Public Service Association warns Child Protection department needs hundreds of extra workers in wake of eCARL failure

MORE than 110 reports which fell through the cracks of the Child Protection Department’s email system were about children at risk of “significant” harm, mostly due to neglect.

• 9000 child protection notifications fail to reach the department
• Lost notifications forwarded to SA Police

MORE than 110 reports which fell through the cracks of the Child Protection Department’s email system were about children at risk of “significant” harm, mostly due to neglect.

The department has revealed the 112 cases were deemed Tier 2, representing situations in which children are “at risk of significant harm” and which should be addressed within five days.

The cases were identified among more than 8700 reports made to the electronic Child Abuse Report Line (eCARL) over the past five years which were not properly submitted.

Since discovering the problem last month the department has examined 2200 of the reports, made in the past 12 months, and identified 112 that met the threshold for action by the department.

Of those, 52 have also been referred to SA Police as they raise concerns involving people outside the child’s family.

Responding to questions from The Advertiser, the department yesterday confirmed the 112 cases had been deemed Tier 2 and covered “a variety of concerns”, including about abuse, but “predominantly … related to neglect”.

“Cases have been allocated to local offices for action,” a spokeswoman said.

They covered children aged from newborn to 18 years but the department cannot yet say how many children are involved.

It is also not known when the department will finish reviewing the remaining 6500-odd reports incorrectly made between July 2013 and mid last year.

Children's Commissioner Helen Connolly. Picture: Simon Cross

Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly, pictured, said she was “confident” the department had responded in a “thorough and pragmatic way” to the eCARL problem and had put “new processes in place to minimise the chance of this happening again”.

The union representing Child Protection Department staff is calling for an extra 200 to 300 workers to ensure all serious reports can be properly addressed.

Public Service Association general secretary Nev Kitchin said the department was seriously under-resourced.

Department chief executive Cathy Taylor told The Advertiser that 50 new social workers would be employed to manage the workload, in addition to 91 new child and youth workers hired recently.

“Overall, the department has employed 300 new starters since January 1,” Ms Taylor said.

She said the department was broadening the types of qualifications it would accept from people applying to fill vacancies within the department “by accepting degree-level qualifications that relate to child protection, such as health and human services, in addition to social workers”.

“This new approach ... which is already successfully in place in other jurisdictions, aims to reduce vacancies and improve outcomes for children and young people,” she said.