Scandalous lack of child protection.
Workers say, "enough's enough!"

by Bob Briton

The standard of child protection and foster care being provided 
by the Queensland State Government is nothing short of scandalous 
and criminal. And it is now a very public scandal. The Crime and 
Misconduct Commission is currently conducting an inquiry into 
abuse within the foster care system. There are reviews underway 
into the deaths of nine children in care. In the past four years, 
75 children with connections to the Qld Families Department have 
died.

This crisis has forced the hand of the union representing workers 
in the sector, the Queensland Public Sector Union. Last week the 
QPSU announced a series of work bans aimed at limiting the 
burdensome workload being put on the state's child protection 
workers and to oblige the government to come clean about the 
number of children at risk who cannot be adequately protected.

The Queensland Ombudsman recently condemned the Department's 
handling of the case of a 10-week-old girl as "unsound" and 
exhibiting "significant maladministration".

The family of the mentally disabled mother had warned the 
Department that she was not able to care for the baby before the 
body was discovered in a Salvation Army hostel for single mothers 
in September 2001.

For his own political purposes, Qld Liberal Senator Santo Santoro 
has called for an immediate royal commission into the crisis. 
Families Minister Judy Spence has claimed that reforms to the 
system are "well advanced".

However, spending on child protection in Queensland is still 
among the lowest in the Commonwealth despite the astoundingly 
high level of demand. Premier Beattie, himself, admits he is "not 
proud" of the state's record with regard to child protection.

As governments continue to privatise and cut social spending to 
fund wars, tax cuts and corporate handouts, the demand can only 
be expected to grow.

While the Ombudsman's recent comments pointed to systemic 
failure, some commentators and bureaucrats have tried to move the 
blame onto individual caseworkers. The atmosphere of blame and 
recrimination has led to a slump in morale in the area of the 
Department of Families with responsibilities for child protection 
and foster care.

Penny Gordon has worked in the child protection area for the past 
22 years. She was the chairperson of the Queensland Child 
Protection Council from 1999 to 2001. She has called for an 
inquiry into the morale and working conditions of workers in the 
sector.

Ms Gordon points out that there are only 400 child protection 
workers spread across Queensland to respond to 27,592 
notifications of child abuse and to care for nearly 4000 children 
placed under the guardianship of the state (2001-2002 figures).

To be able to do their jobs professionally and to better 
safeguard the children of the state, they are putting a cap on 
the caseloads of the various workers — a maximum of 15 Child 
Protection Orders for each Child Protection Worker, for example -
- and banning any associated Ministerials, Complaints and 
Executive Correspondence.