Premier backed down on child protection agency
- Details
- Category: Child Protection South Australia media and newspaper articles
- Created: Wednesday, 22 June 2016 16:26
- Written by Meredith Booth - The Australian
Forcing the South Australian Labor government to establish a stand-alone child protection agency, with a new chief executive with specialist credentials, will help stem an exodus of social workers, the Public Service Association says.
The Weatherill government yesterday bowed to an interim royal commission recommendation announcing the creation of a new child protection department, splitting those responsibilities from education.
Premier Jay Weatherill had refused to do so since 2011, but yesterday he was forced to admit that his idea to merge Families SA with the Education Department was a failure.
Public Service Association policy manager Simon Johnson said a new department for the care and protection of children could halt the current worker attrition rate of eight per cent, double the general public sector rate.
The association has called on the government to urgently hire 30 social workers, noting there are now an estimated 200 vacancies. A “toxic” culture, identified by royal commissioner Margaret Nyland, caused workers to leave Families SA faster than they were hired, “like a bottomless bucket’’, Mr Johnson said.
Ms Nyland’s interim report said public confidence in the agency’s ability to protect children was at an “all-time low”. She said Families SA must stand alone with a new chief executive with child protection credentials who answered directly to the minister, because the agency “has not been working for some time and is now in crisis’’.
The former Supreme Court judge was appointed to inquire into the child protection system in 2014 after Families SA childcare worker Shannon McCoole was convicted of sexually abusing seven young children in his care and administering a global child pornography website. The Premier yesterday reshuffled public service executives, moving Families SA chief Tony Harrison to the communities and social inclusion department.
Source : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/premier-backd-down-on-child-protection-agency/news-story/556c106e9989b8e4d2f06bb6ad88c971
