SA’s new child protection boss, Cathy Taylor wants to slash the number of children in emergency hotel accommodation from almost 200 to fewer than 10
IN her first interview, SA’s new child protection boss reveals her plans to improve a system “under stress”.
- Royal Commission into child protection finds a system in ‘disarray’
- SA’s history of child protection, abuse inquiries, royal commissions
- Cathy Taylor appointed chief executive of Families SA
THE state’s new child protection boss wants to slash the number of children living in emergency hotel accommodation from almost 200 to fewer than 10 – but has warned that it could take 18 months.
Cathy Taylor also wants to halve the average waiting time for calls to the child abuse report hotline from an hour to about 30 minutes.
In her first interview, a week into the role, Ms Taylor described South Australia’s child protection system as “under stress” and said she did “not underestimate” how difficult it would be to turn around.
Latest data shows there were 187 children on the night of September 30 who had to be housed in emergency accommodation, such as hotel rooms or rented apartments, after being removed from unsafe parents.
Ms Taylor, who was deputy director general of Queensland’s Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services Department, said there were “anywhere between zero and 10” children in that larger state in emergency housing on any given night.
“I would hope that we can, within the next 18 months, significantly reduce that number (in SA),” she told The Advertiser. “I don’t want to say to you that by year’s end this will all be solved – it’s not going to be. It will take time to get there.”
It would also require many more people to volunteer as foster carers to provide other housing options, she said. Late in 2013, there were as few as 31 SA children in emergency accommodation. Ms Taylor also flagged a desire to reduce the time that people wait to report suspected child abuse or neglect.
The Advertiser reported on Monday that one caller waited almost seven hours to reach a social worker in the Child Abuse Report Line call centre last financial year.
The average waiting time is about one hour and six minutes but was as few as 11 minutes four years ago. Ms Taylor said new data to be released soon would “reveal an improvement” but she believed the average wait time could be brought down to around half an hour. She also said:
SOME children were still being supervised in emergency accommodation by a single carer, despite a pledge by Government to ensure children in such housing were not left alone with carers.
SHE hoped to double the number of foster carers who could gain more autonomy over children in their care by becoming guardians.
In 2014-15, only 11 families gained so-called “other-person guardianship” status. In 2015-16, the figure rose to 14.
Ms Taylor took up her new role on Monday. Her appointment followed a recommendation by Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland that the child protection agency Families SA be separated from the wider Education Department and a new chief executive be recruited.
The new Child Protection Department began operating on Tuesday.