Minister for Child Protection Rachel Sanderson must reveal if scores of frontline workers hired in response to the Nyland Royal Commission will lose their jobs on June 30.
The previous Labor Government hired 160 extra staff to reduce the backlog of child protection investigations and kinship and foster carer assessments.
Labor understands at least 89 workers risk losing their jobs on June 30 in areas including:
Case management – including investigating reports of child neglect and abuse
Carer assessment and review
Other Person Guardianship (longer term foster arrangement)
The backlog of cases hasn’t been cleared and new cases also require timely attention.
Carer assessments take ten weeks to complete and there is now confusion in the Department of Child Protection about whether new cases should be allocated to staff who may lose their jobs before the assessments can be completed.
There are also fears that if the staff are sacked, complying with the Nyland recommendations - including new child protection laws – will be difficult, leading to further delays and risks to children’s safety.
Quotes attributed to the Shadow Minister for Child Protection Jayne Stinson
Our child protection workforce deserve to be treated with respect and given job security.
This Department is not so flush with skilled staff that it can afford to make life difficult for the loyal and hardworking staff it does have.
Skilled staff are now seeking jobs elsewhere while the Minister dithers over their futures.
Now is not the time to sack staff and cut such a vital Department. It will only set back the progress instigated by the Nyland reforms.
This Minister is out of her depth and overwhelmed. The Premier needs to step in if this Minister is unable to make timely decisions.