said Child Safety turned her son into a drug addict and exposed her other children to harm. The family remains before the courts to sever their ties with the department.
System 'always in chaos'
A contract worker with Child Safety for 20 years, Jane Stevens*, said the system is 'always working in chaos' and that 'the residential system is all about heads on beds'.
Australian Childhood Foundation CEO Janise Mitchell said placement breakdowns 'are the enemy' of healing. 'We have to ensure we meet a child or young person's fundamental right and need to be safe, that the system offers greater safety than the family from which they have been removed,' she said.
A Department of Child Safety spokesperson said the Child Protection Act 1999 prevents them from commenting on individual cases. 'We take allegations of abuse very seriously and when concerns of a criminal nature are raised, we are obligated to report these matters to the police.' The Queensland Government is currently considering its response to the inquiry's recommendations.
* Names have been changed to protect anonymity.
