Child protection disaster: Database glitches put kids in danger
HUNDREDS of files containing details of children in care “vanished” and more than 300 carers banned while being investigated appeared back in the system as a new multimillion-dollar child protection database went into meltdown.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
HUNDREDS of files containing the details of children in care “vanished” and more than 300 carers banned while being investigated for alleged abuse or inappropriate behaviour appeared back in the system as a new multimillion-dollar government child protection database went into meltdown.
At the same time, files of children whose claims of abuse and neglect had been marked “substantiated” by police — leading to the de-authorisation of their carers — have reverted back to “unsubstantiated”.
So plagued with defects is the NSW Family and Community Services $120 million new “ChildStory” database that caseworkers claim police, teachers and doctors calling the Helpline to report an assault or neglect are being left on hold for up to two hours as response staff at the other end grapple with the software.
The debacle has resulted in NSW Family and Community Services (FACS) staff walking off the job. The NSW Public Service Association (PSA) is warning of further industrial action unless FACS Minister Pru Goward intervenes.
A senior FACS employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said children were being put at risk of being placed into the care of criminals.
“In the old system, a foster carer may have been de-authorised as a result of an investigation into sexual abuse or neglect, but they’ve come over into ChildStory as authorised, which is an extremely dangerous situation,” the worker said.
“We don’t know how many times this has occurred, but we know it has occurred and it is only because caseworkers have known the particulars about a person to have recognised they were de-authorised.
“It is an extremely dangerous situation because if you’re a Helpline staff member or new caseworker looking to place a child, you may not realise.
“They were warned time and time again not to go live, but they kept saying it would be fine, it would be fixed, but it’s not. It’s a monumental train wreck.”
NSW PSA organiser Robin Croon said she knew of one instance where a de-authorised foster carer who had been banned from looking after children appearing in the new system as ‘authorised’.
“And I know from speaking with caseworkers it is not the only time this has occurred, even though the department will deny it,” she said.
“It is all just random as to what is working and what is not It’s not just harm reports that have been affected; we had a homeless mother come out of hospital with a newborn whom we could not supply nappies to because the financials component of the software wasn’t working.”
THE SIBLINGS WHO HAVE FOUND — AND THOSE STILL SEEKING — A HAPPY HOME
To overcome the problem, FACS recently extended the three-month “dual access” period, where caseworkers can view the old database in a “read only” format, to one year.
Another glitch, files containing police reports, health records, risk assessments and details of relationships with members of the community had simply “vanished” from both systems.
Of those that had migrated over to the new system, some had turned up in “hieroglyphics”.
Caseworkers had resorted to compiling notes in “word documents” to be saved until ChildStory was fixed, Ms Croon said.
Workers are also using corporate credit cards to pay for emergency shelter such as motels, with the system unable to generate payments to service providers. FACS staff have also complained about the “offshoring” of technical support office.
On Wednesday, the department sent out an email to FACS offices across the State requesting details of complaints from foster carers who may not have been paid as a result of the malfunctioning system.
It is understood some caseworkers are giving foster carers food vouchers as they wait for the system to be fixed.
The departmental email was sent on the eve of a government “launch party” of ChildStory at a restaurant at the Glebe Tramsheds on Friday night.
On Thursday, a second email was sent from FACS secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter, to all staff, acknowledging the “difficulties” with the system.
“The introduction of ChildStory has been difficult — and remains difficult — and I want to thank you for persevering and making it work,” he wrote.
PSA general secretary Stewart Little said many of the problems could have been avoided had the rollout date been put back as requested by frontline staff.
“They call it ChildStory. We call it HorrorStory,” he said. “It should never have been launched before the problems that were being raised by staff during the trial being fixed.
“It’s been a total disaster.”
Mr Coutts-Trotter yesterday said there were issues arising daily with the new database, but that each problem was being addressed.
He confirmed an incident whereby 327 carers under investigation had come over into the new system as having their investigations completed, but said the error was picked up within a day.
Mr Coutts-Trotter urged the union to come forward with examples of breaches that could potentially jeopardise children.
“There were 327 foster carers who in November or December were subject to reportable conduct allegations that came across as investigation ‘complete’,” he said.
“But that was picked up within two days. If the union has other examples, we need to fix it and they need to come forward with the information.
“I wholly accept responsibility on behalf of the organisation for the issues. The initial training was crappy, but we are addressing this with top-up training. We have migrated 500 million lines of data. We want this to be a functional system.”
He said delaying the go-live date would not have avoided the issues.
HORRORSTORY: ANATOMY OF THE FACS SYSTEM IN MELTDOWN
A SCHOOLBOY turns up to class with serious bruising.
His teacher calls the NSW Family and Community Services (FACS) Helpline as required under State mandatory reporter guidelines.
Where the teacher may have waited for almost an hour under the old system, Public Service Association organiser Robin Croon said mandatory reporters were telling of hold times stretching into two hours as Helpline staff with the ChildStory software.
When the call is finally answered, a report is made which ChildStory — dubbed HorrorStory by staff — is meant to be sent immediately to a FACS Community Service Centre for action. The action will involve two caseworkers going out to the boy’s home to investigate within a 24-hour period. But since the launch of ChildStory in November, many of these reports are not being passed on, Ms Croon said.
Ms Croon, who modified some of the details of the above example to protect the child involved, said it was typical of the types of problems staff were encountering.
“In some cases, the reports generated from the Helpline are going missing and turning up with 30 or 40 others, weeks later,” she said.
“Some of these cases require a quick response, and so reports going missing is a serious issue. We are not dealing with school nits, or a bruise on the bum — some of these calls are about significant harm. It’s serious stuff.”
In the making for more than three years, ChildStory was designed to dramatically improve the protection of children by offering an integrated system comprising a child’s history with FACS together with details of family, carers, caseworkers and service providers.
It was also designed to process payments to foster carers and service providers such as motels where children may be put up temporarily, medical bills, and other needs.
Costing $120 million, it would replace an old database called KIDS, which the state government had described as having “limitations”.
The system was modified from a database used in sales, with software giant Salesforce the lead technology collaborator for the project.