PART of living in a society is the demarcation of duties for a greater good. Someone else grows wheat or kneads dough, for instance, so that many more can have bread. They in turn can rely on a butcher for their meat. The resultant benefits are the society we see around us, an interwoven tapestry of tasks and support systems to free many of us from the daily tasks required of our ancestors simply for sustenance.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Support networks for the vulnerable are an important part of why such a system works. There are people tasked with protecting them, identifying the dangers they face and ensuring the situation does not progress from potential to actual danger.
Gabriel Fowler's report today shows that 18,000 Hunter children appear to be slipping through the cracks of our well-intentioned system. Less than one in five have had contact with a caseworker amid falling numbers of frontline workers in that profession.
At a societal level, it follows an unwelcome trend. Teachers and nurses are among other vocations facing an exodus, and seeking answers to the existential questions of how to keep such jobs attractive to those walking out the door.
Adults, at least, can fend for themselves. It is abhorrent that 14,817 children at risk of significant harm are not seeing a person in the role precisely designed to prevent that risk coming to fruition.
Adults, at least, can fend for themselves.
Risk of significant harm reports show this region is bearing the brunt of shortfalls, with 81 per cent of children requiring support going without intervention or assessment of any kind. Across the state, that proportion is a still-galling 74 per cent.
Responsibility for turning those numbers around falls to a Hunter resident, Port Stephens MP Kate Washington. Ms Washington is also the minister for families and communities and disability inclusion, and cited workforce issues stemming back to the previous government.
"And the consequences are heartbreaking," Ms Washington said. "But it's a symptom of a broken system that desperately needs repairing. Our DCJ workers do an amazing job in incredibly challenging and complex situations.
"For the sake of vulnerable children across the state, we are determined to fix the broken child protection system, but it won't happen overnight."
Ms Washington is right to point to the plight of the children as the motivation behind fixing the model; there are unlikely to be many driving forces stronger than the urge to protect the young. That said, the workers remaining in this system equally deserve a framework that will address what appear to be chronic shortcomings. Real change is required to keep a generation of children from feeling like the society they are learning to be a part of them has failed them in their formative years.
The Minns government recently marked 100 days in office, and the credulity of blaming past governments for such a heartbreaking predicament will wane. Those who elected the government did so in the hope they would fix problems. While governments must always juggle priorities, it is hard to see a great number that would outstrip the plight of children at risk at the top of that list. Results won't come overnight, but they certainly must come.
ISSUE: 39,961
