Australia-27 Children Known to CPS Die in 12 Months

“Twenty-seven children known to Victoria’s child protection services died in the year to June.

Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary says in his annual report 35 inquiries were completed in the same period and referred to the Victorian Child Death Review Committee.

“There was a significant drop in the number of prostitution cases reported. However, the concerning theme continues to be children engaging in high-risk behaviours, in particular those at risk of sexual exploitation,” Mr Geary said.

Twenty nine children known to child protection died in the year to June 2010.

In his submission to the inquiry into child protection, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Philip Cummins, Mr Geary recommended the establishment of a community visitors program for children in state care.
The government expects to receive the inquiry’s report in November.

Child protection workers failed to meet the target for responding to cases requiring immediate attention in 2010/11, the Department of Human Services annual report showed.

They responded to the most urgent cases within two days in 94.1 per cent of cases, below the target of 97 per cent.

The number of children known to child protection without an allocated case worker almost halved from 14.6 per cent on November 30, 2010, to 7.8 per cent on June 30 this year.

The North and West Metropolitan region had the highest share of children without allocated caseworkers at almost 13 per cent.

Gippsland had 9.6 per cent of unallocated cases, while the Hume region had six per cent.

There were 55,137 reports to child protection in the year to June 30, resulting in 14,719 investigations and leading to intervention in 7837 cases.”

27 ‘known’ Vic children died in 12 months
[The Sydney Morning Herald 9/15/11 by Melissa Jenkins]

REFORM Puzzle Piece