Coronial inquest to probe child protective services after child deaths with ‘common themes’

A senior case worker broke down during a coronial inquest into whether child protection services did enough to protect two children who died at the hands of their family.

A Victorian Coroner will hear whether child protection services did enough to protect four children who died by “common themes” including two at the hands of their family.

It comes as a senior case worker, who was working with the family of a baby girl who was killed by her mother’s new boyfriend, burst into tears after learning of his significant history of family violence during a coronial inquest.

The revelation came as the Victorian coroner began a month-long inquest into the deaths of four at-risk children involved with child protection services between 2015 and 2017 on Monday.

The children, aged between six months and 13-years-old at the time of their deaths, had been the subject of multiple reports to the state’s child protection services – raising concerns about their welfare.

The Coroners’ Court heard the first two weeks of the hearing would be dedicated to two children, whose names are subject to suppression orders, that were killed by men linked to their families.

Child 1, who was aged under two at the time of her death, had been involved with child protective services for five months but was considered at the “lower end” of seriousness, despite an extensive list of concerns including drug use, poor parenting capacity, family violence, poor mental health and inappropriate punishments.

Giving evidence in the death in regional Victoria in August 2015, the senior case worker told the inquest “all signs were positive” over the three months she worked with the family, and child protective services had made the decision to close the case file.

“(The father) was the concern, that concern was mitigated because they (the mother and father) were no longer living together,” she said.

Despite fielding some concerns from the father of child 1 in August that year about the mum’s new boyfriend, the case remained closed.

The senior case worker cried at the inquest after being shown the criminal history of the new boyfriend, which involved significant family violence against multiple persons.

“I would have had a different view (about the child protection case closure) if I had access to this information,” she said.

The coronial inquest will examine the role of child protection services in the deaths of four children between 2015 and 2017. Photo: iStock

The four week inquest begun with State Coroner Judge John Cain acknowledging the “grief and loss” experienced by family members of the four children.

Judge Cain told the hearing there “appears to be common themes” across the four cases, namely the involvement of the children’s families with child protection and other agencies.

Counsel assisting the inquest, told the court the scope of the investigation would centre on what was and wasn’t done by service providers in the lead up to the deaths.

She said the inquest would examine whether policy changes had gone far enough, and what information is shared between different service providers.

In her opening statements, counsel representing the secretary of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Erin Gardner, said there had been significant changes to policy governing child protection officers since the “profoundly sad” deaths of child 1 and child 2.

“The department receives about 130,000 reports each year concerning children potentially at harm; there are about 25,000 cases open at each time,” she said.

“It speaks to the complex role of child protection services … officers are often met with hostility and aggression when going about their work.”

Ms Gardner submitted studies have extensively shown deaths such as child 1 and child 2 through homicide and filicide are “difficult to predict”.

“With the benefit of hindsight, child protection’s approach in these matters might have been strengthened,” she said.

The inquest will continue examining the deaths of child 1 and child 2 until February 25 and resume for two weeks in August for the deaths of child 3 and child 4.