What: Child protection workers hold protest
When: 12.30
Where: 181 Anson Street, Orange
Why: Child protection workers walk off the job over child safety
Contact: 0405 285 547
Press Release:
Child protection workers walk off the job over child safety in Orange
Child protection caseworkers will stop work and protest outside the Community Services Centre in Orange today at 12.30pm over unacceptable risk to child safety in NSW.
Child protection caseworkers say there is a crisis in child protection.
Only 1 in 4 kids reported to child protection services as at Risk Of Serious Harm (ROSH) are being seen by a child protection caseworker in the Far West, Murrumbidgee & Western NSW district.
The department’s own data shows in the last year (the four quarters ending March 31) of the 16,135 Children reported as at ROSH in the district only 3,278 of them seen - that is 20% of all ROSH reports.
Right now if cases are allocated they are the most serious and will likely lead to removal of kids, as there simply isn’t enough staff to intervene early so as to keep children with their families.
Child protection caseworkers report chronic understaffing and staff burnout.
One in ten child protection caseworker positions in the Far West, Murrumbidgee & Western NSW district are unfilled.
On top of this 210 NSW child protection caseworkers - or 9% of the total workforce - are currently absent due to workers compensation claims, mostly due to psychological injury.
This represents 19% of the child protection workforce, or 1 in 5.
An unknown number of workers are also absent due to long-term sick leave, which anecdotal evidence indicates is also very prevalent (these figures are not included in the 19%).
The real figure of staff absent from work on any given day is often 1 in 4, or 25%.
The child protection caseworkers that are left are coping with the extra workload of colleagues who have left.
One in two child protection caseworkers leave in their first two years of employment with the department.
Child protection caseworkers are demanding Minister Kate Washington and the Minns Government immediately:
- Recruit another 500 caseworkers
- Give caseworkers an immediate and substantial pay rise
- De-privatise foster care
Premier Chris Minns needs to intervene, said PSA General Secretary Stewart Little.
“The most vulnerable kids in this state are at risk of serious harm, or worse, because child protection caseworkers are chronically understaffed and exhausted,” said Mr Little.
“Child protection workers are now concerned that by exposing vulnerable children to a broken system they may suffer even more harm.
“Chris Minns needs to immediately onboard another 500 child protection caseworkers, and give them a pay bump while he’s at it, to address the attraction and retention crisis in child protection, otherwise the system will collapse.
“To be fair the current NSW government didn’t create this mess but it’s up to them to fix it.
“Child protection caseworkers are passionate about their work, and they want the people of Orange and the Central West to know no urgent child protection responses will be impacted during their protest, and that skeleton staffing will be maintained at all times during this protest.
“But they feel they have to do something as management just aren’t listening to their concerns,” said Mr Little.
Child Protection caseworkers will walk off the job and protest outside the Community Services Centre in Orange, media are welcome to attend the protest at Orange CSC, (181 Anson Street, Orange NSW), today at 12.30pm.
Contact: Tim Brunero 0405 285 547