Child Protection Department in SA swamped by hundreds of reports each day

Two children every day are taken from their families, and friends and neighbours are being urged to speak up if they have concerns – could you do that? Have your say.

South Australians must be willing to have “a difficult conversation” with a parent if they are concerned about a child they see in their neighbourhood, school or childcare centre.

Advocates are urging us to speak up as new figures reveal the “astronomical” number of reports being made to child protection authorities.

An average of two children each day are being removed from their family home and put into the care of the state.

The Child Protection Department is fielding more than 80,000 reports from concerned neighbours, teachers, nurses and others each year – or almost 220 a day.

Levels of concern in the community are so high that one in every three children is being reported to authorities at some point in their childhood.

South Australians are urged to have a “difficult conversation” if they are worried about a child. Picture: istock

Premier Peter Malinauskas has conceded that when he was first told these figures the scale of the problem seemed “too big to even comprehend”.

“The number of children that are being reported to child protection is truly astronomical,” Mr Malinauskas told ABC Radio Adelaide.

Certain people who work with children, such as teachers, police and doctors, are required to report to authorities if they suspect a child has been, or may be, abused or neglected.

But Child and Family Focus SA chief executive officer Rob Martin said all of us need to think about what else we can do to help.

“How many of us would be confident going to our neighbours and saying ‘I haven’t had line of sight on your kids for four days, is everything all right?’,” Dr Martin said.

“Essentially what you’re saying is ‘I think there’s something wrong here’, and that’s a difficult conversation to have.

“You need to consider your own safety. (But) we need to care about them so much so that we are willing to have the difficult conversation.”

Alex Edward-Jenke, a neighbour of six-year-old Charlie Nowland who died of malnutrition in July, had contacted the Child Protection Department several times asking for more help for the girl’s mother.

Ms Edward-Jenke said the onus was on parents to accept the help offered to them.

“We need to know if you need that help,” she said.

“Step forward and go ‘yes’.

“There are a lot of parents out there that struggle … don’t take no for an answer.”

Dr Martin also called for a public education campaign to empower people to safely broach the subject with a parent, who may be understandably defensive, and to offer suggestions for where to get help.

“People need to feel confident … as community members to intervene in the lives of their neighbours and families if they believe they’re struggling,” he said.

“What we need is better prevention and early intervention supports for those families before we have child protection practitioners going into the home and having to make decisions about removal (of a child).

“Child protection is like the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Our role as community members is to stop kids from falling off the cliff.”