Contradictory data on child abuse reporting prompts fears victims may be falling through the cracks

Police are trying to determine if there’s been a decline in child abuse reports because SA children aren’t attending school – where teachers can alert authorities. And conflicting information isn’t helping their cause.

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Police are trying to decipher conflicting information about the number of child abuse reports made during the coronavirus crisis amid concerns some at-risk children might be falling through the cracks because they are not at school.

In the meantime, the Education Department has ramped up checks on vulnerable children to ensure their welfare.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens today told a parliamentary inquiry into the State Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that he had received some information that suggested the number of child abuse notifications lodged since the crisis began had decreased, and other information that suggested the opposite.

“The reduction in child abuse notifications has been anecdotally attributed to the absence of children from school environments and the inability for responsible people, mandated notifiers, to make observations and make those reports,” he said.

Police are concerned children might be at risk by not attending school. Picture: AAP Image/Richard Walker

Outside of the hearing, Mr Stevens said it was a “concern that children might be at risk because they’ve not been attending school”.

“Mandated notifiers are a primary source of information in relation to child welfare issues and they range form the most minor to quite severe issues of child abuse,” he said.

“So, we’ll be continuing to work through all of the information, all of the sources that we can access to determine what the true state of play is in relation to children being at risk as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.”

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Mr Stevens also explained why police had contradictory data, saying they were “dealing with different sources of information and we’re trying to pull that together so we have a clear picture”.

“That is simply part of the normal process; we receive different reports, we analyse those and we come up with what we consider to be a factual position,” he said.

Education Department chief executive Rick Persse and early years and child development executive director Caroline Croser-Barlow, as well as Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier and education union representatives, also gave evidence to the inquiry.

Ms Croser-Barlow said the department was “very aware of the challenges” facing at-risk children who are spending more time at home because of the coronavirus.

South Australian Chief Public Health Officer Dr Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens are seen during question time at the Old South Australian Parliament in Adelaide on Thursday. The COVID-19 committee is hearing evidence from heath leaders and senior Parliamentarians. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

She said strategies, including schools reaching out to vulnerable students to encourage them to attend classes on-site, were being put in place to reduce the risk of abuse.

For students who cannot not attend classes at school, teachers will have “repeated contact with those children”, Ms Croser-Barlow said.

Mr Persse spoke to media outside the hearing and said he was “very confident” schools had the ability to check on vulnerable students and depending on circumstances this could involve phone calls or home visits.

“Our schools know these kids better than most,” he said.

“We’ve put in place updated arrangements particularly around attendance and making sure we know where those kids are.”

Opposition spokeswoman Susan Close said the police force “needs to get to the bottom” of the situation.

The inquiry was established to “monitor and scrutinise all matters related to the management of the COVID-19 response and any related policy matter”.

Originally published as Contradictory data on child abuse reporting prompts fears victims may be falling through the cracks