Child safety data shows continuing improvements across Queensland

Queensland’s child safety system is continuing to improve with the latest quarterly data showing significant improvements in a number of key areas.

Child Safety Minister Di Farmer said the December 2017 quarterly data showed the number of investigations that commenced was up, with over 300 more investigations started on time compared to the same period the previous year.

“This data shows 92.5 per cent of investigations that need to be started within 24 hours are commenced in that timeframe, up 2.5 per cent compared to the same period for the year prior,” she said.

“This shows the investment the Queensland Government is continuing to make into the child protection system is working.

“31.5 per cent of investigations requiring a five-day response were commenced within that timeframe, an increase of 4.3 per cent, and our 10 day response remained steady.”

Ms Farmer said the results showed the government’s efforts to restore frontline services was clearly working.

“We are employing an additional 292 child safety staff over the next two years and these new staff will not only improve our timeframes further but they will also bring down caseloads across the state,” she said.

“I’m pleased to say that of those positions 166 have already been recruited and filled, which means we have extra staff on the ground working to keep Queensland’s most vulnerable children safe.

The result of this can be seen in Child Safety officer caseloads, which have fallen to 17.6, down from 18.5 at the same time last year.

Ms Farmer said Queensland’s response to children in need would not be possible without more than 5300 dedicated foster and kinship carer families across the state.

“It’s really pleasing to see kinship carer numbers continuing to rise in this latest round of data,” she said.

“Kinship carer numbers have increased by 4.7 per cent over the past year, and as a result the proportion of children in home-based care placed with kin has also been steadily improving – increasing from 48.8 per cent to 49 per cent.”

Ms Farmer said more families were reaching out to get the help they needed through Family and Child Connect which has received more than 54,000 enquiries from January 2015 to 31 December 2017.

“In the year to December almost 17,000 families were actively engaged and connected to the right support services, and I’m really pleased to say more than 1400 of these families referred themselves to get support,” she said.

Methamphetamine, including ICE use, continues to be a factor for families known to the child safety system, with close to one in three children who came into the care of the department during the 12 months to December 2017 having a parent with current or previous methamphetamine use recorded.

“While this is an improvement from a year ago, it is still a problem child safety officers are seeing regularly, and something we know too many of our families are battling with,” Ms Farmer said.

“Children who have a parent where methamphetamine use was recorded are at risk of neglect (42.3 per cent), emotional harm (41.9 per cent), physical harm (15.1 per cent) and sadly at times, sexual abuse (0.7 per cent).

“We know that in most cases where this was recorded, the drug being used is ICE.”

Ms Farmer said most of the children known to the department who had a parent where methamphetamine use was recorded were under five years old.

“Of the 523 children, 152 were in ICE corridors in south-east Queensland stretching from the Gold Coast north to Logan/Beenleigh and from Ipswich north to Caloundra,” she said.

 The latest Child Safety data can be found on this page: https://www.communities.qld.gov.au/childsafety/about-us/our-performance

Media: Adrian Taylor 0448 994 172