Protecting children, changing lives
On Thursday 7 July the Victorian Government introduced a range of proposed reforms to improve the state’s child protection system. The Hon Mary Wooldridge, Minister for Community Services announced increased support for staff and a proposed new operating model for child protection – outlined in the document, Protecting children, changing lives. The changes aim to break the cycle of recruitment, burn-out and departure of new child protection staff and get better outcomes for vulnerable children and families.
The document follows the recent release of Child protection workforce: the case for change, which presents compelling evidence about what needs to change to retain staff and achieve better outcomes for children.
“I am pleased to be announcing support measures to help a workforce that plays such a critical role in our community and has been under pressure for too long. This is a system designed 30 years ago for a community that is vastly different to the one we see today. The demand for child protection services has increased exponentially – up to 28 per cent over five years, with around 1,000 child protection reports made each week,” Ms Wooldridge said.
Protecting children, changing lives proposes a holistic approach to directly address the issues facing the child protection workforce. The proposed reforms will increase the number of practitioners working directly with families, support them in their critical assessment and decision making, and provide more support to new recruits to keep them in the job.
The new approach has four key elements:
- A new child protection operating model: to give staff better support and flexibility with a new workforce classification, Child Protection Practitioner, that is aligned with the Victorian Public Service classification.
- More practitioners, with more experience working with families: the number of case carrying staff will increase from 63 per cent to at least 75 per cent, there will be a new approach to attract and recruit new staff, improved links with Child FIRST and new positions created to increase the number of experienced staff in each region – Principal Practitioner, Area Manager, Practice Leader and Senior Child Protection Practitioner.
- Better support and supervision: improving direct support for new recruits and less experienced staff; more practice guidance, mentoring and co-working; more learning and development opportunities for practitioners and managers; improved debriefing opportunities and employee assistance arrangements.
- Valuing the work child protection practitioners do: valuing professional expertise with improved rewards and conditions; giving practitioners clearer responsibility for professional decision making; enhanced career structure with operational management and practice career pathways.
The Government has also commissioned a comprehensive independent inquiry into Victoria’s child protection system to consider the causes of child abuse and the effectiveness of existing systems. Later in the year the Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry will hand down its report, providing advice on where further reform is needed. The proposed workforce reforms and the Inquiry recommendations are two parts of a major reform program in child protection.
- Protecting children, changing lives (PDF 603.6 KB)
Review of the current child protection system and plan to institute a new learning based culture for child protection workers.
