Uniting Communities boss Simon Schrapel calls on SA Government to spend big to help families

South Australia will not stand a chance of turning the tide on its child protection failures without a major change, the Premier’s been warned.

South Australia must quadruple its spending on supporting struggling families – to $275m a year – to give us “a fighting chance of turning the tide” on the number of children ending up in state care.

The call is part of a six-point plan from the head of one of the state’s leading welfare organisations to completely change how we respond to the child protection crisis.

It comes as the state government is searching for a replacement for outgoing Department for Child Protection (DCP) boss Cathy Taylor, who resigned in late January.

The bold plan from Uniting Communities chief executive Simon Schrapel also urges:

SETTING a target to cut the number of children in care by 1450 over three years.

SCRAPPING mandatory reporting.

CONVENING a high-level cabinet or parliamentary committee to co-ordinate services so the responsibility does not fall solely on the swamped DCP.

Ms Taylor will leave the department on April 28, following increasing public scrutiny and high-profile child deaths including six-year-old Charlie Nowland and seven-year-old Makai Wanganeen last year.

Outgoing SA Department of Child Protection Cathy Taylor, right, with Minister for Child Protection Katrine Hildyard. Picture: Emma Brasier

“South Australians are sick of picking up the newspaper and seeing the same horrific stories,” Mr Schrapel said.

“This requires a complete reframe of the problem and the way we respond to it.

“Now is the time to be bold, for the sake of children and … our economy.”

In a letter to Premier Peter Malinauskas and Opposition Leader David Speirs, Mr Schrapel warns SA takes far more children into care than other states and territories, and could save more than $170m a year if we can slow the rate to the national average.

That would mean 1450 fewer children in care.

There are currently more than 4800 SA kids living with foster families, extended relatives or in state-run homes.

Another crucial change would be to boost investment in programs to support families before they reach crisis point, from about $69m a year currently to $275m “to give us a fighting chance of turning the tide of excessive child removals”.

Premier Peter Malinauskas and Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Mr Schrapel also called on the state’s leaders to “avoid making political gain from catastrophes and major incidents” in child protection and work towards a common goal of keeping as many children safe with their families as possible.

Responding on behalf of the Premier, Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard said the government was reviewing the state’s child protection laws and “in the final stages” of establishing a high-level group of experts to drive reform.

Ms Hildyard said the government had committed an extra $170m to child protection in the past year and “prioritised” funding for a process known as Family Group Conferencing which works with extended families to keep children out of the system.

“As families grapple with difficult and deeply complex and interconnected issues, we will continue to apply every effort … to help effectively tackle these issues and drive improvements,” she said.

Last month, while giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, Ms Taylor agreed there was “a compelling case for change in terms of how we approach child protection in this state”.

She stressed “no single agency can respond to the enormity of that (child protection) challenge”.

“Thinking that child protection starts and finishes with DCP is doing this state and child protection a disservice,” Ms Taylor said.

“We can’t rely on investigating and removing children from their families as our primary response. We’ve got to invest in services that are working with families from early in the child’s life.”