The Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington made an announcement today that is both equally encouraging and long overdue. You can hear an interview between the Minister and Ray Hadley regarding the announcement HERE.

Yesterday, members across the state stood united in their calls to be valued, staffed appropriately and fairly paid for the vital duties they perform, by taking Industrial Action. Members across the state yesterday made it crystal clear that enough is enough. They are no longer going to accept a system in crisis as the status quo.

You have told us that Alternative Care Arrangements (ACAs) have been a scourge on the Child Protection system – a product of the failure of the privatisation of out-of-home care to the non-government sector.  They are obscenely expensive, contributing to a budget blowout each year of hundreds of millions of dollars, and worse still, wholly unsuitable for the needs of the children and young people that end up in them.

It has been our collective position that this money would be far better redirected at the front end of child protection in the form of more caseworkers, rather than being spent on a short-term solution that only served to mop up the shortcomings of NGOs.

This has been one of the vital pillars of reform that your campaign has been calling for – more caseworkers, better remunerated caseworkers so that they apply and stay, and all funded through the nationalisation of the out-of-home care system to stop the waste.

It is why so many of you were spurred to take industrial action yesterday at the start of Child Protection Week out of frustration to have these important and urgent reforms heard.

Today’s announcement regarding the dissolution of ACAs and the return of the Public Sector as a foster care provider goes some of the way towards addressing the current collapse of the child protection system in our State.

We are encouraged by the Minister’s decision.

We congratulate your tireless and brave determination in pursuing these goals and bringing these issues to her attention for the betterment of your colleagues and the children you work with.

Today’s announcement of reforms and the end of a wholly unsustainable practice are your victory and the first of many steps that need to be made in the right direction.

PSA members are the key to the roadmap out of this nightmare. Better pay, real Caseworker retention strategies and the return of the Public Sector as a foster care provider are the way forward to ensure safer and better outcomes for the children and young people under the care of Minister Washington.

It is a day to be proud to be union.