Department makes early call on child protection

CHILD protection workers in Western Australia last year removed 54 babies from their mothers before the infants were a month old.

CHILD protection workers in Western Australia last year removed 54 babies from their mothers before the infants were a month old.

The infants were removed after concerns about the mothers' ability to care for a child were raised during pregnancy.

The Australian reported yesterday that the babies of some first-time parents, with no history of child neglect, had been taken directly from the maternity ward on the grounds that the parents might pose some future risk to their children.

In one case, a welfare worker told a state ward, on the day she announced her pregnancy, that her baby would be taken into care.

The director-general of the WA Department of Child Protection, Terry Murphy, said workers would never "resile from taking a baby into care at birth when it is necessary for the protection of the child".

The department removed 84 babies aged under a month in 2007, and the "almost 40 per cent decrease (in the number of babies taken, between 2007 and 2008) reflects the Department of Child Protection's strong focus in the past year on the early engagement and support of mothers", Mr Murphy said.

He said the department worked with the King Edward Memorial Hospital and the Princess Margaret Children's Hospital in Perth to "bring parties together during the pregnancy to determine whether safety for the child can be achieved".

Child protection workers and hospital staff, plus drug and alcohol workers and mental health staff, talk to the mother and other family members early in the pregnancy.

The director-general of the Queensland Department of Child Safety, Norelle Deeth, said welfare workers did not hesitate to protect babies that were "highly vulnerable because of their age and complete dependence on a parent or carer for survival".

She said welfare workers were given the power to remove new first-borns in September 2004.

The department offers drug and alcohol counselling, and family violence support services, to "reduce the likelihood that her child will need protection after he or she is born".

The department will remove a child where the mother has a psychiatric history; where her behaviour will place the infant at risk of significant harm; where a mother has suffered significant medical complications post-birth and is unable to provide care for the baby; and where there is no father known.

It may also remove a newborn where "there is a history of domestic and family violence, the perpetrator remains in the household and there is significant risk to a vulnerable infant".

A spokesman for the South Australian Department of Families and Communities said workers were able to apply to the Youth Court for a care and protection order for an unborn baby, including a first-born.

The NSW Department of Community Services said it removed new first-borns with permission from the Children's Court.