Jackie Bray appointed as new SA Child Protection Department CEO

A highly respected government bureaucrat has won the job as the state’s new child protection chief, and revealed her plans for the embattled department.

Incoming child protection boss Jackie Bray has declared she has “never been afraid of a professional challenge” as she prepares to take the helm of a department under intense scrutiny next month.

Ms Bray was officially announced as the new Department of Child Protection chief executive by the state government on Friday morning, after the news was first revealed by The Advertiser.

Ms Bray pledged to “inspire a new culture” in the Department, be more transparent and work more closely with other government departments to help children and families before they reach crisis point.

She also pledged to visit children in state care as soon as possible and listed addressing the high rates of Aboriginal children in state care as a top priority when she begins the role on June 1.

New DCP chief executive Jackie Bray. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

“I think it’s clear that accountability is something that needs to happen and I’m non-negotiable, really, about transparency,” Ms Bray told reporters on Friday.

“I’m a strong believer that if I don’t create the right culture a dominant culture will prevail. For me it is important, as a new leader coming into the system with my experience, to inspire a new culture.

“We do have to be transparent. We do have to be decisive in what we do. We do have to be open about some of our decision-making where we can.”

Ms Bray, who has been a senior government executive for the past 16 years, is currently the founding director of the Department for Education’s Office of the Early Years. She has been in that role for the past two years.

Ms Bray’s appointment follows the resignation of former chief executive Cathy Taylor, who resigned in January following intense scrutiny of multiple failures to protect young people from abuse, including the deaths of young children who had been identified as being in high-risk settings.

Departing Child Protection CEO Cathy Taylor, with Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard. Picture NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Ms Bray has been appointed for a five-year term.

She was among more than 60 applicants for the position, including national and international candidates.

It is understood that list was narrowed down to a shortlist of six who were interviewed in recent weeks by a panel headed by Commissioner for Public Employment Erma Ranieri. Ms Ranieri has also been acting chief executive of the department following Ms Taylor’s departure on April 28.

Ms Bray said she was “honoured to have been selected for such a significant responsibility”.

“I’ve never been afraid of a professional challenge,” she said.

“I will endeavour to provide (child protection staff with) clarity, training and decision making structures needed to make a real difference.”

Prior to being appointed the inaugural director of the Office for the Early Years in 2021, Ms Bray spent eight years as a senior executive with the Department for Correctional Services – two years as executive director of offender development and then six years as deputy chief executive in charge of SA’s nine prisons and 16 community corrections centres.

A former Correctional Services colleague of Ms Bray’s said she was “well regarded and respected’’ and was “very focused and outcome oriented.’’

“She reformed many areas of the department and implemented many of the management policies still in place,’’ the former colleague said.

“That process ended a lot of the entrenched practices that many individuals were comfortable with and because they were resistant to change, they didn’t like it.’’

Prior to joining Correctional Services she was director of youth justice at the department for Communities and Social Inclusion and prior to that she spent three years with the Department for Families and Communities in various roles, including disability services, youth justice and aged services.

Prior to that she worked for the Home Office in the United Kingdom as drug interventions program manager.

Former chief executive Cathy Taylor resigned in January just days after it was revealed 58 children who had died over the past four years had been identified as being at risk previously.

Former police commissioner Mal Hyde, flanked by Premier Peter Malinauskas, releases the Hyde and Alexander child protection reports. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

The department also came under scrutiny following the deaths of two young children last year – six year old Charlie Nowland in July and five year old Makai Wanganeen in February – major crime detectives have laid manslaughter charges against Charlie’s mother, Crystal Nowland, and Makai’s father, Shane Wanganeen, in both cases.

This prompted two separate reviews into child protection services, one of which was conducted by former police commissioner Mal Hyde.

The two reports were handed down in November, resulting in hundreds of urgent welfare checks after Mr Hyde found around 500 children could be in danger.

Ms Taylor is now working in Queensland after being appointed to oversee implementation of the Queensland government’s responses to several key domestic and family violence reports.