The complexities of cultural support planning for Indigenous children in and leaving out-of-home care: the views of service providers in Victoria, Australia Susan Baidawi, Philip Mendes and Bernadette J. Saunders Monash University, Social Work, 51 Argyle Road Kew, Melbourne, Australia Correspondence: Philip Mendes, Social Work Department, Monash University, Caulfield Campus, 900 Dandenong Road, Melbourne 3145, Australia Email: philip.mendes@monash.edu Keywords: aboriginal, child protection, cultural support, foster care, indigenous, out-of-home care Accepted for publication: March 2016 ABSTRACT Indigenous children and young people are over-represented at all stages of the Australian child protection system. Policy and legislative initiatives exist in the state of Victoria, Australia aiming to support the connection between Indigenous children and young people in state care and their culture and community. This exploratory research involved focus group consultations with seven child and family welfare agencies to investigate the impacts, barriers, benefits and limitations of cultural support planning for Indigenous young people in, and leaving care in, Victoria. Findings indicated that cultural planning was of value when it could be completed. However, various shortcomings of current systems were identified including limited resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to generate plans and provide direct and secondary consultation services to implement plans, diffi- culty gathering information for plans and some Indigenous young people expressing disinterest in connecting to their culture and commu- nity. Complexities in the relationships between the Indigenous and non- Indigenous agencies that aimed to support Indigenous young people in care were also acknowledged. Participants identified a number of strategies to improve outcomes, such as facilitating better relationships between agencies, promoting opportunities for ongoing cultural training for staff in mainstream agencies and improving the resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to deliver planning and to support cultural connections. INTRODUCTION Indigenous children in out-of-home care Australia has a federal model whereby child protec- tion is the responsibility of the community services or child welfare department in each State or Territory. The eight child welfare departments have their own legislation, policies and practices. Indigenous young people are over-represented at all stages of the Australian child protection system. While this trend is paralleled in many developed countries with Indi- genous populations, including New Zealand, Canada and the USA, the disproportionality among Indige- nous Australians is considerably higher (Thoburn 2008). Furthermore, the rate of Indigenous children on care and protection orders has been increasing (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2015). From 30 June 2010 to 30 June 2014, the rate of Indigenous children on care and protection orders has risen from 40.3 to 53.1 per 1000, while the non-Indigenous rate has remained relatively stable (increasing from 5.5 to 6.0 per 1000; AIHW 2015, p. 23). At 30 June 2014, Indigenous children and young people were estimated to comprise just over one third (14 991) of the total of 43 009 children and young people in out-of-home care nationwide, despite encompassing only 5% of the Australian pop- ulation from birth to 17 years (AIHW 2015). Child and Family Social Work 2016 © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 doi:10.1111/cfs.12289