Qld Child Death Review Board: Overworked staff taking shortcuts

Shortcuts are being taken by the state’s Department of Children when ­reviewing the child protection history of families brought to its attention.

Workload pressures are leading to shortcuts being taken by the state’s Department of Children when it is ­reviewing the child protection history of families being brought to its attention.

That is according to the long-awaited annual report of the Child Death Review Board, which made 10 recommendations after examining the deaths of 55 children connected to the child protection ­system.

The board in its inaugural report noted that continuing workload pressures were resulting in shortcuts being adopted when “intake decisions” were being made.

The board has suggested that the process be “revisited” to ensure information about a family’s child protection history is being properly reviewed – and that staff have the necessary time and support to do their job well.

“(The board) believes these shortcuts to be most prominent in the process of reviewing child protection history,” the report said.

“In several matters it reviewed, errors were made, obvious patterns of harm were missed, and incorrect recordings were made about the family’s history, which persisted over multiple records for the family.”

The board recommended the Department of Children improve its ability to undertake effective child protection history reviews at intake “to support decisions about whether a child is suspected to be in need of protection”.

The Government’s response to the review says the department “is currently reviewing how we respond to information raising concerns about children, called an intake”.

Minister for Children Leanne Linard said a number of initiatives that seek to implement the board’s recommendations were already under way across government.

“And additional programs, policies and practices will undergo further development in the coming months,” she said.

The Government has accepted, or accepted in principle, all 10 of the recommendations made by the board.

Other recommendations included that the department develop additional guidance for assessing “cumulative harm” – which is when a child experiences multiple episodes of abuse or neglect.

Of the 55 deaths considered by the board in 2020-21, 10 were attributed to natural causes, while 45 of the deaths were due to external causes.