Queensland child protection expert Cathy Taylor appointed chief executive of Families SA
THE new Families SA chief appointed to overhaul the embattled department has vowed to work alongside staff to improve the safety and wellbeing of the state’s most vulnerable children.
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THE new Families SA chief appointed to overhaul the embattled department has vowed to work alongside staff to improve the safety and wellbeing of the state’s most vulnerable children.
Premier Jay Weatherill today announced Queensland child protection expert, Cathy Taylor, as the chief executive of the new Department of Child Protection.
“I don’t underestimate the size of the job and I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m here because I have a deep level of experience,” Ms Taylor said.
“I understand (Families SA) is not going to change overnight but I am going to bring a level of commitment and energy to the role.”
“I’ve given the staff a commitment that they’re going to have my energy, my experience, but more than anything else I’m going to be working alongside them.”
Ms Taylor has 16 years experience in child protection in Queensland, where she is currently the deputy director general of the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services.
From October 31, she will lead the Department for Child Protection — the old Families SA — which has been separated from the Education Department.
Ms Taylor’s appointment followed Commissioner Margaret Nyland’s damning report The Life They Deserve, which made 260 recommendations to overhaul a child protection system in “disarray”.
A recommendation that a new chief of the fledgling Child Protection Department be appointed was agreed to before the release of the full report last month.
Ms Taylor, who has a history of practising family law, will leave a Queensland child protection system recently thrown into disarray following the death of toddler Mason Jet Lee in June.
Mason was found dead laying in a pool of vomit in his home, barely three years after an inquiry identified more than 100 ways to improve the state’s child protection.
Ms Taylor said all child protection systems faced “complex” challenges and every jurisdiction must better target families who require the most support and assistance.
“My commitment to you is that we’re going to be committed, energetic and target our energy and efforts to where they’re most required,” she said.
Mr Weatherill said during Ms Taylor’s five-year appointment she would be tasked with managing “deep and challenging issues of morale” within Families SA, implementing recommendations from the Nyland report and forming relationships with non-government agencies.
He expected the new Child Protection Department to be operating “within days” of Ms Taylor’s term starting.
Belinda Valentine, the grandmother of Chloe Valentine, who died in 2012 after being subject to multiple notifications to Families SA, said Ms Taylor’s appointment was the “vital, fresh” approach the department needed.
“I think we have to be positive and we have to give her the opportunity to really take hold of the job, show us what she is made of and what she is willing to do for our child protection system,” Ms Valentine said.
However, Opposition Leader Steven Marshall questioned the appropriateness of the new Child Protection Department still being part of Minister Susan Close’s education portfolio.
“I’m making it very clear that in Government this should be a primary responsibility of a front bench cabinet minister, it’s not under Labor,” Mr Marshall said.
The Government has already agreed to a raft of recommendations from the report, including to stop carers working alone, on single-person shifts, with children living in emergency accommodation.
Some legislation amendments were expected to be tabled in Parliament next week – the first sittings since the release of the report which prompted an apology from Premier Jay Weatherill and a $200 million pledge to fix the system.
The royal commission was sparked by the arrest of paedophile carer Shannon McCoole, who committed offences against children in his care from 2011 to 2014.
He was also an administrator of a global child pornography website.
McCoole was jailed for 35 years in August last year.
