SA Child Protection Department closes thousands of cases a year without taking any action

Every year, thousands of child abuse notifications are received – and ultimately closed without any action. Five years ago, a royal commission said this had to stop.

Thousands of suspected child abuse cases are being closed by authorities without taking action, despite a royal commission recommending the practice be stopped by August.

Each year, tens of thousands of red flags are raised with the Child Protection Department about abuse or neglect of children that it deems worthy of further investigation.

However, following inquiries by The Advertiser, it has conceded that about one-third of those reports “are not proceeded with”.

The department says it responds to all urgent cases within 24 hours, but critics warn that concerns which, at first, seem less dire are escalating without attention.

Between July 2020 and April 2021, the department received 31,803 reports it deemed to require investigation but did not proceed with about 10,460, or 32.9 per cent.

Budget papers estimate the total reports received by June 30 will climb to 38,759. This would mean about 12,750 cases would be closed for the financial year if the rate of closure remained steady.

That rate has fallen from 58.4 per cent in 2016-17, when about 12,580 cases out of 21,546 were closed without action.

SA’s Child Protection Department says about one-third of reports of abuse or neglect do not result in any action.

Examples have included reports of children missing school, repeatedly going without food, being exposed to violence and drug abuse by a parent or sleeping rough.

Cases closed without action have been highlighted in high-profile deaths, including siblings Amber Rigney, 6, and Korey Mitchell, 5.

A coronial inquest was launched earlier this month into the 2016 murder of the children, alongside their mother, at the hands of her boyfriend.

An earlier Ombudsman probe found at least 11 reports of abuse or neglect were made to authorities about the children but just one investigation was launched.

A number of reports were closed because of a lack of resources.

The children’s grandparents are dismayed that the practice is continuing.

“How many more Ambers and Koreys out there have no hope?” asked grandmother Janet Wells.

“Where is the worry about these notifications?”

Grandfather Steve Egberts questioned “what is happening to these kids that we don’t hear about?”.

“We’re still having the same problems that we had years ago,” he said.

Janet Wells and Steven Egberts, the grandparents of Hillier triple murder victims Amber Rigney, 6, and Korey Mitchell, 5. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

In August 2016, Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland recommended the Child Protection Department “phase out the closure of intakes and files due to a lack of resources” within five years.

She also called for it to publish data every three months “on the rate of closures that are due to a lack of resources”. This has not happened and the department will not say if, or when, it will.

Department deputy chief executive Fiona Ward said staff “work around the clock to triage our most urgent calls to ensure we are focusing on the most serious cases”.

Ms Ward said the “volume and complexity of notifications received in recent years” meant it would “take longer” than Ms Nyland’s August 2021 deadline to “phase out closed no-action cases”.

In mid-2019, the department said it expected to do so by mid-2022, but Ms Ward did not recommit to that time frame.

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Katrine Hildyard said it was “abundantly clear … that children’s lives are at risk due to under-resourcing”. “It is horrifying to think of what abuse or neglect might have occurred about which there is simply no further action,” she said.

Public Service Association assistant general secretary Natasha Brown said there “simply isn’t adequate resourcing to cope” with the growing numbers of children.