THE state government is today expected to announce a major redesign of Child Protection Services, in response to recent revelations 151 North-West cases were ignored in the past year. Details on the overhaul are scant, but it is understood stakeholders will be briefed on significant changes to the system on Thursday morning. Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma is then expected to map out the redesign in a statement delivered in Parliament. Mrs Petrusma will also make public the findings of a report into how the child safety alert failure occurred. She told Parliament on Wednesday the most important thing was ensuring the major failure was never repeated. ‘‘We believe it is important to get to the bottom of this matter and put in place mechanisms and systems to improve the Child Protection Services we were left with,’’ Mrs Petrusma said. The minister has been heavily criticised for the length of time taken to compile the ‘‘urgent’’ report, which she ordered 10 days ago. Mrs Petrusma was also accused of trying to duck from scrutiny for releasing the report on the last day of a parliamentary sitting week. Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White said she expected a full explanation of how the child safety failure happened. ‘‘But also a full explanation of what the government intends to do to ensure this doesn’t happen again,’’ Ms White said. The report is not expected to canvass why Mrs Petrusma was not told of the crisis until three weeks after it was discovered by her department. Ms White argued omitting this information from the report would be a severe oversight. ‘‘We’re certainly expecting that the report tomorrow [Thursday] will indicate exactly what has been shared with the minister’s office and when,’’ she said. ‘‘The report should also provide an explanation about what the breakdown in communication between the department and minister’s office was caused by and how it is going to be rectified.’’
THE state government is today expected to announce a major redesign of Child Protection Services, in response to recent revelations 151 North-West cases were ignored in the past year.
Details on the overhaul are scant, but it is understood stakeholders will be briefed on significant changes to the system on Thursday morning.
Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma is then expected to map out the redesign in a statement delivered in Parliament.
Mrs Petrusma will also make public the findings of a report into how the child safety alert failure occurred.
She told Parliament on Wednesday the most important thing was ensuring the major failure was never repeated.
‘‘We believe it is important to get to the bottom of this matter and put in place mechanisms and systems to improve the Child Protection Services we were left with,’’ Mrs Petrusma said.
The minister has been heavily criticised for the length of time taken to compile the ‘‘urgent’’ report, which she ordered 10 days ago.
Mrs Petrusma was also accused of trying to duck from scrutiny for releasing the report on the last day of a parliamentary sitting week.
Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White said she expected a full explanation of how the child safety failure happened.
‘‘But also a full explanation of what the government intends to do to ensure this doesn’t happen again,’’ Ms White said.
The report is not expected to canvass why Mrs Petrusma was not told of the crisis until three weeks after it was discovered by her department.
Ms White argued omitting this information from the report would be a severe oversight.
‘‘We’re certainly expecting that the report tomorrow [Thursday] will indicate exactly what has been shared with the minister’s office and when,’’ she said.
‘‘The report should also provide an explanation about what the breakdown in communication between the department and minister’s office was caused by and how it is going to be rectified.’’
