CHILD protection workers already under enormous strain have been saddled with extra work following the discovery of 151 ignored alerts, according to their union. Fears about the sector’s capacity to handle the increased load come as Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma faces questions over exactly what she knows of the crisis, and when she came to know of it. Ms Petrusma told Parliament she was only informed of the system failings on Monday, after the revelations were made public by the opposition. But facing a barrage of questions on the crisis from Labor, Ms Petrusma conceded her department had known of the problem for several weeks. She also told Parliament her office and the union were both briefed on the issue last week. Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Tom Lynch said he was worried about the CPS’s capacity to handle the sudden surge in work, concerned the extra load would erode workforce resilience. ‘‘You can shuffle the deck chairs as much as you like, but the bottom line is we need additional resources,’’ he said. ‘‘If the government doesn’t put those in, it’s just going to squeeze out somewhere else.’’ All cases have now been assessed, with 62 cases allocated to child protection workers for further investigation. Three extra child protection staff have been deployed to the North-West to help handle the backlog. Ms Petrusma confirmed she had ordered an urgent investigation into the system breakdown, but again insisted the problem did not appear to be resource-related. ‘‘It is very important that the facts are known as it is important that our child protection workers are provided with the necessary support to enable them to undertake their very important job,’’ she said. Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White said it was unbelievable the minister was the last to find out about the problem. Ms White repeatedly pushed Ms Petrusma to guarantee no children had been harmed by the protection system failure, but was not given a direct response.
CHILD protection workers already under enormous strain have been saddled with extra work following the discovery of 151 ignored alerts, according to their union.
Fears about the sector’s capacity to handle the increased load come as Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma faces questions over exactly what she knows of the crisis, and when she came to know of it.
Ms Petrusma told Parliament she was only informed of the system failings on Monday, after the revelations were made public by the opposition.
But facing a barrage of questions on the crisis from Labor, Ms Petrusma conceded her department had known of the problem for several weeks.
She also told Parliament her office and the union were both briefed on the issue last week.
Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Tom Lynch said he was worried about the CPS’s capacity to handle the sudden surge in work, concerned the extra load would erode workforce resilience.
‘‘You can shuffle the deck chairs as much as you like, but the bottom line is we need additional resources,’’ he said.
‘‘If the government doesn’t put those in, it’s just going to squeeze out somewhere else.’’
All cases have now been assessed, with 62 cases allocated to child protection workers for further investigation.
Three extra child protection staff have been deployed to the North-West to help handle the backlog.
Ms Petrusma confirmed she had ordered an urgent investigation into the system breakdown, but again insisted the problem did not appear to be resource-related.
‘‘It is very important that the facts are known as it is important that our child protection workers are provided with the necessary support to enable them to undertake their very important job,’’ she said.
Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White said it was unbelievable the minister was the last to find out about the problem.
Ms White repeatedly pushed Ms Petrusma to guarantee no children had been harmed by the protection system failure, but was not given a direct response.
