Another increase in Child Safety staff for Far North Queensland

Published Tuesday, 27 June, 2017 at 09:10 AM

Minister for Communities, Women and Youth, Minister for Child Safety and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence
The Honourable Shannon Fentiman

Child Safety services in Cairns and the Far North Queensland region will receive a boost with 24 additional Child Safety staff starting work in the region in the next two years.

This follows the 19 staff already employed in Far North Queensland region over the past year, making an increase of more than 42 in the last two State Budgets.

Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman, visiting Act for Kids in Cairns, said the new staff would support existing personnel in the region, easing caseloads and ensuring more children can be kept safe.

“Far North Queensland was a priority allocation area when we hired 129 additional Child Safety staff across the state in 2016-17,” Ms Fentiman said.

“These new staff will be among almost 300 to be hired across the state over the next two years, the biggest injection of Child Safety resources in more than a decade,” Ms Fentiman said.

“Our Child Safety workers are amazing and are out there saving lives each and every day.

“We wanted to give them the support and extra staff they needed to do their job well and increasing the workforce of frontline workers does exactly that.”

Ms Fentiman said additional Far North Queensland staff to be employed in 2017-18 would include at least 14 full time equivalent positions, with the remainder to be employed in 2018-19.

“Our Child Safety staff have one of the toughest jobs in the state and they work tirelessly to protect our most vulnerable children,” Ms Fentiman said.

“This investment of new staff is a game-changer that will make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children.”

State Member for Barron River Craig Crawford welcomed the injection of staff.

“We have already seen the new Child Safety staff in our region making a difference to vulnerable children,” Mr Crawford said.

“Child Safety staff already do so much incredible work, and now they will have the extra support and backup they need to ease caseloads and do an even better job.”

“I’m so pleased to see that Far North Queensland was able to get an early injection of resources from the Palaszczuk Government and the further increases in this year’s State budget mean we can expect further improvement in the outcomes for at-risk kids.”

Ms Fentiman said Child Safety staff were dealing with increasingly complex issues as more families battled with ice addiction and domestic violence.

“We know here in Far North Queensland 73 children were found to be in need of protection last year because they had a parent using ice,” she said.

“We know this is a huge problem for a lot of families, with more parents known to the child protection system using ice than drinking alcohol.

“That’s why we introduced tough new mandatory drug testing for parents who want to keep their children, and I make no apologies for being tough on parents who are doing the wrong thing.

“Since late last year, parents have been required to undergo drug testing for any Intervention with Parental Agreement– in particular for ice use – if they want to keep their children.”

Ms Fentiman said the latest quarterly data showed improvements, with 93.2 per cent of the most urgent cases being seen within 24 hours, compared to 90 per cent state-wide.

“Our figures show we are tracking in the right direction, and these positive indicators are before the new child safety workers hit the ground,” Ms Fentiman said.

“These new child safety staff will help bring down caseloads and support existing staff.”

Ms Fentiman said the addition of extra staff was part of sweeping changes that were reforming the Child Safety system.

“We have made sure we have the frontline staff we need on the ground to help children who are at risk, and we have improved training and support for these staff,” she said.

In the 2016-17 financial year the Palaszczuk Government employed 129 additional frontline and frontline support Child Safety staff across the state and this year’s State Budget included $200 million over four years to hire almost 300 more.

While in Cairns, Ms Fentiman also planned to visit the Manoora Community Centre, after the State Government contributed $125,000 towards a Community Connect program based at the centre.

ENDS

Media Contact:          Ron Goodman            0478 744 749