Source: The Hobart Mercury [SUE NEALES Chief reporter]

TASMANIA'S independent Commissioner for Children Paul Mason will inquire into how and why a seven-year-old autistic boy was allowed to languish in an inappropriate disability respite centre in Hobart for five years.

Mr Mason wrote to Health and Human Services Minister Lara Giddings last week voicing his concerns about the unacceptable plight of Tasmania's "forgotten boy" Cameron, and other children who might also be stuck living in disability respite centres.

Ms Giddings told Parliament yesterday she had just asked Mr Mason to inquire into the circumstances of all children living in disability respite centres, including those under guardianship or custody of the state.

This will include how the children came to stay at the centres in the first place, and the decisions subsequently taken by staff of the Children and Family Services and Disability Services divisions that led to them remaining there permanently.

Ms Giddings has also asked Mr Mason for policy and practical advice so the care of these Tasmanian children can be improved in the future.

"I of course obtain advice from my department (of Health and Human Services) when these issues are raised with me (and) I would have to have good reason to disbelieve the advice that I am provided with," Ms Giddings said.

"But we do, in our democracy, have these checks and balances, as we rightly should have.

"I hope through the advice the Commissioner for Children can provide me, I will be able to provide further confidence to (the Parliament) that we are doing everything we can to look after these children who often have been placed in our care by parents who feel they cannot look after them in the family home."

The tragic circumstance of Cameron was raised in Parliament last week by Opposition Leader Will Hodgman.

Mr Hodgman said he was fed up with writing letters to Ms Giddings about Cameron's unacceptable situation after being promised immediate action to find him a foster family.

Cameron was suddenly found a foster family to live with late on Friday afternoon, a development Ms Giddings said had nothing to do with the issue being highlighted by Mr Hodgman and the Mercury on Friday.

Ms Giddings said two children remained living permanently in disability respite centres across the state.

The new inquiry, which Ms Giddings hopes will begin immediately, was welcomed by Mr Hodgman.

But he called for its terms of reference to be broadened to cover all children living in other inappropriate settings, such as nursing homes for old people, while in state care.

Copyright News Limited – used with permission