State Ward Abuse Claims

State Ward Abuse Claims  

A State ward (or 'a ward of the State') was the term used in Australia to describe a child under the guardianship of a State government child protection/child welfare department.

In Australia, children who became wards of the State and were sent into government care because they were deemed by a Children's Court to be in need of care and protection. Subsequently, the State through the government child protection/welfare department became their legal guardians.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it has been estimated that approximately 300,000 children throughout Australia were placed in government, church and mission institutions. The table below provides estimates of the number of children who have been in institutions as state wards throughout Australia between 1900 to 2003:

There were often various reasons for making children wards of the State and placing them in institutional care. These include the following:

• many children came from poor families who could not afford to maintain them, especially when was almost no community or government support for families in crisis or need;

• on many occasions those who had full-time employment and were not able to look after their children, used the the institutions as a form of child care. If they could, they would paid maintenance to those running the institution;

• In relation to many Aboriginal children, were simply removed from their family, made a ward of the state, and placed in an institutions because of their race;

• Children who were brought to Australia from the UK and Malta as child migrants were subsequently made wards of the state and placed in institutional care;

• Many children had fathers and mothers who returned traumatised from war service and were not able to look after their children, leading them to be institutionalised;

• With the break up of marriages, many children were made wards of the state and placed in institutions;

• Many children were made wards of the state due to their parents passing away, being placed in prison, missing or otherwise unable to care for them;

• On many occasions children were taken away from their parents and made state wards because the State considered their parents unfit or that the children were unsafe;

• Children who had committed and convicted of a misdemeanor or criminal offence were often made wards of state and placed in reformatories or 'training' institutions; and

• Children who had not committed a crime but were charged and deemed to being either uncontrollable, in moral danger or likely to lapse into a life of vice and crime, were often placed in institutional care.

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission in its findings showed the failure of many State welfare/child protection departments in providing the appropriate nurture and support to children committed to, and leaving, their care, and how many people/public servants within these departments failed to properly discharge their legal and social responsibilities. Furthermore, the Royal Commission found how extensive sexual abuse had occurred in many institutions throughout Australia, that in Victoria for example, children in state run youth facilities were often subjected to rape and abused by staff members usually done under the pretence of medical examinations and strip searches.

We are Experts in this Field

Moody Law has represented in the past and is still representing clients who were sexually and physically abused when they were placed in a institution as a state ward. We invite former victims, students, teachers and parents to contact us to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

Private and Confidential

Claims against government child welfare/child protection departments and other child welfare institutions are private and confidential unless you want publicity. Usually, there is no need to include your family members or friends in the process.