The Napthine government hopes to transform the lives of vulnerable children in out-of-home care with a $128 million plan that will expand residential care beds and therapeutic placements and create a new electronic reporting system to reduce sexual exploitation.
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The five-year plan for out-of-home care - which has been in the making for 18 months - comes in the wake of explosive reports that young children in residential care are being groomed and exploited by a paedophile ring.
The plan, which will be announced on Tuesday, includes 48 new residential care beds, 48 new therapeutic residential placements and 100 new therapeutic home-based placements, which aim to divert children and young people away from residential care and into alternative placements such as foster and kinship care.
By 2019, every child in residential care will be in a therapeutic placement, which Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge said enhanced children's wellbeing and safety and helped them focus on school, health and employment.
The plan will be announced just days before the Auditor-General is expected to table a report in State Parliament on residential care services for children, which is set to shine a light on issues plaguing the system.
It is backed by $128 million of funding made up of $90 million that was accounted for in the last budget and an additional $38 million in the upcoming May budget.
It includes $3 million to improve the skills of residential care staff and $18.2 million for kinship and foster carers, with extra funding for reimbursement payments and to attract more foster carers.
Ms Wooldridge said the plan was a ''significant game-changer'' and would transform the care provided to 6400 of Victoria's most vulnerable children.
Aboriginal Children and Young People Commissioner Andrew Jackomos will head a taskforce to look at Aboriginal children's needs.
