Meeting with Gareth Ward MP, Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services

Your delegates Brendan McMenamin and Allison Corrigan and PSA General Secretary, Stewart Little, met with Minister Ward on Tuesday, 29 October 2019. The two main issues discussed were: Psychological injuries The rates of psychological injury sustained by child protection workers are worse than NSW Police and NSW Ambulance. The rates are 10 times higher than the average for NSW public servants. We stated this is…

Read More

POVB Centre Closures and Restructures

Yesterday, Monday, 28 October 2019, we met with CSNSW for a benchmarking meeting. In this meeting the following information was given to us in regards to the centres that are closing, centres being restructured and the decommissioning of high-risk beds: Vacancy Lists – not including Court locations, John Moroney CC, IDAPT, Compulsory Drug Treatment Centre Information on Crown Employees (Transferred Employees Compensation Aware – TECA)…

Read More

Youth justice system gets major overhaul after Frank Baxter riots - ABC News 29/10/2019

A major overhaul of all New South Wales juvenile correction facilities is underway, with an independent review into a riot at a Central Coast facility exposing systemic failures and consistent violence. The general secretary of the Public Services Association, Stewart Little, said they had been calling on the Government to implement these changes for years. "We were talking to the Government about this three years…

Read More

Youth Justice – Announcement by Minister Ward

Minister Ward made an announcement earlier this afternoon into the review of the riots at Frank Baxter Juvenile Justice Centre on 21 and 22 July 2019. Please see link HERE. The PSA welcomes the outcome of the inquiry and the 63 recommendations made. Your union is calling upon the Government to move quickly in implementing these recommendations, noting that the PSA and our members in…

Read More

New high-risk units for youth detention facilities following 21-hour riot - SMH 29/10/2019

Dedicated high-risk offender units will be established at the two largest youth justice facilities in response to the 21-hour riot at the Frank Baxter detention centre earlier this year. Public Service Association general secretary Stewart Little welcomed the reforms as "long overdue". "We will be watching to see that the government properly implements all 63 recommendations, 14 of which were directly recommended by the PSA,"…

Read More