SA Department for Child Protection boss Jackie Bray confirms 11 children known to authorities died in 2023-24

Children who were the subject of worried calls to the state’s child protection hotline are among 11 who died last financial year.

Eleven children living in state care, or who had red flags raised about their safety, died last financial year, authorities have confirmed.

They include children who were the subject of worried calls to the state’s child protection hotline in the year before their death, as well as deaths related to medical conditions and cases referred to the coroner.

Department for Child Protection (DCP) boss Jackie Bray has confirmed the deaths to The Advertiser ahead of publishing the first of promised yearly updates in her department’s upcoming annual report.

However, Ms Bray has not included details such as the ages of the children, their cause of death or the reasons they were reported to authorities.

DCP boss Jackie Bray. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

The data also does not break down how many of the children had been taken into care before their death and how many were still living at home.

“The death of any child or young person is a tragedy for their family, community and all those who knew them and it’s important that we respect families’ privacy,” Ms Bray said.

In previous years DCP has been reluctant to make public any details about child deaths and information has only been forced out through Freedom of Information requests.

However, following a campaign by The Advertiser Ms Bray – who took the helm at DCP in mid-2023 – has pledged greater transparency.

In February she confirmed that three children in care, and 14 known to the system, died in 2023.

So far in 2024 one child in care and another five known to the system have died.

They are believed to include a three-year-old girl in Whyalla.

It is understood concerns were raised with authorities about her welfare before her death on May 9.

At least one of her siblings – a younger sister – has since been removed from her family and placed in state care.

Each death of a child on DCP’s radar is already reviewed by its internal adverse events review committee.

Ms Bray said she was “confident in the mechanisms the department has to investigate, review and learn from tragic circumstances where a child passes away”.

However, she said a new process for “real-time” reviews of the circumstances around a child’s death would begin operating by the end of the year.

It will bring together all agencies involved with the child, including health, education, housing or police.

There are more than 4800 children living in state care and the child protection hotline fields more than 100,000 reports about children potentially at risk each year.

In January last year The Advertiser revealed that 58 children in state care, or known to the department, had died between 2019 and 2022.

Within days of the revelations former DCP boss Cathy Taylor resigned from her post, after more than six years at the helm.

In a statement at the time, Ms Taylor said child protection work “requires significant expertise and commitment”. “There needs to be a balance in celebrating the good work done by child protection staff as it can be incredibly difficult work.”