Boosting transparency and accountability to improve child protection

Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward has again delivered on the Government’s pre-election commitment to increase transparency and accountability, including about children who died and were known to Community Services by publishing a Child Deaths Annual Report and hosting a Child Deaths Seminar.

Ms Goward said the Child Deaths 2010 Annual Report is the first report by a child protection agency in Australia to publicly report in this way on the deaths of children known to them.

“It includes a comprehensive self-examination of Community Services’ role in the lives of these children and their families, what was done well and what could be done better.

“Public information about child deaths in NSW primarily comes from the NSW Child Death Review Team and the NSW Ombudsman,” Ms Goward said.

Ms Goward said this new Government report reflects on the extent of Community Services’ involvement with the children who died, what has been learned from reviews of their deaths, and what is being done to improve practice and reform systems.

The Child Deaths 2010 Annual Report highlights that:

• 65,041 children and young people were reported to Community Services in 2010
• 589 deaths of children and young people were registered in NSW in 2010
• 139 children and young people who died in 2010 were known to Community Services¹
• Of those children known to Community Services, 52 died from illness or disease, which was the most common circumstance of death, while five died from suspicious injuries.

Ms Goward said the report is about the lives of children and families, their contact with Community Services, and how the NSW Government is working to improve services.

The Child Deaths 2010 Annual Report identifies key themes and associated reforms which include:

Working with competing priorities

A significant number of cases are closed due to competing priorities (page 38 of the Report).

The Government’s reforms will grow the capacity of the entire system through, for example, transferring out-of-home care to non-government organisations, and focussing Community Services’ earlier intervention work on families at risk of significant harm.

Assessing risk from new partners or adult household members

Risk assessment needs to consider the history of the new partner or household member to identify any patterns of violence or other factors that may pose a risk to children (p. 44).
Community Services is working with the NSW Ombudsman and the Children’s Guardian to improve assessment of risk from new partners across the sector including by caseworkers.

Working with intergenerational risk factors

The allocation of cases involving families with complex histories comes at the cost of not allocating other urgent cases (p. 46).

The Government’s reform priorities include better integrating services for families with complex, multiple and intergenerational needs, including for Aboriginal families.

“Every Child Deaths Annual Report will drive reforms to continuously improve services as well as underline the challenges of child protection that hardworking caseworkers throughout the state face every day,” Ms Goward said.

“Reviewing child deaths, heightened accountability and transparency through Child Deaths Annual Reports and Government reforms cannot unfortunately end the deaths of children and young people.

“Nonetheless every Government has the responsibility to work at its best. That is why transparency, accountability and reform will deliver a stronger child protection system.”

The findings of the report will be discussed today at a Child Deaths Seminar which includes an address by the Minister, a detailed analysis of the Child Deaths 2010 Annual Report, an address by Dr Eileen Munro, a Professor of Social Policy at London School of Economics and world leader in child protection policy, and a practitioner’s forum.

The Seminar is at full capacity with a broad range of attendees including NGO practitioners, Community Services staff, Police and Health staff and Parliamentarians.

Additional information

Characteristics

Characteristics of the 139 children and young people, known to Community Services, who died in 2010 include:

• 86 (62%) children and young people were male (page 29 of the Report)
• 65 (47%) were aged under one (p. 28)
• 33 (24%) were Aboriginal (p. 30)
• 44 (32%) children and young people had one or both parents who were known to Community Services when they themselves were children (p. 33).

Reported Risk Factors

• 66 (47%) were reported to Community Services regarding some form of abuse or neglect (page 33 of the Report)
• Domestic violence was the most commonly reported risk factor in the histories of the children and young people who died, followed by parental substance abuse (pages 32 and 33).

Circumstances of Death

MEDIA CONTACT

Simon Fontana - 0467 738 139

To view the PDF version of this media release you can access it here.

^{1 “Known to Community Services” means where a report was received about a child who died and/or his or her
sibling/s in the three years preceding a death or where the child was in care at the time of their death.}

^{2 The exact circumstance of death has not been determined for this group of children and young people. This could be because the cause of death could not be determined at autopsy or because the post mortem report is not yet available to Community Services.}