Child protection workers 'can't do their job' in system that has collapsed

Nearly five out of six kids in the Hunter Central Coast region reported for suspected cases of neglect, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse are not being seen by a caseworker.

In 2023, the number of kids in 'risk of significant harm' reports in the region climbed higher than 18,000 - or 50 children and young people every day, of whom 15,000 did not see a caseworker.

Hunter Central Coast Public Service Association coordinator Paul James said some offices are scraping by with half their workforce missing due to the number of workers off on workers' compensation, sick leave or stress leave, as well as vacancies.

"We've got a situation where our people in community services are working excess hours, because they want to make sure they're out there supporting the families and the kids and doing everything they can," Mr James said.

"But they're working themselves to the point of exhaustion or breakdown and then subsequently having to take time off. And then if those cases are urgent, they'll get re-allocated to somebody else. If they're not so urgent, they'll just sit there and wait until that person comes back to their job."

One of the 23 caseworkers throughout the region unable to return to work with an open compensation claim, said the situation was heartbreaking.

"When a report comes in through the helpline and it's a high risk situation, we go out and decide if the children are safe, assess that, and then go from there," the worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Newcastle Herald.

"They're allocating a lot of responses like that for us to see children, which is exactly what we're supposed to do, but because of the burden of other allocated cases ... it was snowballing. It is overwhelming, especially when the cases you already have are very high risk.

"We couldn't get out to see these people properly. We couldn't. And I was finding that really difficult. And I guess one of the main things was that if you brought a child into care, which we try to avoid as much as possible, but if we can't come up with a safe solution ... that takes our work up exponentially because we have to do so much court work and negotiation and placement work, trying to stabilise a placement for the children.

"We have to find placements for those children - we talk with relatives to try and assess whether they're suitable, and sometimes they're barely appropriate, but we have to try and push it over the line because we don't have anywhere else."

As part of their Child Protection in Crisis campaign, the PSA has held protests outside offices including at the Edgeworth Community Services office in April, and in Sydney today (Wednesday, May 8, 2024) along with stop work meetings in the Hunter and at offices throughout NSW at 12.30pm.

PSA General Secretary Stewart Little said the system was no longer just in crisis, it had collapsed.

"On any one day, you've got offices working at less than 50 per cent capacity," Mr Little said.

"People need hope. At the moment it's a hopeless situation. They can't do their job. They can't get in there and help families that need help to try to stay together, to provide support and assistance, and then you end up with kids being removed."

Wages were not competitive, he said, when compared with other government departments as well as the private sector.

"Even within DCJ, you'll see youth justice advertise for caseworkers offering $10,000 to $20,000 more, at a starting rate of about $72,000 for a social worker with a four-year degree. Why would you want to go and work in a place where you've got a completely unmanageable workload and your colleagues are struggling to be paid that," Mr Little said.

"Chris Minns needs to immediately onboard another 500 child protection caseworkers to address the attraction and retention crisis in child protection,

"To be fair, the current NSW government didn't create this mess but it's up to them to fix it."

The NSW Minister for Families and Communities and Port Stephens MP Kate Washington said talks with the PSA were ongoing.

"We will continue to negotiate with case workers in good faith, as they do one of the most important jobs - caring for the state's most vulnerable children," she said. "When the NSW Labor Government scrapped the punitive wages cap imposed by the former Coalition government, child protection caseworkers gained their largest pay increase in over a decade.

"But we know this is about much more than wages, it's also about ensuring caseworkers are supported."

She said the government was embarking on "significant structural reform to fix the broken child protection system".

"A critical element of our reform will involve the attraction and retention of caseworkers," she said.

Ms Washington has previously announced an urgent review into the use of high-cost emergency accommodation for children removed from their families which, also known as 'alternative care arrangements', are supposed to be a short-time last resort.

The review comes in response to NSW Advocate for Children and Young People Zoe Robinson's damning report which focused on children's perspectives and experiences, which one child summed up as being treated like an animal, moved from 'cage to cage'.

The minister said it was not a matter of more funding, but how those funds were being spent, and is focused on stripping back the millions of dollars haemorrhaging out of the system at the crisis end by putting a stop to the use of hotels, motels and caravan parks.

Part of the problem was that, following the outsourcing of out of home care, the government had been left with few 'levers', but all options were being explored, she said.

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