On Monday 27th October 2008 the PSA General Secretary Jan McMahon, Vic President Peter Hewish, a delegation of PSA Worksite Representatives and Senior Industrial Officers Vanessa Ravenhill and Simon Johnson met with Minister Rankine.  

The PSA raised serious concerns regarding the lack of resources available in the Department to deal with children in immediate danger of abuse. PSA members expressed concern that children may die because of the Department's failure to intervene.

Families SA does not have enough employees to respond effectively to all calls to the Crisis Response Unit. Often callers hang for over 40 minutes before their call is answered. It is understood that up to 30% of calls drop out without ever being answered. 

The level of resourcing is so inadequate that many calls reporting serious allegations of abuse are not dealt with at all. The Crisis Response Unit deals with the immediate call, a case file is established and the case is referred to the appropriate District Centre for action.  District Centres are also significantly under-resourced that many of these disturbing cases are “closed no action"(CNA), because no staff are available to investigate the allegations. PSA stated that the current child protection system is dysfunctional.

The Minister discussed the additional funding the Government had committed in the 2008/2009 budget is to go to non-government organisations to assist with early intervention .

Whilst these funds are welcome, the PSA expressed their concern that children at risk are being seriously damaged right now. For many South Australian children early intervention is much too late. They need help now. 

It also appears that approximately 150 children under the Guardianship of the Minister have no allocated worker and receive no contact on a regular basis from Families SA staff. 

The PSA  provided the Minister with real examples where children are placed at risk and there are no resources available to help or protect these children. 

The Minister indicated that she would ensure that an urgent meeting was convened with the Chief Executive of Families and Communities to enable the PSA to reiterate their concerns and develop strategies to address them.

A further meeting of PSA Worksite Representatives will be held on Wednesday 29th October at 11.30. This meeting will receive a full briefing from the delegates who attended the meeting with the Minister.

For further information please contact Vanessa Ravenhill on vr@cpsu.asn.au

PSA WORKING FOR THE CHILDREN AT RISK