NSW: DoCS reporting system may be overhauled to deal with backlog

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2008
NSW: DoCS reporting system may be overhauled to deal with backlog

By Katelyn John

SYDNEY, April 18 AAP - The NSW Department of Community Services' (DoCS) reporting system
should be streamlined, with almost one in three cases closed last year because of "competing
priorities", a Sydney inquiry has been told.

A special commission of inquiry into child protection services in NSW today examined
how cases are reported to DoCS.

A fact sheet tendered to the inquiry showed 27.1 per cent of the 286,000 child protection
reports made to DoCS in 2006/07 were closed due to "competing priorities", despite the
DoCS Helpline determining that they required more investigation.

The inquiry was told 70 per cent of calls made to the Helpline were mandatory reports
from within the departments of education and health, or police.

Commissioner James Wood, a retired Supreme Court judge, today canvassed methods of
streamlining the system, including putting DoCS workers inside other government agencies
and introducing a system for prioritising mandatory reports.

NSW Commission for Children and Young People commissioner Gillian Calvert said it was
unrealistic for all cases to be reported to DoCS "for them to triage, only to hand them
back to those services".

It may be best to place DoCS child protection officers within other agencies to help
them prioritise matters being referred to DoCS, she told the inquiry.

Justice Wood said an alternative may be to have the departments or police attach a
priority to the cases at the time of reporting.

He said police were often "first on the ground" and, therefore, best placed to assess
the risks, such as whether drugs or weapons were a complicating factor.

But Assistant Commissioner Dave Hudson from the NSW Police Force said young officers
lacked the training and "life experience" to make such subjective assessments.

"We would be reluctant to engage in any practices where there is a subjective assessment
to be made by any police officer on the ground," Mr Hudson told the inquiry.

The inquiry also heard from two women protesting against the removal of their children,
whom they say were abused by their violent partners.

They advised other women not to report violence to police to avoid the same fate.

The woman said they no longer lived with their male abusers and both said they had
dealt with the mental problems or alcohol abuse that had plagued them, but had still not
had their children returned.

DoCS acting executive director Helen Freeland said their advice was irresponsible.

"Children are placed in care only if they cannot live safely with their parent or carer,
and it is dangerous and simplistic to suggest otherwise," she said in a statement.

"It would be tragic if women were discouraged from reporting domestic violence to police,
support agencies or DoCS, and as a result put both their lives and their children's lives
at risk."

The commission will meet again next week.

AAP kaj/hn/jlw/cdh

KEYWORD: DOCS

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