Munno Para tragedy: Cases like Charlie’s make child protection crisis more critical

High-profile tragedies like little Charlie’s Munno Para death cause even more cracks in the state’s struggling child protection system, social workers warn.

Heartbreaking cases like the death of six-year-old Charlie are causing social workers to abandon a system which is already short staffed – potentially leaving more children at risk. Frontline organisations say recruiting social workers is increasingly difficult and there are constant vacancies.

Centacare deputy director Leanne Haddad said high-profile cases such as the death of Munno Para girl Charlie last week often prompt overstretched social workers across the system to reconsider their job.

“The minute we have something like this we have people leaving (the sector) and we just can’t afford to lose staff,” she said.

Charlie. Picture: Supplied

“These situations cause people to turn away from doing this really important work.”

People who knew Charlie said they raised concerns with the Child Protection Department before her death last week, and have since been critical about a lack of support for her family.

Workers from the Human Services, Child Protection and Education departments and the SA Housing Authority were involved with the family.

Ms Haddad – who has worked in government and non-government agencies – said no social worker ever “intends for these situations to go wrong” but they deal with “really difficult issues”.

“The work is emotionally challenging, sometimes it can be really scary,” she said.

“It’s high responsibility, it carries huge risk.

“The intention is to get good outcomes but we just can’t get to everyone – demand far outweighs capacity.”

Reily Foundation chief executive officer Nadia Bergineti has been a social worker since 2016 and said she had, at times, questioned “whether I chose the right career”.

“I do know other social workers that have also changed careers because of what’s happened in certain cases,” she said.

“There’s a lot of pressure when something happens. It does weigh on you heavily.”

The public sector union has long warned about chronic staff shortages in the Child Protection Department and has previously taken the department to the SA Employment Tribunal over its concerns.

Latest figures from the Public Sector Employment Commission show the number of full-time equivalent staff in the department rose from 2162 to 2245.

The State Government was forced to allocate an extra almost $129m over five years in its latest Budget to meet the rising cost of more children coming into state care.