Tens of thousands of phone calls to Child Abuse Report Line unanswered despite drop in average wait time
EXCLUSIVE: More than a third of phone calls reporting suspected abuse of vulnerable children went unanswered over the past year, The Advertiser can reveal — with some waiting more than five hours.
- SA Government begins publishing key child protection data online
- Number of vulnerable children sleeping in emergency housing tops 200
- Child Abuse Report Line: More than 15,000 calls go unanswered
- Child abuse hotline under pressure as reports grow
TENS of thousands of phone calls reporting suspected child abuse went unanswered over the past year and one caller waited more than five hours, prompting concerns that serious cases are falling through the cracks.
The Advertiser can reveal that more than 23,500 attempts were abandoned by frustrated callers in 2016-17, or more than a third of all calls made to the Child Abuse Report Line call centre.
The average wait time has fallen by about 15 minutes but, in the worst case, one caller waited five hours and 27 minutes.
About 10 per cent fewer calls went unanswered last year (36.5 per cent) compared to 2015-16 (47 per cent), but advocates fear too many potentially serious cases are going unchecked.
“There are still children in very dangerous situations,” Centacare Catholic Family Services director Dale West said.
“Increased public awareness of child protection issues has raised demand for support services, but this has not been matched by Government resources.”
Opposition child protection spokeswoman Rachel Sanderson said there was “no doubt that vulnerable children are being left in dangerous situations” and questioned if the response would be more urgent if tens of thousands of “calls to police reporting crimes went unanswered”.
Child Development Minister Susan Close said there had been a “massive decrease” in the number of unanswered calls and a backlog of written reports had been reduced by about 60 per cent.
She said the Government had committed almost $520 million in extra funding in response to recommendations of the Nyland Royal Commission into the state’s child protection system.
Dr Close announced mid last year that the Government would begin publishing a series of key statistics to improve transparency.
Analysis of the first year of that data, which has been updated monthly by the Child Protection Department, shows:
MORE than 23,500 calls to the Child Abuse Report Line went unanswered last financial year, down from about 26,700 in 2015-16.
THERE were almost 64,900 calls to the CARL call centre, up from about 57,000.
THE average wait time to make a report has fallen from 39 minutes and 21 seconds to 23 minutes and 14 seconds.
THERE are 3470 children in state care, about half of whom live with relatives or others known to them.
Dr Close said she “wanted these statistics to be publicly available to create greater transparency and to help ensure the right changes were undertaken”.
“I am pleased to say in the past year there has been significant reform – and State Government investment - in child protection,” she said.
Documents released through Freedom of Information laws show the longest wait to reach the CARL call centre was recorded on Saturday, November 16 last year.
Nick Xenophon Team MP John Darley, who obtained the documents, said it was “ridiculous for the Government to expect people to wait five and a half hours to get through to report child abuse”.
“The community have a right to be angry and demand that our Government do better,” he said.
Much of the information now published online was previously difficult to obtain and required The Advertiser to lodge requests to the department, or Freedom of Information applications.
At the time the Department began publishing the data Dr Close said the Government wanted to “share the dilemma” facing social workers and encourage more people to consider becoming foster carers.
Key figures
2016-17 key child protection statistics
64,899 calls to the Child Abuse Report Line — up from 57,034 the previous year
41,304 calls answered (63.6%) - up from 30,301 (53.1%)
23,595 calls unanswered (36.4%) - down from 26,733 (46.9%)
average wait time of 23 minutes and 14 seconds — down from 39 minutes and 21 seconds
33,679 written reports to electronic-CARL — up from 28,016
3470 children in state care — up from 3249
Source: SA Child Protection Department
Visit the department’s website or phone 1300 2 FOSTER (1300 2 367 837) to find out more about becoming a foster carer.