Drastic change vital to protect at-risk children

Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma has conceded responsibility for the crisis falls directly on her, insisting nobody else is to blame.

However, Mrs Petrusma says she won't resign and has not apologised.

Monumental change is needed to ensure our state's most at-risk kids are not left in the lurch again, and it is very difficult to see such reform taking place without significant personnel changes.

Heads will likely need to roll over this horrendous blunder.

The minister's repeated assertion that "the buck stops with me" leaves her very few places to turn if the guillotine is hoisted.

On Monday, it was revealed that 151 North-West child protection alerts had been ignored in the past year.

This systemic breakdown is extraordinary and inexcusable.

One notification was neglected for more than 300 days, when the normal response time is less than two.

That the overlooked child was not harmed as a consequence is thanks to luck alone.

It is staggering that Mrs Petrusma says she will not resign even if it emerges another ignored child has been harmed.

Monumental change is needed to ensure our state's most at-risk kids are not left in the lurch again, and it is very difficult to see such reform taking place without significant personnel changes.

A damning communications breakdown in the wake of the lapse is central to a broader problem.

Mrs Petrusma only learned of the crisis three weeks after her department first found out.

Meanwhile, her own office and the unions were both briefed days ahead of her.

The minister met with her department heads at least twice since they uncovered the backlog in July, but was not told of the failure until after it was made public.

It is bizarre and unacceptable that the minister was last to know, and this peculiarity calls two issues into question.

Firstly, whether the minister has control of her department and functioning relationships with its senior managers.

Secondly, whether there might be a rotten culture of under-reporting or lack of accountability within this and other agencies.

Mrs Petrusma has ordered an urgent report into the child protection system breakdown.

However, she has not yet said what information the report will contain, when it will be released, or how much of it will be made public.

It is worth remembering that while the urgent report was ordered on Monday, the department had been working to fix the problem for several weeks.

Surely by now it is crystal clear exactly what took place? Yet the public is still none the wiser as to how things went so horribly wrong.

Mrs Petrusma on Thursday survived a push for her to quit or be sacked over her handling of the failure.

Her ministerial colleagues were correct to point out the child protection system was far from perfect under political foes throwing stones.

Severe shortcomings were uncovered under a string of former ministers.

However, this problem goes not only to how many alerts were ignored, for how long or why.

There are also serious concerns about a potentially dysfunctional relationship between a responsible minister and her agency.

Mrs Petrusma is a passionate minister, but must quickly prove she can maintain a grip on her portfolio.

She must also demonstrate she is the right person to drive reforMrs that guarantee the state never again so dismally fails to provide its duty of care.

If not, there is a ready-made option open to her.