National coalition says Australia urgently needs national data on children in secure care

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare AIHW must close a critical data gap

Melbourne, 21 September 2026 – Australian Childhood Foundation (the Foundation) has today released a joint submission to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), calling for the government to close a critical data gap on children being secured in welfare facilities across Australia. There is an urgent need for the establishment of a national minimum data set on the use of “secure care” or locked welfare facilities used to detain the most vulnerable children and young people, those who have been assessed as being at significant risk of harm to themselves or others.

The submission, Secure Care: The Need for a National Data Set, is endorsed by the Queensland Family and Child Commission, the ACT Public Advocate and Children and Young People Commissioner, MacKillop Family Services, and Churchill Fellow Kate Crowe.

Secure care currently operates in some form in every Australian state and territory except three, with Queensland preparing to introduce it. But there’s still no shared national definition of what secure care is, and some jurisdictions do not have legislation that properly guides and regulates how it operates. Critically, there is no national picture of who is being placed in secure care, why they are there, how long they will stay, what safeguards are in place and what happens to them afterwards. Children and young people are falling through the cracks as a result.

‘We have no transparency regarding children and young people we are locking up in the name of their own safety. We know that many are repeatedly placed in secure welfare because of the inability of the system to keep them safe. Denying children and young people their freedom should not be the default for keeping them safe. We need to better meet their needs without denying them their liberty. This should be a last resort but unfortunately it is a resort due to the limitations in the system to otherwise meet their needs. We need transparency about the use of secure welfare, why it is used and what systemic gaps it is currently masking,’ said Janise Mitchell, CEO, Australian Childhood Foundation.

Australia is lagging behind. The submission points to the example of the United Kingdom, a country that maintains a national secure care data collection covering information such as the number of facilities, admissions, placement pathways and the characteristics of children involved. This shows us that consistent national data collection is achievable even across complex systems.

The coalition says the lack of a national data set is a systemic failure that weakens safeguarding and oversight and makes it harder for Australia to show that secure care is being used lawfully, proportionately and in the best interests of children. This gap is especially concerning as Australia works to meet its obligations under OPCAT and continues to face scrutiny under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Reliable national data would give Australia the tools it needs to build better policy, make informed decisions, strengthen safeguarding and oversight, and set clear national standards. Without it, we are making decisions in the dark – making effective policy impossible.

The submission calls for seven core areas for national minimum data set to be collected urgently: facility and service characteristics; admissions and placements; the characteristics of children and young people; pathways into and out of secure care; the use of restrictive practices and safeguards; programs, supports and outcomes; and ways for capturing children’s own experiences.

Reliable national data is also what makes it possible to genuinely hear children and young people in secure care – to understand their experiences, their concerns, and what they say they need. Without it, their voices are easily lost.

The submission does not take a position for or against the use of secure care. Its authors say the priority is ensuring Australia has the evidence base needed to make informed decisions about how secure care is used and most importantly, to prevent further harm to some of the country’s most at risk children.

The Australian Childhood Foundation is calling on the AIHW, in collaboration with state, territory and oversight bodies, to undertake a priority review and development of a national secure care data set.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Gina Dafalia
PR and Communications
Phone: 0447558195
Email: gdafalia@childhood.org.au