"Child Protection Caseworkers"
- Details
- Category: Uncategorised
- Created: Thursday, 20 September 2012 23:30
- Written by Alecomm2
Mrs BARBARA PERRY: My question is directed to the Minister for Family and Community Services. In August last year the Department of Family and Community Services was instructed by the Ombudsman to report regularly on caseworker vacancy rates, including regional breakdowns. In light of this, what are the current caseworker vacancy rates in western Sydney?
The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the House will come to order.
Ms PRU GOWARD: I thank the member for her question. Members opposite just do not learn. We are dealing with a legacy of 16 years of appalling management that left the most vulnerable children and young people in this State under the auspices of a department that was seeing fewer children despite additional resources. To their undying shame, that is the political record of members opposite.
Ms Linda Burney: Point of order: The Minister should be reminded that when we assumed Government we had to—
The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The member for Canterbury will resume her seat. I call the member for Canterbury to order for the third time.
Ms PRU GOWARD: Members opposite have nothing to say in defence of 16 years of appalling mismanagement; instead they play games with the standing orders. As the member who has just raised a spurious point of order knows, there is no common vacancy rate across the State or even in regions. There was not under Labor and, because of the appalling systems that it left, there is not today. Again I would have hoped that the member opposite would have recalled that the vacancy rate— Mr John Robertson: Point of order: My point of order is under 129, relevance. The question specifically said the department was instructed by the Ombudsman in August to regularly update, and we want to know whether the Minister has done that.
The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The Minister has the call.
Ms PRU GOWARD: The vacancy rate varies from day to day and from week to week for the reasons that I have outlined previously to the House. Particularly in a service delivery agency the rate will depend on people taking maternity leave, sick leave and so forth. Last week members opposite made an accusation that the Wollongong office was understaffed. In fact, the vacancy rate in the Wollongong office is less than it was two years ago. Today we have a union taking industrial action in an area of Sydney in which we have in fact increased the number of caseworkers in that office. Members opposite never get the story straight.
The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wollongong will come to order.
Ms PRU GOWARD: This Government has a plan to address the legacy left by those opposite. We have discussed with the Ombudsman the importance of having an action plan that will enable us to provide data about vacancy rates in the annual statistical report from January 2013. The Ombudsman has accepted that because the Ombudsman knows—as does apparently everybody apart from the Opposition—that the Government was left with appalling systems and appalling management of offices that require significant reform. Those opposite do not understand that real reform takes time. Obviously this is not of great interest to those opposite.
We need to change systems and people and enable our caseworkers to do the best they can, see as many children as they can and improve the quality of services that they provide to children. I remind members that the Ombudsman found that even though the Opposition when in government invested an additional three quarters of a billion dollars in child protection the department was actually seeing fewer children. The Ombudsman therefore understands the size of the challenge. Those opposite might not understand this, but reform is a challenge that takes time. We cannot undo overnight a legacy of mismanagement and restricted work practices in a department that was run by union heavies instead of the Minister. (Source : http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20120821027?open&refNavID=HA8_1)
