Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continued to be over-represented Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were 7 times as likely as non-Indigenous children to have received child protection services.
More than 162,000 people aged under 18 received child protection services in the past financial year, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
An AIHW report released today into child protection services shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were 7 times as likely as non-Indigenous children to have received child protection services. Children from very remote areas were 4 times as likely as those from Major cities to be the subject of a substantiation.
Overall one in 33 children receives child protection services, with the majority of those being repeat clients.
The total number has climbed by 10,000 children every year for the past three years.
Emotional abuse and neglect were the most common types of substantiated abuse and neglect, the AIHW found in a report released on Thursday.
Kids who received child protection services were either the subject of an investigation, on a "care and protection" order, and/or in out-of-home care.
Notifications are considered "substantiated" when an investigation finds there is reason to believe the child has been, is being, or is likely to be abused, neglected or harmed.
The majority of child protection recipients (60 per cent) were the subject of an investigation only.
But 24 per cent were on both an order and in out-of-home care, while nine per cent were involved in all three compontents of the system, the AIHW said.
With AAP
