SA Department for Child Protection reveals 18 deaths in less than 18 months amid renewed calls for transparency
Almost 20 vulnerable children known to South Australian child protection services have died in less than 18 months, but authorities won't reveal their ages or causes of death.
Almost 20 children who were removed from unsafe parents, or reported to authorities as at risk, have died in less than 18 months.
The Department for Child Protection (DCP) has revealed the toll following investigations by The Advertiser.
However, it has not given individual children’s ages, causes of death or reasons they were reported to authorities, prompting calls for greater transparency.
The deaths involved children or teenagers who were living at home but had been reported as at risk in the previous 12 months, or who had been removed from parents and placed with carers.
The department’s latest annual report shows nine children died in 2024-25.
In response to questions from The Advertiser, DCP chief executive Jackie Bray revealed another nine children had died since July 1.
Ms Bray said 12 of the 18 children were aged under 10, and “most” were known to authorities, rather than living in state care. There were 14 deaths believed to be the result of medical issues, including illness or disability, or an unknown cause.
The department has stressed that publishing the number of deaths does “not establish” that a child’s contact with the system “was a causative factor in their death”.
Ms Bray said the death of any child was “an absolute tragedy, and we feel deeply for the families, friends and carers of these young people”.
There are about 4900 children living in state care and more than 100,000 reports made about children at risk each year.
Research by UniSA has found children who end up in state care are five times more likely to die than those who never have contact with the system.
SA Best MP Connie Bonaros has called on DCP to report more details about deaths of children known to the system.
“If the circumstances surrounding these deaths are not in the public interest then I simply do not know what is,” she said.
“We need to know why they died and whether such deaths were preventable.”
Opposition child protection spokesman Josh Teague said in each case, the government must “explain how this happened and what it will do to prevent (it)”.
Each death of a child in care, or who was reported to DCP in the prior 12 months, is reviewed by a $1.3m interagency child death review panel, but findings are not made public.
They include Munno Para six-year-old Charlie Nowland and Craigmore seven-year-old Makai Wanganeen, who both died of suspected neglect in 2022 and whose families were known to government agencies.
Charlie’s mother Crystal Hanley pleaded guilty, in late May this year, to three counts of criminal neglect – with prosecutors accepting those pleas and withdrawing a manslaughter charge.
Makai’s father Shane Wanganeen pleaded guilty last month to one count of criminal neglect.
In early 2023 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.
Her successor, Ms Bray, pledged to be more transparent by publishing figures in the annual report.
She later revealed three children living in state care, and 14 known to the system, died in 2023.
