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Queensland child safety staff stood down

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Category: Child Protection Queensland media and newspaper articles

Created: Wednesday, 23 November 2016 08:55

Written by Jamie McKinnell - AAP

The jobs of a dozen Queensland child safety staff are on the line after a report exposed "serious errors of judgment" in the handling of the case of dead toddler Mason Jet Lee.

Police Commissioner calls bulls--t on child protection stolen generation claims

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Category: Child Protection Western Australia media and newspaper articles

Created: Monday, 21 November 2016 22:20

Written by Heather McNeill - WA Today

WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has called for the threshold to remove children from dysfunctional families to be lowered.

WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has again lobbied to lower the threshold for children to be taken away from extremely dysfunctional families, labelling claims he was advocating for another stolen generation as "bullshit".

Mason Jet Lee: Child protection staff stood down over 'errors of judgement' after report into toddler's death

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Category: Child Protection Queensland media and newspaper articles

Created: Wednesday, 23 November 2016 22:08

Written by Nick Wiggins - ABC.net.au

Twelve protection staff facing disciplinary action for "errors of judgement" leading up to the death of Caboolture toddler Mason Jet Lee should not be made scapegoats for what is a flawed system, a union has said.

Three child safety service centre staff have also been stood down after the 21-month-old's death from peritonitis in June.

Mason suffered traumatic injuries in the day before his death.

Foster carer blames Department of Children and Families for teenagers’ predicament

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Category: Child Protection Northern Territory media and newspaper articles

Created: Sunday, 20 November 2016 21:20

Written by Jill Poulsen - NT News

TWO children who were removed from the care of their foster mother over a “minor incident” are now living on the streets, using drugs and committing property crimes.

The foster carer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the NT News that in the space of two years the two teenage girls she had cared for for 13 years had gone “completely off the rails”.

“(The older girl) has been in 15 different placements, has been in Don Dale, she abuses drugs and alcohol and has a 25-year-old boyfriend ... nobody even knows where she is,” the woman said.

COAG recommends national registration of social workers

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Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Tuesday, 15 March 2016 06:53

Written by ABC News - James Hancock

A national registration system for social workers is being urged by the South Australian Government in the wake of damning coronial findings after the tragic death of Adelaide girl Chloe Valentine.  ***(In fact, the social workers themselves are looking at adopting a "self-regulated" model of oversight, which will do nothing to help protect children or ensure that social workers are abiding by the laws.  Afterall, it's no different to the law society of each state regulating lawyers that pay to run the law society.*)

"Death in care criticism "

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Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Saturday, 18 November 2006 23:30

Written by Jamie Walker - Courier Mail Queensland

THE State Government will consider new safety measures for psychiatric patients in care after a Coroner hit out at a "fatalistic professional attitude" to the risk of suicide.

Helen Jeffrey, 30, suffocated herself with a plastic bag provided by Nambour General Hospital staff on March 24 last year.

She had been admitted to the psychiatric intensive care unit after attempting suicide and became the second sectioned psychiatric patient in two years in Queensland to end her life using a plastic bag.

Maroochydore Coroner Ken Taylor last week made nine recommendations over Ms Jeffrey's death to Health Minister Stephen Robertson – expressing surprise that hospital staff had not identified plastic bags as a potential suicide aid.

"I have felt somewhat uneasy about what I shall, for the sake of convenience, term a fatalistic professional attitude towards suicide risk," Mr Taylor wrote.

A spokesman for Mr Robertson said the Minister was awaiting a copy of the recommendations which include a call to remove all objects "not uncommonly used as a means of suicide or attempted suicide".

Mr Taylor also recommended that Mr Robertson examine the feasibility of fitting remote pulse-monitoring wrist bands to all psychiatric patients held in state care.

Staff psychiatrist Keith Muir told the inquest that, in 35 years of clinical experience, he had never encountered such a death.

Asked by Mr Taylor if he was alarmed by the presence of plastic bags in psychiatric units, Dr Muir said: "Yes and no."

"The fact is that people who are determined to kill themselves . . . you know, that old expression, 'Where there is a will, there is a way'," Dr Muir said.

Mr Taylor said it was with a "considerable degree of incredulity" that he received the evidence that plastic bags had not been identified as a potential suicide aid before Ms Jeffrey's death.

Although Ms Jeffrey's family was entitled to be disappointed, the Coroner made no criticism of the standard of care.

"I am satisfied there was no wilful neglect," he said.

The Health Minister's office said plastic bags were already being removed "where ever practical" from psychiatric wards in line with precautions triggered by Ms Jeffrey's death.

But the spokesman said it would be difficult to eliminate their presence because plastic bags were necessary to line "communal" bins for potentially infectious or unhygienic waste.  ^{_{(Source :http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/death-in-care-criticism/story-e6freoof-1111112550110)}}

"Grandmother questions foster care death by holding Leduc protest"

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Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Thursday, 21 July 2011 23:30

Written by Simon Yackulic

A Warburg area woman isn't giving up on her granddaughter's memory and is leading a charge to look into Alberta's foster care deaths.

The women took to Leduc's main street to protest in front of the Alberta Family and Child Services office Friday, July 15, with around a dozen supporters and hundreds of signs, some of which read "stop killing our children" "work with families not against them" and "Secrets? What are you hiding and covering up?"

"On April 5, a social worker from this office went to my daughter's place to apprehend her roommate's (two) children," the grandmother explained, speaking in front of the Leduc office. "As an afterthought they apprehended my daughter's baby, and refused to let any family member take that baby and just stuck her in a foster home on the south side of Edmonton."

An affidavit signed by a social worker two days later, on April 7, claimed that the child needed to be removed as "the infant has been subjected to disharmony in the home and the child is left with inexperienced babysitters" and her mother "appears to suffer from an alcohol addiction."

On April 8, the grandmother visited the baby at the foster parent's house with her daughter. She said that they were distressed by what they saw.

"She had poop on the side of her bum from not being cleaned up properly previously. She had such a diaper rash it was disgusting," she said.

"I asked (the foster parent) how long she had diarrhea. When we saw her on Friday she had diarrhea for three days. And I asked if she had taken her to a doctor and (the foster parent) said 'no, if she's not better by Monday I'll make an appointment.' Monday she died. She let that baby lay there and suffer for five days without taking her for any sort of medical attention."

"Qld reviews foster child's crash death"

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Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:30

Written by Sydney Morning Herald

Queensland's child safety minister says there will be a full review into the case of a foster child who died when she crashed her carer's car.

"Baby boy dies after being hit by government (DoCS / FACS) car in driveway of Ipswich home"

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Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Monday, 12 January 2015 23:30

Written by Brittany Vonow, Ruth McCosker. Rhian Deutrom - The Courier-Mail

UPDATE: A Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services spokesman has this afternoon confirmed that a department car was involved in an incident yesterday afternoon in which a young boy died..

“The department is providing the utmost care and support to both family members and staff,” he said.

“The department will review this incident and this review will also be externally scrutinised. The police are continuing their investigation and will also prepare a report for the coroner’s office.”

The Department of Child Safety said due to ongoing investigations it did not intend on commenting further.

Earlier:15 month-old boy killed yesterday when he was hit by a car reversing down the driveway of his Ipswich home has been remembered as a “happy-go-lucky” child with a “smile that could lighten up a sad face”.

Braxton James Nowlan, who would have turned two in August, was hit and killed on the driveway outside his Ripley home by a government car in the tragic accident.

"Mother locks daughters in bedroom so pedophile partner can stay over"

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Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Monday, 20 April 2015 16:19

Written by Yahoo7 News

A convicted pedophile is reportedly allowed to live in the same house as two young girls so long as their mother locks them in their bedroom at night.

The girls grandmother claims social services approved the plan before the girl's step-dad moved in, despite knowledge of his history.  She says the girls, both under the age of 13, are given a baby monitor so they can let their mother know if they need to go to the bathroom.  “The alarm and the other so-called precautions stop my granddaughters being abused are a load of rubbish,” she told the Sunday Mirror.