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Child protection workers are set to take industrial action on Parliament grounds today (11 April) at 11:30am, calling for immediate change to a collapsing system.
The press conference will initiate a month of industrial action over fears that the vulnerable children whom they care for are at serious risk. Under staffing, and burnout have been pinpointed as the key inadequacies that are crippling child protection services.
The Public Service Association (PSA), which represents the workers, stated that action will commence with a series of rolling stop-work meetings across the state and escalate as necessary.
Spokespeople have argued that three in four children were at risk of harm from October 1, 2022 until September 30, 2023 after receiving no visitations from Department of Communities and Justice caseworkers. Once again, due to the lack of staff, overload, and burnout.
The sector is experiencing an unprecedented attraction and retention crisis for new workers, with one in four positions being unfilled in some regions of the state. This issue has led to some extremely ghastly reports showing that low staffing numbers are believed to be among the reasons for some of the deaths of children in child protection in 2022.
PSA general secretary, Stewart Little, believes the system is on a knifes edge: “The most vulnerable kids in this state are at risk of serious harm, or worse, because child protection workers just can’t cope, they’re understaffed, exhausted and see no other option than to take industrial action.”
The child protection workers that are on the frontlines are struggling to keep up. The figures show the vacancy rate for caseworkers has increased by 250 per cent year on year, meaning the state is losing more caseworkers that it is employing. What’s left is often inexperienced case workers, thrown in the deep-end and being forced to cope with the extra workload of departed colleagues.
Little, is making a call for action to Premier Chris Minns to immediately intervene: “Premier Minns needs to immediately recruit another 500 child protection workers to address the attraction and retention crisis in child protection, otherwise the system will collapse. I can't put it any more plainly than that.”
“The Minns Government didn’t create this mess but it’s now their responsibility to fix it. To not act now would be a massive moral failure,” said Little.
This action comes from desperation for a system that is seemingly broken. Little stated that child protection workers do not take action on a frivolous basis, but when the livelihood and wellbeing of vulnerable children is at stake, they are more the willing to take a stand.
“People in child protection don’t take action lightly, they know how important every single minute of their work is. But they just can’t go as the system crumbles around their ears,” concluded Little.
Kace O'Neill
Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.
