PSA challenges DGs version of the facts

What Woods wanted

Family and Community Services director-general Michael Coutts-Trotter (Letters, September 18) is setting the scene for the NSW government’s abandonment of services for children in state care to the non-government sector. He is doing this by not providing the full facts.

Justice Woods didn’t recommend privatisation of out-of-home care, but that the non-government sector complement the work of Community Services so its staff could better focus on children at risk.

Instead, the department responded by not filling Community Services vacancies. This is during a period where the number of children in care has risen from 14,667 to more than 17,000.

Consequently, it is more difficult for Community Services staff to focus on the urgent responses needed for children at risk.

Anne Gardiner General Secretary, Public Service Association of NSW, Sydney

Sydney Morning Herald Letters – 19 September 2013