Child protection in crisis: ex-staffer

A FORMER social worker says he worked in an office where four staff were expected to handle more than 180 cases of kids at risk of abuse

A FORMER social worker says he worked in an office where four staff were expected to handle more than 180 cases of kids at risk of abuse.

He said the system had reached crisis point.

The 10-year veteran of the field claims the Victorian government is "rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic" in its attempts to manage chronic problems in child protection.

The former staffer, who spoke to The Australian on condition of anonymity, said staff were overburdened with cases, which meant some children were being lost track of, and were being injured because workers could not check every case.

He said staff -- including himself -- were blamed for "critical incidents" and not supported with huge workloads.

"Management pressures staff to fully manage the increasingly untenable caseloads, while reporting to head office that everything is going fine," he said. "Meanwhile, staff are continuing to leave, and children are being placed at risk where they don't have workers to visit them."

His concerns follow claims by the Community Public Sector Union that Department of Human Services staff are being pressured to close cases to reduce the number on the unallocated case list.

The Victorian Ombudsman reported last November in documents tabled in parliament that there were 2197 unallocated cases, and an instance where one staff member in a rural office was given 177 cases to oversee. The DHS has since reduced the total to 1350.

A grandmother went public yesterday with fears for her three grandchildren after they were placed back in the care of their mother even though one child had been hospitalised after accidentally taking an ecstasy pill.

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge requested an urgent hearing of the state parliamentary committee on finance and public administration, to grill Community Services Minister Lisa Neville about the failures of the child protection services."The government has lost control of child protection," she said.

Ms Neville denied the child protection system was in crisis. "We're very focused on trying to reduce the pressure on our child protection workforce," she said.