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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1009 asked in the Legislative Council on 23 September 2020 by Hon Nick Goiran

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CHILD PROTECTION — CASEWORKERS — WORKLOAD

1009. Hon NICK GOIRAN to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for Child Protection:

I refer to the minister's response on 10 September 2020 to question without notice 644, asked in the other place, in which she stated, ''Since we have been in office, between June 2017 and June 2020, the child protection workforce has increased by over 18 per cent. That is the equivalent of over 158 FTEs'', and the inconsistency of this response with the statement by the departmental social worker at the child protection vigil at Parliament the night before, who said that critical safety issues in child protection cases are being missed because caseworkers are overloaded.

(1) Of the 158 FTEs, how many are frontline child protection caseworkers?

(2) Will the minister table the standard monthly workload management reports that are generated to track child protection casework levels, from October 2019 to the most recently available?

(3) Is the minister satisfied with the current child protection staffing levels and caseloads?

(4) How many additional new caseworkers does the government intend to employ in the next 12 months?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1) All 158 additional FTEs are frontline child protection workers and senior child protection workers who manage a caseload. This figure does not include a range of other frontline child protection and supporting roles, which do not carry a caseload, but who work alongside these staff.

(2) Yes. I table the attached report.

[See paper 4317.]

(3) Yes. The management of child protection caseloads within the Department of Communities is in accordance with the 2007 Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission order.

(4) Funding for new caseworkers is based on a cost-and-demand model. In collaboration with Treasury, the Department of Communities has refreshed the cost-and-demand model, which distributes child protection funding in response to geographical need. This work has modernised the process that determines demand costs to ensure that the resourcing required to deliver services in 2020 and beyond is being met. For the period 2019–20, the Department of Communities has allocated funding for an additional 41.6 FTE caseworkers and senior caseworkers. Further allocations will be undertaken as required and subject to the demand-based funding. It is not possible at this time to provide an exact figure for the increase over the next 12 months.