Overview of the Scoping Study

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been raising children strong in culture and community for millennia. However, the ongoing impacts of colonisation continue to cause significant harm, including the persistent and worsening rates of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection systems across Australia.

The Barriers Experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families Accessing Legal Supports Scoping Study (the Scoping Study) has been developed in partnership between National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) and SNAICC – National Voice for our Children (SNAICC), and an Expert Advisory Group made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and organisations from across Australia.

This Scoping Study is a key national initiative aimed at improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families. With a clear focus on children’s rights, the study examines how unmet legal need contributes to unnecessary child removals, family separation and intergenerational trauma, and identifies practical, evidence-based opportunities to reform systems in ways that strengthen legal supports, improve system responses and reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care.

Download the Scoping Study [PDF]

What the Scoping Study finds

The Scoping Study reaffirms what other reports and inquiries have found; that Australia’s child protection and justice systems are failing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families.

The Scoping Study finds that current funding arrangements severely limit access to legal services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families. Child- and youth-focused services that directly address community-identified needs are often unavailable or underfunded. Given that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS) provide the majority of culturally safe legal support, the study recommends that funding decisions be community-led and directed towards the most effective services, supports and models identified by community.

The Scoping Study also identifies ongoing gaps in cultural responsiveness within mainstream legal and court systems. Strengthening cultural capability requires targeted action across all levels, including professional development, system design and legal qualification pathways. Workforce capacity is another critical issue identified in the study; growing and sustaining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal and related workforce is essential to meeting legal need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Scoping Study makes clear the critical importance of ATSILS, FVPLS and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations in prevention, early intervention and holistic family support, and accessible, culturally safe legal supports. These organisations are trusted by communities but remain significantly under-resourced and under-funded.

Governments must now match their commitments under Safe and Supported and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap to address systemic discrimination, strengthen legal and related supports and reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care.

Why the Scoping Study Matters

Australia is going backwards on its commitments to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

The national rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care continues to rise. The Family Matters Report 2025 finds that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 9.6 times more likely to be in out-of-home care or on third-party parental responsibility orders than non-Indigenous children, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants are 8.9 times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care.

What is evident in the Scoping Study is that child protection and criminal justice systems continue to disproportionately surveil, intervene in and separate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. These harms are compounded by entrenched inequities in housing, health, education, employment and justice outcomes, which evidence shows significantly increase the likelihood of contact with statutory systems.

Unmet legal need is a critical and preventable driver of this harm. When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families cannot access culturally safe legal representation, they are more likely to experience child removal, unfair outcomes and permanent disconnection from family, culture, Country and kin.

The Recommendations

To support governments and the sector to deliver the systemic changes required to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, the Scoping Study sets out 13 recommendations. These recommendations call for joined-up, cross-system responses led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations.

Strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled legal supports
The recommendations call for significantly increased, sustainable funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Family Violence Prevention Legal Services and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations. This includes core funding that reflects the true cost of delivering holistic, culturally safe legal services, early intervention supports, youth programs and services in regional, remote and cross-border areas. The recommendations emphasise place-based, community-led decision-making, disability-informed legal services, culturally relevant community legal education and reduced administrative burden on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.

Building cultural safety across systems
The recommendations require governments to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to embed cultural capability across legal and court systems. This includes co-designed cultural capability frameworks, judicial education, mandatory cultural learning within legal degrees and reform of legal training pathways to address the impacts of colonisation, racism and intergenerational trauma.

Growing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal workforce
A strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal workforce is essential to improving access to justice. The recommendations call for governments to fund tertiary legal education pathways and professional training to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to enter and remain in legal, court and justice-related professions.

Ensuring children’s rights and access to justice
The recommendations emphasise that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people must have access to high-quality, culturally responsive and independent legal representation at every stage of child protection and youth justice proceedings. This includes specialist children’s legal services within ATSILS and FVPLS, National Minimum Standards for children’s legal representatives and strengthened professional development requirements.

Reforming courts and decision-making processes
The recommendations call for the establishment of specialist courts and dedicated court lists for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in care and protection matters, alongside improved court practices to address power imbalances, including timely disclosure of evidence by child protection departments.

Improving early intervention and system coordination
The recommendations promote early access to legal advice and advocacy, automatic notification and referral pathways when families come into contact with child protection systems, and increased investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led child and family services to prevent escalation into tertiary systems.

Strengthening data, accountability and oversight
The recommendations call for improved national data standards, mapping of unmet legal need, regular public reporting and strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance. This includes ensuring national, state and territory Children’s Commissioners are independent and empowered consistent with the National Minimum Requirements and aligning systems with international children’s rights standards.

Read the Full Recommendations

Call for Action

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, communities and community-controlled organisations hold the knowledge, leadership and solutions needed to keep children safe and thriving when properly resourced and empowered. Inadequate access to culturally safe, timely and community-controlled legal support remains a critical and preventable driver of child removal, family separation and intergenerational trauma.

Governments have committed to change through Safe and Supported and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Achieving the targets and outcomes outlined in Closing the Gap and Safe and Supported requires sustained investment in prevention and early intervention, alongside recognition of the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to self-determination in the design, funding and delivery of legal services. It also requires governments to fundamentally transform the way they work in line with the Priority Reforms, particularly shared decision-making, strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector and transforming mainstream systems to be culturally safe and accountable.

The Safe and Supported: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Action Plan identifies the next steps as government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partners working together to  address the barriers identified and implementing the solutions proposed in this Scoping Study, with a clear call to progressing proposals to action. Culturally safe, community-controlled legal supports are fundamental to protecting children’s rights, strengthening families and preventing unnecessary child removals. Implementing the 13 recommendations of this Scoping Study, in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak legal services, leaders and communities, provides a clear and achievable pathway to reducing child removals and achieving Target 12 of Closing the Gap.

We encourage governments, the legal sector and the broader community to engage with the findings and work alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders to deliver the change our children deserve.