Read the ‘horrifying and saddening’ list of failures that has led to the deaths of 100 vulnerable kids known to Child Protection Services in just one state
- The Victorian Coroners Court has released damning stats about child protection
- One hundred kids overseen by Victorian services have died in the past two years
- Most of the deaths due to suicide, car crashes, SIDS, strangulation and assault
- A source says inexperienced workers, shortages, and workload are to blame
One hundred children and teens known to Victoria’s Child Protection Services have died in the past two years, shocking new data has uncovered.
The damning figures provided by the Victorian Coroners Court and published in The Australian, point to systemic failures within the department to protect the state’s most vulnerable young people.
Among the most common causes of death were ‘SIDS, suicide, car crashes, strangulation, drowning and assault’.
A source linked to the embattled sector told the publication the alarming number of deaths are likely due to inexperienced case workers, labour shortages and skyrocketing caseloads.
One hundred children and teens known to Victoria’s Child Protection Services have died in the past two years, shocking new data has uncovered
‘The service is really struggling to recruit, there are multiple vacancies across child protection across the state,’ the source said.
‘We have a really inexperienced workforce, plus the workload is tremendous, and that is causing issues in terms of completing robust risk assessments.’
Out of the 100 deaths recorded, 51 children died in the year to June, 2021, and 49 children died in the following 12-month period to June, 2022.
A staggering 71 young people had inactive child protection involvement at the time of their deaths, while 29 were under ‘active’ care of the department.
The source chalked up the ‘inactive’ cases to child protection staff not adequately assessing a child’s safety risks before closing their file an moving onto the next case.
Victoria’s shadow minister for child protection, Matt Bach, claimed the ‘horrifying and saddening’ figures were due to a failure of the state’s public services under Premier Dan Andrews.
The damning figures provided by the Victorian Coroners Court point to systemic failures within the department to protect the state’s most vulnerable young people (pictured, Premier Daniel Andrews)
‘It’s the clearest indication yet the state’s child protection system has failed and shows we are funnelling the most traumatised and disadvantaged children into state care, which is actually making them less safe,’ he said.
Labor MP Colin Brooks is the current minister for child protection, but was only appointed to the role in June.
He became the fourth politician to oversee the portfolio in less than a year after Anthony Carbines, Richard Wynne and Luke Donnellan.
The data comes just weeks after it was discovered the addresses of hundreds of children in Victoria’s child protection database went missing.
Victoria’s shadow minister for child protection Matt Bach (right) said the alarming statistics showed the abject failure of the state’s services (minister for child protection Colin Brooks, left)
A report by the state auditor general found that 462 children in the sector’s database did not have a listed address, 288 did not have the correct postcode and another 171 had ‘address unknown’ under their name.
The missing information was due to the sub-standard IT system used by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, according to the report.
Other errors for children in the database included incorrect dates of birth, school enrolment periods and health information.
Daily Mail Australia has sought Victoria’s Child Protection Services for comment.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk