A COALITION government would reduce the number of children in care in NSW by 2019 to bring the state in line with the national average and hand out-of-home care to non-government organisations.

The opposition's community services spokeswoman, Pru Goward, said NSW had the greatest number of children in out-of-home care in the country and the rate of removal was more than twice that of Victoria.

''Removal should be the last resort, not the first,'' Ms Goward said.

Children who are placed in care will be supervised by non-government organisations such as UnitingCare Burnside, Barnardos and Anglicare, rather than the Department of Community Services.

Ms Goward said DOCS spent a ''huge proportion'' of its $2 billion on out-of-home care and that money would be better spent supporting troubled families that do not have access to counselling or drug and alcohol treatments.