There are 248 children known to Child Safety Services who are yet to be assigned a case worker, with more than half of them living in Northern Tasmania.
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Human Services Minister Roger Jaensch told a budget estimates committee on Wednesday that 147 at-risk children in the North, 47 in the North-West, and 54 in the South were yet to be allocated to a child safety officer.
He said the children did have “appropriate oversight” and supervision, however, most likely from a team leader or manager.
Child safety officer numbers have lifted over the year from 157 by March this year from 153 in March 2017. The committee heard there were 18 child safety officer vacancies statewide, with 13 in the South.
Mr Jaensch said the government had funded and recruited 31 full-time-equivalent workers in the child safety though none of these recruitments were for extra child safety officers. He said an additional six child safety officers had been recently hired.
Under questioning from Greens leader Cassy O’Connor, Mr Jaensch revealed that 81.6 per cent of child safety notification investigations had not been competed within 28 days.
He said investigations took longer because the service endeavoured to work with a family with at-risk children rather than place them in out-of-home care.
Labor on Monday notified Child Safety Services of the case of a 15-year-old autistic boy allegedly living in substandard conditions for 12 months in a Southern out-of-home care facility run by Possability.
Special care packages were introduced in 2016 as part of out-of-home care for children with extraordinary needs, like mental or physical disabilities or complex psychological needs. There are five approved providers in the state and 80 children receiving these packages.
Mr Jaensch said due to an increase in demand, approved providers had reached capacity so care needed to be found elsewhere.
Ms O’Connor raised the issue of care provided by Total Support Services, which she said was established in Tasmania as a private disability respite service and did not have the qualifications or background to provide support for highly at risk young people.
Child and Youth Services acting-deputy secretary Gail Eaton-Briggs said TSS had been referred by other approved providers.
