The Public Guardian cannot hire enough local staff to protect vulnerable children in the north west and the state government is sitting in its hands claiming there is no problem.
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According to its latest annual report the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) does not have enough resources to make regular visits to children in rural settings.
Public Guardian Natalie Siegel-Brown said an increase of young people in care has “placed immense pressure on limited community visitor resourcing”.
“There has also been an unprecedented rise in the number of children and young people requiring visitation in rural and remote settings,” the annual report stated.
“The need to execute these functions has exceeded the OPG’s budget and is only expected to rise.”
Attorney General Yvette D’Ath refused to say whether the government would boost funding to attract more workers to the north west.
She said the “Public Guardian exceeded all of its service delivery standards”.
Community visitors are employed by the Public Guardian and hired to advocate for children in foster care, youth detention, disability services and mental health facilities.
According to an OPG spokeswoman, there is just one community visitor employed in north west Queensland to advocate for 124 children. Another worker is flown in from Townsville to Mount Isa to help manage the caseload.
Last year there were no community visitors based in the region.
If the two north west community visitors were to see their clients once a fortnight, they would need to visit more than six children per day.
The job description requires a community visitor to “conduct regular visits and make robust and probative inquiries into the standard and adequacy of services being provided to vulnerable persons”.
The 124 children are spread across Mount Isa, Cloncurry, Camooweal, Dajarra, Boulia, Bedourie, Doomadgee, Mornington Island, Normanton and Kajabbi.
The Northern Territory Government is paying a $15,000 bonus to attract more people in child protection jobs to rural towns. They are promising higher salaries, cash bonuses, cheap accommodation, relocation expenses, travel costs and even accelerated advancement to entice people to the outback.
The Qld OPG is still hunting for community visitors to service the north west. To apply head to www.publicguardian.qld.gov.au
