Reports of abuse and neglect are going ignored, caseworkers are overwhelmed and children are spending years bouncing through homes, hotels and other care amid an understaffed system.
Reports of risk and harm are going ignored, with more than 9000 child protection reports not being assessed by the Department of Communities and Justice.
In the third quarter of the 2023 financial year, the caseworker vacancy rate jumped to seven per cent, according to DCJ data, with the rate hovering at 15 per cent in the Mid North Coast, New England, and northern NSW.The stressors of the job were compounding the workforce shortages, with 50 caseworkers on long-term compensation in the last financial year, according to data obtained under freedom of information.
“That’s when you see kids severely hurt or sometimes killed as a result of these things, and that their cases are horrendous,” she said. Departmental sources said some cases were being delayed by two to three years, with caseworkers being forced to ignore magistrate orders. Of the 15,000 children and young people in the NSW child protection system, just a third are placed with foster carers. There were 400 fewer children placed in foster care in the first quarter of this year when compared to the same period last year, a decrease of 6.1 per cent.
Of the nearly 1300 children who had spent more than five years in care and exited the child protection system in 2021-22, more than 200 had been in six or more placements. There were 126 children in ACAs, which are run by non-government organisations and the department, as of June 30, according to DCJ data, above the monthly average of 119 between October last year and March.
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