Charlie and Crystal Nowland both victims of DCP failures, Munno Para neighbours say

The Munno Para neighbours of little Charlie say her mother is also a victim of a system that’s been plagued by the same problem for decades.

Ever since six-year-old Charlie died just over a week ago, neighbours have rallied around her grieving mother.

That’s because they are firm in their belief that Crystal Nowland, 46, and her little girl are both victims of a failed child protection system.

They say they speak from experience – as people who were removed from the care of their own parents when they were children – and claim that the Child Protection Department does no more to help families than it did a quarter of a century ago.

While Ms Nowland is at the centre of an investigation into her daughter’s death on Friday, July 15, others on her Munno Para street believe the department too often takes an all-or-nothing approach – removing children or providing little or no support at all to struggling families.

Ms Nowland maintains Charlie, who died of malnutrition, was always properly fed and cared for – but she did not know her daughter had coeliac disease until after she died.

Rebecca Jenke and Alex Edward-Jenke outside of their home in Munno Para. Picture: Morgan Sette

Sisters Rebecca Jenke and Alex Edward-Jenke said Ms Nowland was “let down” by the state “when she needed help”.

“One thing they neglect is to listen to the parents and understand that the parent that is looking after the child needs as much help as the kids do,” Rebecca, 33, said.

“They bring the parents down more than they bring the parents up ... not once have I ever seen a worker that works with DCP uphold a parent.

“They criticise, they sit there and go ‘You’re not doing enough, you’re not putting this much effort in’ ... hence why some parents don’t even want to do anything.”

Rebecca said parents struggling with mental health issues were left to their own devices.

“When you’re struggling with mental health issues and you’re trying to get yourself better, you need extra people to be able to point you in the right direction,” she said.

“You can’t do it on your own because you have so much s*** going on as it is that you can’t think straight.”

The sisters claimed the department did not do enough to work with parents to help keep children in their homes.

On the other hand, they said often too little was done to intervene in situations where children needed to be removed.

Crystal Nowland with friends Meegan Cox and Reannett Bini. Picture: Tom Huntley

Alex, 30, said she and Rebecca were separated from each other when they entered state care at ages six and nine, despite being told by department workers they would be kept together.

She said it led to trust issues and rifts within the family.

“They made our families pick and choose which kids they wanted to see,” she said.

The sisters said they were moved from home to home throughout their childhoods and were not allowed to be in the same room together.

Only as adults had they been able to form a relationship.

“We were split up the whole time,” Alex said.

“I remember the way that I felt going into different foster homes. I felt really out of place like I was not wanted. It just doesn’t make you feel very good when you get changed to different foster homes as well.”

The sisters said the lack of transparency around the Child Protection Department’s processes meant parents were not told how their parenting needed improvement.

“There’s not enough support to… become the best parent that they can be,” Rebecca said.

On Thursday, Ms Nowland told The Advertiser she had repeatedly asked the department for help, especially after she was assaulted by Charlie’s father, John Nowland, in front of her children.

“I never got no help since I was stabbed (by him),” she said.

She said she asked to be enrolled in parenting courses and for extra support from wellbeing workers who were involved with the family but the visits did not increase.

Charlie Nowland.

Following Charlie’s death, a Department of Premier and Cabinet investigation was launched to review the “multi-agency involvement with the family and the child.”

However, Rebecca believed the department’s entire operating model needed to be reassessed to offer a more sympathetic approach to parents who had experienced trauma like Ms Nowland.

“They need to be a bit more considerate and a bit more compassionate towards parents that go through domestic violence,” Rebecca said.

“That go through turmoil for their kids, that are trying to be good parents but fail because no one is there to support them.”

On Friday, Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard proposed reforms that would red-flag cases where children were frequently being reported to authorities for going without food or missing school.

It came in response to claims that not enough had been done by way of intervention or support to help Charlie and her family.

Ms Hildyard said she had asked her department to consider how its records system could be improved to give a clearer picture of when a high number of reports were accumulating about one child or family and generate an alert.

“We have to urgently examine how the system can be improved to elevate cases ... (of) cumulative harm,” she said, also flagging the need for “clear accountability and much better co-ordination”.