Children? You want me to deal with children? The caseworkers lament

@BDoubleC, I think I’m definitely qualified. I have YEARS of experience in dealing with those topics you raised. I even have first hand knowledge. I also work with kids and have had them disclose and I have reported it, only for NOTHING to happen. I spent 16 years living in fear as a child and then as an adult BECAUSE no intervention happened and you live with what you know….luckily I stopped the cycle myself, CPS did NOTHING.

CPS are a waste of time and space. You reported abuse in the 1980s, they’d call the perpetrator and walk away. Now, they call the perpetrator IF they are concerned and still the child goes home. As someone who has experienced that, let me tell you, it’s not fun at all.

Then you get the ignorant case workers who say “we don’t want to involve anymore people in the situation”- there is none btw….and the child has attempted suicide due to being forced (by Family Court) to be near his abuser.

Having been a victim I have fought against a BS system that cares not for children being abused. My own children, despite several requests for assistance AFTER serious issues around the court ordered access to their abuser were IGNORED. AND this was after being told CPS couldn’t intervene….which is BS btw. They can intervene.

Rant over.

Violet68 said :

Lissy said :

These case workers have one of the hardest jobs imaginable. Trauma and abuse day after day, massive case loads and having to put off day to day work to respond to those on their case loads who fall into crisis, with no time to visit or see children who are in a stable placement.

There is no doubt that this is not good enough, vulnerable children deserve so much better than that – but before judging the workers on the ground, do their job for a week.

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

Then there are the workers who are recruited from overseas, paid relocation costs etc to work in a community they have absolutely no experience or understanding of eg. the distance and time it takes to travel by bus from Tuggeranong to Belconnen and how that may impact on a young parent with post natal depression and four children under 5yrs. An all expense paid move from the cold North to sunny Australia at the expense of disadvantaged children…..

Perhaps they wouldn’t have such large caseloads if they actually got real and worked on keeping families together? Wow, then they could actually cut court costs, stop paying the “expert” they so very much prefer or the “care providers” they favour…..hmmmmm wouldn’t that upset the apple cart.

If these workers are ethical?? Are you serious? Everyday we work towards change, change for better service delivery for children, for the system, change for better outcomes for vulnerable children and families. I think its those that stand by and criticize without trying to offer assistance or make change themselves that should be questioned.
We aren’t in these jobs for the money, we are in this job because we believe in protecting children, in assisting families to build resilience and develop the skills to provide a safe and nurturing home, and only when necessary as a last resort removing children from abusive environments.

In children’s lives for a short time? Best case scenario is that we ARE only there for a short time, that we implement supports to the family to help change the situation and get the children home..

As for the UK recruitment, Why don’t you look at the reason why we have to go to other countries to recruit? Why not look into our community and why social work is a degree that only a handful of people a year graduate from in Canberra?? That after ongoing recruitment across ACT and Australia we had little to no suitable applicants?
This job needs highly skilled workers with psychology or social work degrees, they need to have experience and be able to deal with abuse, aggression and some of the most horrific work you can imagine.
So when you are at your desk, thinking about how stressed out you are because you have a deadline due by 5pm today or how the photocopier broke, think about Care and Protection workers who may have just sat with a little girl and listened in depth about how her daddy and his mates have raped her every day for the last year, or how they have just had to go to the hospital to investigate a month old baby with 10 fractures to its body… or during a meeting were spat at and attacked by a drug effected parent.
Because when I go to bed at night and get up every morning I am thinking of the lives of the children and young people I have to care for, their stories and the unspeakable abuse they have endured so far in their short lives… I think of what I can do to turn their lives around and try and salvage what we can of their childhood.. and of what I can do to help their parents get back on track and provide these children a life that they deserve..

I work every single day with the belief that a child’s place is with their family and I do everything in my power to make sure that this happens, either with the parents or extended family… and if despite all the support and resources provided to this family still aren’t enough and it is still not a safe place for these children to return to then I will do my best to find them a foster home that will provide them the stability and love they didn’t experience in home.

So instead of commenting on workers.. why don’t you look at the fact that child protection is everyone’s business and look into what the community can do to help take care of our most vulnerable children and young people and stop them from getting to the stage of CPS intervention.

Rant over.

fabforty said :

Jethro said :

Violet68 said :

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

The biggest problem with the system is that it is too reluctant to remove kids.

Get in early and take them away.

Don’t give them back.

There are plenty of loving people unable to have children who would love to adopt a child and who would provide the child with a far better life than it could ever expect from its drug addicted, violent, criminal parents.

You could not be more wrong.

Children removed by the authorities are rarely put up for adoption. They are available for foster placements only – and often short term. We are also talking older children and teenagers here, not babies and toddlers, and in groups of siblings – not just one child.

They also unfortunately often have behavioural issues due to their horrible upbringing. People are not exactly lining up to take these kids in, which is why the preference is to keep them in the home whenever possible. This is far from ideal, but when you have nowhere to place these kids, what else is there to do ?

Instead of criticising the Care and Protection Workers, perhaps some Rioters should put their hands up to be foster carers.

You have proved my point.

We don’t take small babies off their parents. We keep giving these deadbeats 5th and 6th chances until finally you have grown children and teenagers being removed from home.

As far as I’m concerned if you are a junkie and you continue to use through pregnancy, the child is taken from you at birth and put up for adoption.

If there is evidence that your 2 month old child is being used as a punching bag by one of the men on the carousel that is your bed, you lose the kid for good.

Intergenerational poverty, drug addiction and violence is a serious problem in our community and won’t be solved by constantly returning small children to a home where they are not safe.

Joy Burch is not really doing a very good job with this portfolio is she.

One could even suggest the word incompetent.

+1. I voted for her last time. Never again. I can’t think of a single thing she’d done in this electorate.

Jethro said :

Violet68 said :

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

The biggest problem with the system is that it is too reluctant to remove kids.

Get in early and take them away.

Don’t give them back.

There are plenty of loving people unable to have children who would love to adopt a child and who would provide the child with a far better life than it could ever expect from its drug addicted, violent, criminal parents.

You could not be more wrong.

Children removed by the authorities are rarely put up for adoption. They are available for foster placements only – and often short term. We are also talking older children and teenagers here, not babies and toddlers, and in groups of siblings – not just one child.

They also unfortunately often have behavioural issues due to their horrible upbringing. People are not exactly lining up to take these kids in, which is why the preference is to keep them in the home whenever possible. This is far from ideal, but when you have nowhere to place these kids, what else is there to do ?

Instead of criticising the Care and Protection Workers, perhaps some Rioters should put their hands up to be foster carers.

sorry, should have been ‘over a year’ and was an unneeded repetition to boot… ranting not good for internal grammar nazi…

Violet68 said :

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports.

How?
If they work within the system, then their suggestions, complaints and lobbying will be carefully filed – and ignored.
If they go to the press, minister, audit, then they’ll get the full force of their superiors displeasure, up to and including being hit with the Official Secrets Act.

I spent years trying to get some absolute basic legal requirements implemented in an area I was in (as in, each person having their own log on to the computer system, needing a 2nd worker to confirm the write off of debts, a paper trail) and a year later gave up.

If anyone has ever successfully forced ACT Admin to even obey the law, I’m surprised/impressed/would like to know more. Actually requiring professional work? Is laughable.

milkman said :

Jethro said :

Violet68 said :

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

The biggest problem with the system is that it is too reluctant to remove kids.

Get in early and take them away.

Don’t give them back.

There are plenty of loving people unable to have children who would love to adopt a child and who would provide the child with a far better life than it could ever expect from its drug addicted, violent, criminal parents.

The absolute truth. Scum shouldn’t be raising children.

“Scum” is a relative term.

Jethro said :

Violet68 said :

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

The biggest problem with the system is that it is too reluctant to remove kids.

Get in early and take them away.

Don’t give them back.

There are plenty of loving people unable to have children who would love to adopt a child and who would provide the child with a far better life than it could ever expect from its drug addicted, violent, criminal parents.

The absolute truth. Scum shouldn’t be raising children.

Violet68 said :

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

The biggest problem with the system is that it is too reluctant to remove kids.

Get in early and take them away.

Don’t give them back.

There are plenty of loving people unable to have children who would love to adopt a child and who would provide the child with a far better life than it could ever expect from its drug addicted, violent, criminal parents.

milkman said :

Lissy said :

These case workers have one of the hardest jobs imaginable. Trauma and abuse day after day, massive case loads and having to put off day to day work to respond to those on their case loads who fall into crisis, with no time to visit or see children who are in a stable placement.

There is no doubt that this is not good enough, vulnerable children deserve so much better than that – but before judging the workers on the ground, do their job for a week.

I have nothing but admiration for the case workers, they do a job most of us couldn’t. How about we remove the layer above them and replace it with some people who are smart, competant and support their case workers to an appropriate level?

You obviously haven’t been a client of the service or had to deal with the workers there.

Lissy said :

These case workers have one of the hardest jobs imaginable. Trauma and abuse day after day, massive case loads and having to put off day to day work to respond to those on their case loads who fall into crisis, with no time to visit or see children who are in a stable placement.

There is no doubt that this is not good enough, vulnerable children deserve so much better than that – but before judging the workers on the ground, do their job for a week.

I have nothing but admiration for the case workers, they do a job most of us couldn’t. How about we remove the layer above them and replace it with some people who are smart, competant and support their case workers to an appropriate level?

Lissy said :

These case workers have one of the hardest jobs imaginable. Trauma and abuse day after day, massive case loads and having to put off day to day work to respond to those on their case loads who fall into crisis, with no time to visit or see children who are in a stable placement.

There is no doubt that this is not good enough, vulnerable children deserve so much better than that – but before judging the workers on the ground, do their job for a week.

If these workers are true to their ethical values and truly dedicated to the protection of children, then they could agitate for change, challenge the system and report unethical behaviour – instead they choose to work FOR and promote a system that generally removes children rather than assisting families to remain together with adequate supports. I don’t give a sh*t about the workers who collect over 65k per year and have no regard for the fact they will only be in these children’s lives for a very short term.

Then there are the workers who are recruited from overseas, paid relocation costs etc to work in a community they have absolutely no experience or understanding of eg. the distance and time it takes to travel by bus from Tuggeranong to Belconnen and how that may impact on a young parent with post natal depression and four children under 5yrs. An all expense paid move from the cold North to sunny Australia at the expense of disadvantaged children…..

Perhaps they wouldn’t have such large caseloads if they actually got real and worked on keeping families together? Wow, then they could actually cut court costs, stop paying the “expert” they so very much prefer or the “care providers” they favour…..hmmmmm wouldn’t that upset the apple cart.

milkman said :

…..Time to sack the executive management and get some people in who will actually get the job done.

Oh I’m sure the job is done from their perspective. Meetings held, budget spent, conferences attended, reports written, much good coffee drunk.

The children? Oh yes, we have solved that problem. Haven’t you read our new strategic plan/mission statement/corporate strategy? Going forward we plan to engage with our stakeholders and workshop this issue to establish the parameters of the key drivers behind the disconnect between the public expectation that the most vulnerable in our society will be protected and the ….bugger it. I’ll have someone write a report. You’ll have it next week. Probably.

These case workers have one of the hardest jobs imaginable. Trauma and abuse day after day, massive case loads and having to put off day to day work to respond to those on their case loads who fall into crisis, with no time to visit or see children who are in a stable placement.

There is no doubt that this is not good enough, vulnerable children deserve so much better than that – but before judging the workers on the ground, do their job for a week.

It’s a bloody disgrace, really. We pay people to do this job, and what do we get?

Time to sack the executive management and get some people in who will actually get the job done.

I agree with you. When you read about these issues affecting the most vulnerable children in town it certainly makes you rethink what you winge or don’t winge about. I hope these concerns alert the caseworkers and particularly those higher up to pay attention to their core business children and caring for them!

How would one of these children or young people in care have the chance to report any problems they might be experiencing, let alone any abuse? A year might seem an eternity to a child in a bad situation. It is unacceptable that they are literally unseen by those with specific responsibility for them.

All the posters (like me) who’ve been arguing about the need for child-friendly restaurants or the best playgrounds in Canberra should spare a thought for these voiceless kids.