Across advocacy files, injury reviews and investigations, RCY continues to see how fragmented accountability puts children at risk. No single ministry or agency bears responsibility for the whole child, leaving families to navigate complex systems while urgent needs fall through the cracks. At the same time, many supports are still triggered only after harm has escalated. This crisis-driven model means children often have to deteriorate before they qualify for help, compounding trauma instead of preventing it. Even when needs are clearly identified, workforce shortages and under-resourced services mean the system cannot always respond in a timely or meaningful way.

These structural weaknesses are most visible at moments of transition when young people move between care, adulthood, disability services or housing, and too often lose stability when they need it most. They are also reflected in the persistent over-representation of Indigenous children in harm, driven not by families, but by systems that still fail to provide equitable, culturally grounded supports. Through its reviews and investigations, RCY can clearly see these patterns. The challenge is no longer knowing where risk lies – it is whether governments will use this evidence to redesign systems so children are protected before harm occurs, not after.