'We're doing everything we can': Minister Kate Washington on kids in crisis

The latest data shows that the Hunter Central Coast region is at the pointiest end of a statewide crisis and continues to hit new lows.

The percentage of children being seen by a caseworker first fell below the 20 per cent mark 12 months ago.

It is now down to 17 per cent, significantly lower than the NSW rate of 21 per cent.

Performance reports from the NSW Audit Office and the NSW Ombudsman in June and July respectively reveal that nearly 60 per cent of the reports made to the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) met the 'risk of significant harm' threshold.

Of those, however, 63 per cent had their cases closed due to competing priorities - because there were not enough frontline caseworkers to investigate.

Based on that rate, nearly half the Hunter Central Coast kids at suspected risk of significant harm (more than 9,000 kids) are not being seen or assessed by a caseworker - with no follow-up from DCJ - due to competing priorities.

And an increasing number of those kids are being re-reported. The number of kids re-reported five or more times in a year has doubled in eight years.

The Minister for Families and Communities and Port Stephens MP, Kate Washington, said the Audit Office and Ombudsman's reports highlighted the same things the Minns government had been saying since coming into government - that the child protection system is in need of significant structural reform.

"As a local MP, I know that caseworker retention rates have been a longstanding issue in the Hunter, which has very real consequences for vulnerable children and their families," Ms Washington said.

"The Audit Office report also observes that following a ROSH report, the current systems are not good at tracking the outcomes of thousands of children being supported by government-funded community referral services.

"A critical element of our reform will involve the attraction and retention of caseworkers, and better systems to ensure that families referred to government-funded services are being supported.

"For the sake of vulnerable children in families in the Hunter and right across NSW, we're doing everything we can as quickly and carefully as we can, to fix the broken system that we inherited."

The latest DCJ quarterly report shows there has been a slight improvement in caseworker vacancy rates, dropping from 12 to 10 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March, 2024.

During that time, 18,493 kids from across the Hunter Central Coast were named in ROSH reports.

The six most common issues of concern raised in those reports from health professionals were neglect, physical, emotional and sexual abuse; risky behaviour, and domestic violence, in that order.

Industry insiders continue to call on the State Government to invest more into early intervention and family preservation services to help ensure children are safe at home.

Currently, there are about 4,500 families, including 12,500 children, engaged with a family preservation service across the state.

Nationally, about 17 per cent of the child protection services budget is spent on family support and prevention, 24 per cent on investigation, and about 60 per cent in out of home care.

More than 2,800 kids have been removed from their families and are living in out of home care across the Hunter Central Coast, and statistically more than a quarter will experience three or more different places, in different locations, with different families and/or service providers.

Across the state there are 417 children living in high cost emergency accommodation (HCEA) largely staffed by non-accredited labour hire staff on rotating rosters, sometimes in hotels, serviced apartments and caravan parks.

In November, 2023, a special team was set up to shift children from HCEAs to more suitable accommodation, According to DCJ, there has been a resulting reduction of 113 children in HCEAs.