Families SA boss says social workers should have removed Chloe Valentine
The head of Families SA admits his staff were focused on the wrong things when it came to the tragic death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine. What were they thinking?
National
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A LITTLE girl who endured chronic abuse by her drug-addicted teenage mother and her partner may have been saved if welfare agencies hadn’t been so obsessed about keeping together her dysfunctional family.
The head of Families SA, Tony Harrison, told an inquest into Chloe Valentine’s death yesterday social workers missed crucial opportunities to save her.
Instead of removing Chloe, the very people who were supposed to be watchful for the abuse she was receiving seemed hellbent on keeping the family together — and appeared blinded to the agony the child was in.
Mr Harrison conceded too much weight was placed on preserving family unit at the expense of making sure she was safe.
“There was a very, very strong emphasis to, at all costs, keep the family together,” Mr Harrison said.
“With the benefit of hindsight, we would have to wonder whether we persisted with that approach for too long.”
He told the Coroners Court: “We have to be prepared, at the right time as we determine it, to take a strong intervention because that’s needed to keep children alive.”
Chloe was four when she died of massive head injuries after being forced to ride a motorbike that repeatedly crashed over a three-day period in the backyard of her Adelaide home in January 2012.
The long-running inquest at the South Australia Coroners Court is investigating Families SA’s handling of the case and has heard of the terrible conditions Chloe lived in, and the abuse she received, while living with her teenage mother Ashlee Polkinghorne. She, along with her partner Benjamin Robert McPartland, are serving jail terms after pleading guilty to Chloe’s manslaughter, through criminal neglect.
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Polkinghorne laughed as she filmed her daughter’s obvious distress as she rode the 50kg bike.
Mr Harrison told State Coroner Mark Johns he supported keeping families together and building the capability of parents within the child protection system.
But a detailed review of Chloe’s case had exposed a “circuit-breaker” was needed to save the girl from the chaos in her life.
“The question should have been asked as early as 2008 as to whether the removal of Chloe was appropriate,” he said.
“It seemed like we missed opportunities to consider the option of removing the child from the environment.”
There were plenty of opportunities. Families SA received 20 child abuse notifications during Chloe’s short life from witnesses concerned about the girl’s filthy, transient and unsafe living conditions, her mother’s drug use and her exposure to domestic violence in the family home.
In previous hearings, Coroner Johns has questioned why Polkinghorne was often given the benefit of the doubt by social workers, who helped clean her house and avoided confronting her about her drug use. Mr Harrison admitted there was potential for social workers to be compromised by their intimate involvement in a case.
“There can be some blurring of objectivity as social workers build relationships with families,” he said.
Mr Harrison was grilled about other aspects of Chloe’s case, including the use of trainee workers and an incident when Chloe was transferred between houses in a car without an adult with her.
“It’s a completely unacceptable practice that wouldn’t and shouldn’t happen today,” he said.
“If that were to happen today, it would be a breach of our practices and straight-out negligence.”
A safety plan devised by social workers — in which Polkinghorne agreed to find a sober person to care for Chloe if she used drugs — has also come under harsh scrutiny.
Naomi Kereru, counsel assisting the Coroner, asked Mr Harrison whether he felt the safety plan drafted, by Families SA, for Polkinghorne and Chloe was appropriate.
Mr Harrison replied he could not give a simple answer to that question, as he believed illicit drug use was not in itself sufficient reason to remove a child from a parent’s care.
Mr Johns responded: “That wasn’t the question.”
“It’s absurd to suggest you could enter into such an agreement with a 16-year-old ... it’s not a reasonable proposition,” he said.
“How on earth could you condone it?”
Mr Harrison said he would never condone such a safety plan.
Closing addresses at the inquest will be heard on Friday.
—with Adelaide Advertiser
Originally published as Families SA boss says social workers should have removed Chloe Valentine
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