Building on the service outcome indicators developed at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres (BYFC) for the Evi‐ dence Based Management initiative (see ITK volume 1, issues 1 and 2), the McGill Centre for Research on Chil‐ dren and Families (CRCF), in collaboration with the Asso‐ ciation des Centres Jeunesse du Québec (ACJQ) and the 16 Youth Centres across Québec 1 have been tracking and analyzing six service outcome indicators. This article pro‐ vides a review alongside an update on the three place‐ ment indicators that were initially presented in ITK vol‐ ume 2, issues 3, 4 and 5– by including an additional year of data, as well as comparisons with provincial aver‐ ages 2 . The three placement indicators are: 1. Out‐of‐ home placement, 2. Placement stability and 3. Perma‐ nence. Out‐of‐home Placement The out‐of‐home placement measure describes the placement experience of children from the point of first contact at Evaluation, and looks at any out‐of‐home placement lasting longer than 72 hours occurring within 36 months of the initial retained report. In other words, this indicator measures the likelihood that a child who is investigated following a retained report will experience a formal placement within three years. These types of placements consist of: a) kinship foster care b) tradi‐ tional foster care c) group home placement and d) readaptation centre placement. To avoid double counting children entering out‐of‐home placement, children who had involvement with BYFC within the previous 12 months were excluded from the indicator. Youth who were older than 14 years of age at the time of their initial report were also excluded as they would be older than 18 within the three year follow‐up and would have aged out of Youth Protection Services. Given the relatively large proportion of youth in this category, future analyses needs to be conducted to ex‐ amine the placement trajectories of youth aged 15 and older. In order to track these cases, a list was compiled of 99,278 children across Québec whose initial report was investigated from 2002‐03 to 2007‐08. Of the 99,278 children, 5,257 were children receiving services from BYFC. All 99,278 children were then monitored over 36 months for any placement experience lasting longer than 72 hours 3 . For example, the children identified in 2007 – 2008 were followed until 2010 – 2011. Figure 1 shows a downward trend in placement rates for both BYFC and Québec between 2002/03 and 2007/08. The majority of children investigated do not experience an out‐of‐home placement within the three year follow‐ up period; 78% at BYFC and 79% provincially. The propor‐ tion of children who are placed in out‐of‐home care var‐ ies by Youth Centre, with the lowest being at 16.3% and the highest at 28.2%. In 2002/03, BYFC placement rates were lower than the provincial average, but they varied over the years and in 2007/08 the rate was similar to that of the province. Overall, BYFC shows a similar placement rate to the provincial average, with 22% of children who are evaluated being subsequently placed in out‐of‐home care within three years of the initial evaluation, com‐ pared to 21% across Québec. Jurisdictional context can explain much of the variation in placement rates across Québec. It is important to con‐ sider the availability of resources in the community and the socioeconomic status of the families served by each Youth Centre when evaluating differences in placement rates. An analysis by Esposito (2012) on the provincial data shows that 49% of the variation in the overall place‐ ment rate by child protection jurisdiction is explained by the variation in socioeconomic disadvantages of the population served within each jurisdiction. Further, it is also important to note that informal placements and entrustments with family members are not included in the placement counts, which could account for some of Tracking child welfare placement outcomes at BYFC and across Québec Tonino Esposito, Jaime Wegner‐Lohin, Nico Trocmé, Susan Gallo In the Know Evidence-Based Management Volume 3, Issue 1 October 2013