Children as young as two are stuck living in state-run homes with paid carers despite a royal commission calling seven years ago for an end to the practice.
Over the Christmas and New Year period there were hundreds of children living in these homes after being removed from unsafe families.
A snapshot taken on December 6 reveals eight toddlers and preschoolers, including a two-year-old, were among 118 children under 10 living in government-run houses.
This goes against a recommendation in a milestone royal commission into the state’s child protection system, delivered in 2016, that “no child under 10 years” should be placed in such a home “except where necessary to keep a sibling group together”.
However, the Department for Child Protection (DCP) has confirmed that 57 of the 118 children captured in the December snapshot were not living with a brother or sister.