15 November 2011

Handing vulnerable kids over to the uncertified not against the law

| johnboy
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The child protection saga has been one of the more jaw dropping examples of governance in Canberra of recent times.

The public advocate claimed the Children and Young People Act 2008 was breached when vulnerable children were handed over to a provider that lacked appropriate certification and kept the children in some sort of unheated dungeon filled with broken glass.

Today Joy Burch has tabled advice from the Solicitor General to show that the public advocate doesn’t know the law, and in fact the Director-General can stuff children wherever it pleases them. (maybe something with snakes?)

While it must come as a relief to Joy Burch it’s hard to see how this is reassuring to anyone else.

A full government response is due next week.

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The Department can only do what it can with the extremely limited resources it has.. With a huge increase in the number of children and young people being taken into care and the decrease in foster placements and residential placements.. what other decision do they have?? Why is this “report” not being used to identify the significant under resourcing of such a vital role in the community?

Completely agree about the Public Advocate and the Minister and her idiotic statements. Bring back Katy!

Lillypilly said :

A whole new level of disturbing.

Plus, a lawsuit just waiting to happen from a parent who’s children are taken away to somewhere where something unfortunate happens.

Not realy a new level. Just look at the rest of their track record with all matters of importance that they have meddled with.

Regardless of whether the Director General can place children requiring care where he pleases, there are still the multiple issues that were raised in the report. These issues paint a much larger picture of a department making appalling decisions in their care of vulnerable children.

So, who was it was saying that ‘the law is not stupid’?

‘Lawful’ and totally unacceptable. At least the issue has been raised by the Public Advocate. I hope it doesn’t just disappear like these vulnerable children.

It’ll be interesting to see the response next week.

An extremely sad situation, I reckon. This is one area where the govt needs to lift its game.

A whole new level of disturbing.

Plus, a lawsuit just waiting to happen from a parent who’s children are taken away to somewhere where something unfortunate happens.

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