Page 2564 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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After taking the difficult but necessary action, these workers must go back to the office and make sure that all the paperwork is done and ready for the court hearing within 48 hours. When demand is high and staffing levels are low, it is the record keeping that often suffers, not the critical work of working with children and young people at risk. I say this not as an excuse or to diminish the importance of record keeping; it is absolutely vital, and of course the government is deeply committed to ensuring that best practice is implemented.
Care and protection services across Australia are facing severe staffing issues, in part due to the challenges and demands of the type of work. There has also been for us a significant increase in demand, with the number of notifications received by care and protection more than doubling, from 5,300 in 2003-04 to 11,700 in 2010-11. Despite these difficulties staff have remained focused and committed to ensuring the safety of children.
For the period January to April of this year, every single report that required same-day attention was attended to. For those requiring action within 24 hours, the figure is 99 per cent. These performance outcomes set the benchmark across Australia. Thanks to a sustained recruitment activity both in Australia and overseas, we now have 99.5 per cent of all front-line positions filled. This will allow staff the space and time to reflect on their practice and to improve their skills and training.
What we must do now is provide improved work practice systems, training, supervision and incentives to ensure that a high proportion of these staff will stay with care and protection for more than just one or two years, and the reforms that are underway will contribute to this.
I will now turn briefly to the recommendations. The first recommendation is that we develop a three-year plan around practice procedures and tools. The government has agreed to this recommendation. A considerable program of work to strengthen the focus on the needs of children, young people and families has commenced in recent months under the banner of “refreshing the service culture” and, in particular, the development of a CPS integrated management system.
The work to revise and improve policies, procedures and practice tools that will form a case worker toolkit has commenced and will be completed with the injection of the additional funding in this budget. A further recommendation is to develop a staff training and development regime. The government agrees, and it will reinvigorate both the training and supervision requirements of care and protection staff.
Under the new training system in Community Services, it is a requirement that all staff have individual performance plans. A database system will track staff attendance at training and allow managers to ensure that staff have undertaken mandatory training. But it is also important to ensure time and space for front-line staff to have adequate support and supervision by their managers, and this will also be a focus.
The Public Advocate noted a number of deficiencies in record keeping. We have agreed and will develop a business case for an enhanced system. We have continued
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