Seven Victorian child deaths 'preventable'
30 July 2010
Crisis in Care- System underestimates risk The
deaths last year of 26 children known to Victoria's child protection
authorities has highlighted staff shortages, inadequate training and
poor assessment practices, a report has found. The
annual report by the Child Death Review Committee on deaths of children
known to be in protection last year was tabled in Parliament yesterday.
It is the third report in a year to be critical of Victoria's child
welfare agencies. Four of the 26 deaths last year
were the result of non-accidental trauma, two were suicides, one was
from substance abuse, eight were attributed to acquired or congenital
illness, two to accidents, one to SIDS and one is unknown. The other
seven are still under investigation. "Overall the
case reviews paint a picture of the corrosive effect of chronic
staffing shortages and workload pressures," the report said. There
are 1598 cases that do not have an independent, long-term worker. These
children are managed by a senior member within a welfare region. The
report said child protection did not work cohesively with other welfare
bodies and more information sharing was needed to protect children. Case assessment also came under fire in the report. The chief executive of the Australian Childhood Foundation, Joe Tucci, said at least seven deaths could have been preventable. "Overall,
the child protection system underestimates risk to children in
Victoria," Dr Tucci said. "It minimises the impact of violence and
neglect on children. I think it does that because it is oriented too
much to a family support model." He said there needed to be more emphasis on the child rather than the parent. Opposition community services spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge
said a Coalition government would set up a judicial inquiry to
understand the complexity of child welfare. It would also appoint an
independent children's commissioner. She said a new culture of support need to be fostered in the Department of Human Services to help retain staff. For
the first time the scope of deaths of children investigated was
increased. The report investigated children who died within 12 months
of having been in child protection; previously it had been three months. Child safety commissioner Bernie Geary said he welcomed the government's expansion to 12 months. "It
means the government are fair dinkum in their acknowledgment of that
fact that we need to be as thorough as we can in looking at these
children's deaths and how the services have impacted on them," Mr Geary
said. Ms Wooldridge said the new criteria skewed
the data and that on a like-for-like comparison 2009 had the most
deaths for children known to child protection since 2002 when there
were 32. Community Services Minister Lisa Neville
said the government had made big changes with an investment of more
than $300 million in the past two budgets. "Since
October last year we have recruited over 400 new child-protection
workers to the system that has filled all the vacancies and filled the
additional positions we have funded," Ms Neville said.
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