Figures released to Labor under Right To Information have revealed child protection cases remained with Child and Youth Services officers for months while they no longer worked for the government.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
According to the document, there were 29 child protection cases allocated to staff no longer with the department between November 4 and November 15.
There were between six to eight of these cases that remained with non-existent staff between November 16 and December 11.
That number rose to 14 from February 17 before dropping to 13 where it remained until early April.
Child protection cases are allocated to team leaders and managers in the sector while a case is awaiting allocation or reallocation to a child safety officer.
Cases managed by team leaders and managers peaked above 400 last November and December, reaching 483 cases at one point.
It dropped to 286 cases in early April.
Unallocated cases also peaked over this period to 69 at one point and did not drop below 50 unallocated cases until mid-January.
There remained 36 allocated cases at the end of early April.
Child safety spokesman Josh Willie said it was scandalous that children were allocated to workers no longer employed with the service.
"Who is looking out for these children?" Mr Willie said.
A government spokeswoman said as of June 7, there were no cases allocated to staff who have left the service.
“While some cases may not be reallocated instantly in the system, appropriate case management still occurs,” she said.
“It is an anomaly for cases to remain allocated to staff who have left the service for any considerable period of time.
“Aggregated data does not reflect the status of individual cases and these figures fluctuate daily.”
