Page 4494 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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directorate is in the room and he certainly will hear my words now to provide a copy of the manual to the Public Advocate as a matter of urgency.
There were other comments in the review about the caretaker’s role. I need to take some advice on that. In most jurisdictions, the move is to support caseworkers through delegation structures where they share responsibilities for key decisions with more senior staff. That is something I will work with.
There was also a range of commentaries and recommendations, and, as I said, the government will be providing a full response to that. But the second part of this review is where we really start to get to the detail about systematic improvement for CSD, and I look forward to working with the directorate about those changes.
While there is certainly room for improvement, we must recognise that care and protection is a tough business. The Public Advocate’s report must be viewed against the backdrop of the urgency and limitations the care and protection team are confronted with. It is worth noting that, if you were to look at CSD’s annual reports, you would see that in the last 12 months there has been an increase of 10,337 in the number of days used in out-of-home care. That is an increase. That is not the total. That is an increase of 10,337 days that the directorate is supporting. This is absolutely a tough business.
We have been challenged, as have all other jurisdictions, with staff challenges as well. But we have acted on staff recruitment. We have been very successful in an overseas recruitment drive in the UK, and, as a result, we will have a number coming online before Christmas and the remainder will come online before Easter, I understand.
Mrs Dunne can have a go at me all she likes, but to stand here in this place and use the language that she used to describe care and protection workers is appalling. It is not a happy job; they often are not in a happy place where they are confronted with challenged and difficult families, children that are traumatised and abused. And Mrs Dunne stands here and calls them wilful—wilfully putting children in danger—or ignorant or dysfunctional. That is an appalling use of her commentary to have a go at me. Leave the workers in care and protection to get on with their business of caring for vulnerable families.
I clearly believe there are areas for improvement in the Community Services Directorate. We could take up every recommendation, improve systems and come back in 12 months and still find areas for improvement. We need to review our practice, be contemporary in our best practice and ensure that our systems and processes and communications are in place so the workers are supported, the executive is supported and the minister is supported. The ultimate outcome in all of this is that our vulnerable children—families and children at risk in need of care and protection—have the best care environment we as a society and as a system can provide.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (11.12): The question today is really about the scope of individual ministerial responsibility. I do not think there is any doubt that there has been a significant failure on behalf of the
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