Expenditure alone is not a good indicator of how well or how poorly we are looking after children in need of protection but it is important. Some of the present weaknesses in child protection can be traced back decades to decisions about expenditure.
This state’s net expenditure, comparisons on out-of-home care and intensive family support services and the historical trends are in the Guardian’s Expenditure on child protection, out-of-home care and intensive family services 2012-13 paper, available for download.
