Child protection caseworkers walked out of the Community Services Centre in Coffs Harbour today over unacceptable risk to child safety in NSW.

Child protection caseworkers say there is a crisis in child protection.

Only one in six children reported to child protection services as at risk of serious harm (ROSH) are being seen by a child protection caseworker in the Northern Region.

Right now if cases are allocated they are the most serious and will likely lead to removals, as there simply isn’t enough staff to intervene early so as to keep children with their families.

The Department’s own data shows last year, 113,668 Children and Young People were reported as at ROSH in NSW with only 25,899 of them seen – that is 23 per cent of all ROSH reports.

In some parts of the state only 15 per cent of children are seen.

Child protection caseworkers report chronic understaffing and staff burnout.

One in ten child protection caseworker positions are unfilled in NSW. But the vacancy rate on any given day is as high as one in five, often more.

The child protection caseworkers that are left are coping with the extra workload of colleagues who have left.

One in two child protection caseworkers leave in their first two years of employment with the department.

Child protection caseworkers are demanding Minister Kate Washington and the Minns Government immediately:

• Recruit another 500 caseworkers
• Give caseworkers an immediate and substantial pay rise
• De-privatise foster care

Premier Chris Minns needs to intervene, said PSA General Secretary Stewart Little.

“The most vulnerable kids in this state are at risk of serious harm, or worse, because child protection caseworkers are chronically understaffed and exhausted,” said Mr Little.

“Child protection workers are now concerned that by exposing vulnerable children to a broken system they may suffer even more harm.

“Chris Minns needs to immediately onboard another 500 child protection caseworkers, and give them a pay bump while he’s at it, to address the attraction and retention crisis in child protection, otherwise the system will collapse.

“To be fair the current NSW government didn’t create this mess but it’s up to them to fix it.

“Child protection caseworkers are passionate about their work, and they want the people of Coffs Harbour to know no urgent child protection responses will be impacted during their protest, and that skeleton staffing will be maintained at all times during this protest.

“But they feel they have to do something as management just aren’t listening to their concerns,” said Mr Little.