Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\nThe auditor general found the work of child protection services has long been stymied by delayed, inaccurate and incomplete data. The problems directly hampered child protection workers\u2019 ability to \u201cmake informed decisions, monitor placements and deliver effective child protection services,\u201d the auditor general wrote.<\/p>\n
Despite multiple previous reports identifying such systemic issues, the department\u2019s appeals to the government for funding to address them had been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
The number of foster carers was also declining significantly, and putting increased pressure on the kinship care system \u2013 where a child is placed in care with a relative or close family friend \u2013 which now makes up 81.7% of placements.<\/p>\n
Carer payments in Victoria are also the lowest in Australia, and a key factor in declining carer numbers, the report said.<\/p>\n
Kinship Carers Victoria director, Anne McLeish, said carers had long been raising the issue of low payments. \u201cThe assessments of the needs of children are inadequate, and the amount of money attached to children who have high level needs is totally inadequate.<\/p>\n
But McLeish said \u201cthe biggest single criticism that I would level against the department at the moment\u201d was related to its issues with data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lack of data is stunning,\u201d she said. \u201cI dare say that the system doesn\u2019t even accurately know where some of the children that they\u2019re responsible for are living.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate report tabled on Thursday, the commission for children and young people found children were getting caught up in a \u201crefer-and-close roundabout\u201d, where their cases were closed by child protection and referred instead to voluntary family services, which in 58% of cases were unable to engage with them.<\/p>\n
In some cases this was because parents refused to engage. In others, families went without support due to long waitlists, as funding for these services only met one-third of the demand in the last financial year, the commission found.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile calls to child protection services have steadily increased year-on-year, up from 118,096 in 2021-2022 to about 151,000 in 2024-2025. The subsequent increase in pressure made it more difficult for child protection staff to thoroughly assess risk and make informed decisions, including whether to progress a case to investigation, which was \u201cparticularly evident in cases involving neglect and cumulative harm,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
The commission also examined the cases of 35 children who had come into contact with child protection before they died. Those children had been the subject of 267 reports to child protection between them, an average of eight each, 231 of which were closed at the intake or investigation stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of these reports contained information of real ongoing and\/or escalating risk to the children and young people,\u201d the commission found. \u201cNotwithstanding this, child protection did not assess the children or young people to be at significant risk at the time of the report.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queensland\u2019s child safety minister, Amanda Camm, says she would \u2018always put the interests of children first, no matter their cultural background, no matter where they live in this state\u2019. Photograph: Darren England\/AAP<\/p>\n
In 2025, 75% of all reports received by child protection were about children who had been reported before.<\/p>\n
The Community and Public Sector Union\u2019s state secretary, Jiselle Hanna, said the reports confirmed what child protection workers had been telling the union for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite their best work, ultimately the needs of our most vulnerable children are not being met. Staff and carer burnout is common. It\u2019s due to chronic understaffing, underfunding and increasing pressure,\u201d Hanna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have long been sounding the alarm, and now it is at fever pitch. Government needs to accept these findings, and fund and resource the calm, consistent, early support that keeps children safe at home and removals as a genuine last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, said on Thursday: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a system that, unfortunately, continues to fail the most vulnerable children in our society. We need to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria\u2019s Minister for Children<\/a>, Lizzie Blandthorn, said the government had invested substantial funds into the system.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have invested more than $4.8bn in the child and family services system, including this year\u2019s budget which delivers another $362m \u2013 including $126m to begin a phased modernisation of the digital systems that support services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In Queensland, the child safety minister, Amanda Camm, said on Thursday the Crisafulli LNP government would reform the Adoption Act, after tabling a months-long commission of inquiry into the state\u2019s child safety system yesterday.<\/p>\n
This morning, she was asked about one of the commission\u2019s most controversial recommendations: an end to the legislated principle setting adoption as a last resort for Indigenous children. The rule does not apply to non-Indigenous children.<\/p>\n
The commissioner, Paul Anastassiou, said the government should \u201centrench adoption as the third permanency option for all children regardless of cultural background\u201d. He acknowledged it came over the \u201cstrong submissions from First Nations stakeholders against adoption\u201d.<\/p>\n
Camm said she would \u201calways put the interests of children first, no matter their cultural background, no matter where they live in this state\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll consider that recommendation, and we will bring forward reforms that are in the interests of children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional reporting Andrew Messenger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s most at-risk children are falling through the cracks of a child protection system straining under increased demand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-715094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}