UnitingCare Australia was commissioned to undertake this review of residential out of home care (OOHC) services. Its purpose is to aid deliberations on whether their organisations sould be engaged in the provision of these services, and, if so, what models of care and what therapeutic interventions would best meet the needs of the children and young people likely to use them.

The UnitingCare network across Australia has a long history of the provision of residential services for children and young people. Contemporary child protection reforms in each Australian jurisdiction have narrowed the scope of residential services to a sepcialist therapeutic setting and/or the placement of last resort.

It is critically important to ensure that these services not only meet the relevant state or territory standards of quality and accountability, but also achieve the best possible outcomes for children and, above all, do no harm.

In undertaking this work, the network sees their role and interest as not only a current and potential future service provider of preferred models, but an advocate to the industry and to government to effect change so as to be confident that optimum outcomes for vulnerable children and young people are achieved.