Queensland Foster and Kinship Care Conference 2023 dinner address

Speech by QFCC Commissioner Luke Twyford

Good evening everyone. 

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Let me also acknowledge your Executive Director, Bryan Smith, and extend my gratitude for all that the Queensland Foster and Kinship Care Association does for Queensland children and families.  

My name is Luke Twyford and I am the Commissioner of the Queensland Family and Child Commission. 

It is a great pleasure and privilege to be joining you here tonight at such an important gathering. 

Having said that, it always feels like there is a little extra pressure when you are asked to be the “dinner” speaker.

After a long day of discussion, I know there can be a fine line between being the main speaker and just being the guy blocking a group of tired conference-goers from their main course.

I am also very conscious that your time is valuable and, in a world that becomes ever more crowded with options, we all still only have 24 hours in each day. 

To that end, if you take nothing else away from our time together tonight, please remember this:

Thank you. 

Thank you for caring. 

Thank you for your efforts to build a better world one child at a time. 

Thank you for persevering through the tough days and nights. 

Thank you for not giving up when it all seems too hard.

Please be assured that this is not a flippant platitude; far from it. I was a child in a foster care home myself. My parents were carers for many years, and therefore, my siblings and I were carers too. 

I did not know it at the time but I was an 8 year old foster carer.

I believe I know what you do.

I certainly know how it can profoundly and positively change the trajectory of a child and, by extension, enhance the fabric of our community and the function of our society.

I grew up in a home that was a refuge for 12 foster children over various stages. 

As you can imagine, dinner time could often be a battleground. Sometimes there were five hungry boys, two ravenous girls and three barbeque chickens. You do the math. 

The psychological warfare that was required to get a drumstick was intense. 

The chickens didn’t stand a chance, and frankly, that was one of the wonderful things about belonging to a big fostering family. We were in it together. 

We all felt valued and wanted, and we ate together. We laughed together. We shared a diverse past but, in those moments, life was good, and the future had possibilities. 

Sometimes my foster brothers and sisters arrived battered and withdrawn. Bruises and blood and scars. I wondered what private anguish they had endured and what dreadful experiences haunted their dreams. 

I also watched as everyone in the household instinctively took responsibility for bringing them into the slightly chaotic comfort of our diverse household. Not just mum and dad – the registered carers – not the social workers and case managers – but the kids. 

I observed as the weeks went by and the once quiet and distant sibling found a new life spark and was soon playing soccer, and Nintendo, and rediscovering joy and some of the lost magic of childhood.

I quickly realised that often the children coming into care may have bruises - physically, emotionally and spiritually -  but they were not broken – and they were not different. With the right support every child can find their light and restore their hope.

Children in care, are part of a complex matrix of stories – full of ups and downs, tension and crescendos; tears and laughter; twists and turns. 

We all hope for positive outcomes and very often it is you - the people in this room - that are the difference between a happy ending and a tragic tale.

Given these high human stakes, my message for you tonight is the importance of being part of your foster child’s life beyond the tenure of their formal care.

Governments tend to default to bureaucratic-sounding terms like “formal placement” or “short-term care”, “re-registration”. But, as most of you know well, such terms can quickly lose relevance in the context of real life – as I believe they should.

Every child is different. Every situation is different. No single set of rules works for every circumstance.

Rules are important – government and society needs them, but for children in care, you are not a “placement”, you are a home, 

you are a warm hug, 

you are a kind ear, and 

your family is a source of love, respect and value. 

And because your home is loving and nurturing, to borrow from the Wizard of Oz, there’s no place like home.

In a world with so many unknowns, a positive, loving, relationship with a foster or kinship carer can be the anchor that helps prevent a person from drifting into troubled waters, and a lighthouse that gives comfort and reassurance through life’s storms.

A foster relationship can transform a life that feels lost, scary, and alone to one with a large, enduring support structure that provides comfort and security.

It can create a loving long-term community around an individual that provides a cocoon of love and protection across decades – across an entire life – across generations. 

The notion that all individuals have parents – and that even adults need their parents from time to time – is just as important to children in care as it is to everyone else. You may only care for a child for a short time – but you can be there for them for their whole life. 

While I want to emphasise the positive benefits of foster and kinship care tonight, it is also important to give you context around the challenges we face in keeping our children safe.

In our state of Queensland, we have 1.6 million children and young people, and a staggering 80,000 are the subject of a report to the child safety system, 6500 are neglected, harmed or in need or protection, and over 10,000 live in the “out of home care” system.

As the Commissioner of the Queensland Family and Child Commission, dealing with numbers is an inevitability of my role.

Frankly it is easy to become overwhelmed by the numbers. Because, as we all know, these are not numbers, these are people – young vulnerable people yet to fully make their individual mark on the planet.

Every one of the thousands of children in the so-called “system” is a unique and individual story and for every single one the endings of their story are yet to be written, and we can all play a role in influencing the direction of the plot.

Last night I was privileged to have dinner with Bryan and Linda, Chris and Jacquie and my staff.  We talked about the how the system is always desperate for “good news stories” and how the metrics the system uses are not very useful for measuring life. I told them the story of the 2019 Create Conference, where the children in care spoke about needing ‘Smile Makers’ in their life – and I noted how great the system would be if we just counted the smiles that we made. 

Are our children smiling? 

Are our frontline workers smiling?

Are our carers and parents smiling?

To pick up on this mornings excellent presentation on conflict and difficult conversations – imagine if we all invested in making each other smile as much as we could….and what if instead of being called carers we registered you as “Smile Makers”.

The world needs more smiles.

Last month ground-breaking research was released - the Australian Child Maltreatment Study surveyed eight and a half thousand Australians and the results paint a disturbing picture of the impact of abuse in all its forms.

Sadly, 48% of children who experience maltreatment go on to develop mental health disorders, well over double the figure for the general population.

The study showed that children who experienced maltreatment are:

• 4.6 times more likely to develop a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• 3.1 times more likely to develop a generalised anxiety disorder.
• 2.6 times more likely to develop a severe alcohol use disorder and
• 3.2 times more likely to develop a major depressive disorder.

The children in your care are unfortunately in this risk category. 

And as their carers you are on the frontline responding to these risks. 

I am sure I don’t need to tell you of the difficulty in providing continual care to foster and kinship children – particularly as they enter puberty and adolescence and the mental health and trauma impacts emerge as new forms of behaviour. It is an upsetting truth that our care system struggles to provide quality ongoing support for teenagers in care.

Evidence such as that gathered by the Australian Maltreatment study helps us understand the extent of the problems in our world – and it helps roles such as mine call for new funding and programs. 

It is clear to me that a greater investment in preventative mental wellbeing counselling and support for children in care, that truly acknowledge the long-term impact of their trauma is necessary – and if we can help carers intervene earlier with children in care we will reduce the mental health risks and substance misuse that can arise later in life. 

At the Queensland Family and Child Commission, we firmly believe that we can make a difference and we work hard every day knowing that every child and family that is properly supported creates an opportunity to turn a life around.

We want to ensure that every Queensland child is loved, respected and has their rights upheld.

While we are a state-funded commission, we have the independence and freedom to turn the spotlight on issues and call out policy and funding inadequacies as we see them.

We aim to empower children and their families to influence decisions that affect their lives and form connections with organisations like the Foster and Kinsihp Care Association to advance the safety and wellbeing of children and those that work in the system.

To this end I am here tonight to ask you to continue to speak up with your ideas around how we can make a better system – for you and the children in care.

Frankly, I know that the child protection system is not a perfect system. In fact, it would be a stretch to call it a good system. Specifically, I know it can be down right frustrating.

But I also know, and I firmly believe, that the majority of the world wants you to succeed. They want you to be foster and kinship carers, and they want to support you do your important role. 

We talk a lot about listening to the voice of the child, which is vital in the sphere where we operate. However, I am conscious of the need to also hear the voice of foster and kinship carers, and to really listen to your ideas and experiences. 

Do not underestimate your power to influence.

The human race has multifaceted aspirations – we invest in landing humans on Mars as well as dealing with climate change, poverty and chronic health challenges. 

In this environment, I encourage you to find your voice and call for the improvements that you want. 

Nobody knows the true needs and realities of foster and kinship care better than you. 

You are the best advocates for the children in the system. 

I hope you have been by the Commission’s stall at the conference. We are asking as many foster carers as possible to take part in a video project to tell us one great thing about your role as carers and one thing you would change. We want to use your stories and your voice to continue to improve the system – for you, other carers, and the children. 

And your story of family life should not be one of perfection – that bar is far too high for any family. 

To understand child safety, we need to view it in the context of family wellbeing. 

In my experience, all families – including foster and kinship families - sit somewhere on a continuum of wellbeing. This ranges from being safe and stable at the positive end to managing challenges, to being overwhelmed and, at the other extreme, being in crisis.

No family is immune to hardship and our place on the continuum can only be one major life event away from a quantum shift. Families can be battling financial stress, relationship strains, job loss, housing challenges, behavioural issues, trauma, addiction and poor mental health. 

There are no signs on the door to tell us what is going on and the tribulations of Queensland families are often hidden behind closed doors and masked by brave-faced bravado dressed up in a cloak of false resilience. 

To quote the classic song Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles – we have many families who wear the face that they keep in a jar by the door.

As foster and kinship carers you should feel the full support of the community, and you should be entitled to ask for help – it is ok for your family to have periods of stress, challenges and felling overwhelmed. 

But when you are in these times you are absolutely entitled to receive support immediately, and overwhelmingly. The Queensland Foster and Kinship Association and the Queensland Family and Child Commission are both here to ensure you get the support you deserve. 

If your family’s wellbeing is supported, our future in Queensland will be brighter. 

In closing, let me thank you again for the opportunity to be part of this conference. Your theme is communication, collaboration and relationships and I have to say that the Commission’s partnership with Queensland Foster and Kinship Care is highly valued. 

We recently worked together to send children’s storybooks and calendars into foster and kinship care homes as a contribution to family life, stability, normality, and the importance of literature and reading. 

We also worked together on policy changes that Bryan and his team have been strongly advocating for – including those related to medical assessments and renewal processes for existing carers.

So let me re-iterate my main messages:

1. We are all genuinely grateful for the contribution you make to supporting some of our most vulnerable children. You probably don’t hear it enough, but thank you. 
2. Please stay in the lives of your foster and kinship children for as long as you can - give them comfort and strength throughout their lives. Our families come in many forms. 
3. Never under-estimate your contribution to turning lives around. You are having a lasting impact – and you never know who might pop back into your life.
4. Please speak up. You are the front-line experts in foster and kinship care. We want to know how we can help you to keep improving the lives of our children.

As I said at the beginning, your time is valuable and your dinner is highly enticing so I really appreciate you granting me your dinner interlude to make some of these observations.

US President John F Kennedy said that children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.

Our systems may not be perfect... but I genuinely hope that the message we send to the future with the children of Queensland will be one of hope, and that we can build each generation on a foundation stronger than the one before. 

Thank you.