The average number of children each day who've been referred to Child Safety Services but are waiting for an officer to be allocated has increased by more than 288 per cent.
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The 2018-19 Communities Tasmania annual report, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, revealed a daily average of 147.8 children awaited allocation to a caseworker after being referred to the service in 2018-19, up from an average of 38 per day in the previous year.
A Communities Tasmania spokesman said the increase in children waiting to be allocated to a caseworker was because of the transition to the Strong Families, Safe Kids Advice & Referral Line, where people could report concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children.
"The number of children in active transition fluctuates on a daily basis, however all Category 1 cases - the most serious category - are always assigned to a Child Safety Officer and acted upon on the same day," he said.
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When referrals are unable to be allocated to a caseworker immediately, the cases can be assigned to an experienced team leader, who the spokesman said would actively triage concerns, provide oversight and undertake necessary case management.
"The team leader will escalate the urgency of allocation as necessary," the spokesman said.
Since the advice and referral line transition, the spokesman said the number of children awaiting allocation had steadily declined.
"The most recent measurement at October 22 shows the introduction of the Strong Families, Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line has seen the number of cases active in transition continue a downward trend to sit at 55," the spokesman said.
An average of 1294.6 Tasmanian children were in out-of-home care every day last year, an increase of almost 60 a day from 2017-18.
The state's public housing situation was also laid bare in the annual report.
Vulnerable Tasmanians are now waiting 14 weeks longer than they were three years ago to receive a public housing property, with the waitlist jumping from 43 weeks in 2015-16 to 67.1 weeks in 2018-19.
Despite 1054 people being housed last year, there were still 3330 people on the housing register with occupancy rates for the year at 99.2 per cent.
The number of households supported through the Private Rental Assistance scheme has reduced for the fourth year in a row, declining steadily from 3666 in 2014-15 to 2242 in 2018-19.
A 2018 Tasmanian State Service Employee Survey in which 359 Communities Tasmania employees took part in revealed 81 per cent agreed their colleagues had a positive attitude towards employees with diverse backgrounds, which was slight higher than the overall state service.
The report also noted the proportion of Communities Tasmania respondents who agreed there was a positive attitude in the department to employees who identify as members of the LGBTIQ community was 11 per cent higher than the TSS overall.
