20% of children in state care have special needs

The first interim report from the Child Care Law Reporting Project has found that 20% of children taken into the care of the State have special needs and 12% of all child care proceedings involve children whose parents have a mental illness or intellectual difficulty.

Neglect is the most common reason for children going into care.

The report cited it as the main reason for a court order being sought in a fifth of cases, and claimed it often arises from other factors, like drug or alcohol addiction or mental illness, and may be combined with other problems such as domestic violence.