Community Services Legislative Council Inquiry

Community Services Legislative Council Inquiry – July 2016 (PDF version)

PSA tells Inquiry what is really happening in Community Services

The PSA has completed a submission on behalf of our Community Services members to the NSW Legislative Council’s (Upper House) Inquiry into the NSW Child Protection system.

Your union informed members about the inquiry when it was announced in late May 2016.

You can read our bulletin HERE.

Acting PSA General Secretary, Steve Turner, said in his forward to the submission:

The safety of our children and young people is everyone’s concern. One of the government’s core responsibilities is to adequately protect children from harm and the Public Service Association’s members in Community Services are working with kids and their families to do just that. I am proud of the professionalism and dedication they display on a daily basis.

This submission was informed by a survey of our members and we were overwhelmed by the response. The messages that we received from our members were clear; we need to get out and look after more children at risk and their families, and to do that more casework staff are required and they need to be freed-up from their desks as much as possible. More needs to be done to care for our casework staff and to have their welfare better looked after. We also need more and better options for kids in Out-of-Home Care and Community Services needs to look at plugging the gaps in service provision over the longer term that the NGO sector has been unable to fill.

This submission was prepared with the support of our members, and it is my pleasure to recommend it to you on behalf of the Public Service Association of NSW.

You can read the full submission HERE.

For our bulletin on issues facing members in the workplace click HERE.

We look forward to making further submissions when the Inquiry conducts hearings over the next few months.

What can you do?

Put this bulletin up on your notice board

Arrange a PSA visit to your worksite contact your organising team at