Ms ROSOL question to MINISTER for CHILDREN and YOUTH, Mr JAENSCH
Two weeks ago in commission of inquiry response hearings, department staff presented information that showed 31 per cent of child safety officer positions across the combined north and north west were vacant. As if a third of positions being vacant was not bad enough, we have data showing the actual staffing situation is far worse than this. Accounting for staff on workers’ compensation, long-term leave and extended sick leave, we understand real staffing on the ground has reached desperately low levels.
On 30 August, only six staff were at work out of a total of 39 positions. That is 85 per cent of positions unavailable to help children, and it is not an isolated instance. What will it take for you to pull out all the stops and address the severe staff shortages in child safety? When will you do the work needed to properly fill child safety positions and keep children safe?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the member, Ms Rosol, for her question. In Foster Care Week I recognise all the foster carers and kinship carers across Tasmania, including Ms Rosol, who have dedicated their lives and their homes to the task of ensuring that young people who cannot be with their own families are loved and safe. Thank you to all of them.
I acknowledge – and I have spoken here before about this – our challenges with ensuring that we have a fully staffed child safety system across the state. That is why our government has invested in a $4.5 million workforce package, including a payment of $10,000 for eligible allied health professional employees and managers statewide, a market allowance of 15 per cent for employees in the north west, relocation incentives for employees moving to and remaining in the north-west region, as well as a package of scholarships and fee-free places in university and TasTAFE qualification pathways so that we are generating more workers for the future.
We also have a workforce strategy in accordance with the commission of inquiry recommendations spanning not just the government’s own workforce but the whole sector, because you cannot separate the two when it comes to being in the market and attracting and retaining people. We have a child and youth workforce roundtable with the industry and with unions to ensure that we continue to meet the challenges of recruitment and retention in these critical areas.
I am pleased to say that the recruiting process, which has run in parallel with our workforce package, has successfully attracted over 100 suitably qualified applicants and we are in the process of shortlisting those, with a view to interviewing and securing appointments as soon as possible. They will be deployed to the areas of greatest need according to the positions that people have applied for. We will continue to recruit to fill gaps across the state and across the service.
I thank all our child safety staff, our advice and referral line staff, our youth justice workers as well, and the unit coordinators, the youth workers and the administrative staff who have supported them through this very difficult period to ensure that we are continuing to meet priorities for care, ensuring that our foster carers and kinship carers and the young people in their care have access to qualified people who know their cases and their needs and continue to attach them to the supports they need to live full and well cared-for lives.
We do have challenges but I think I can say, hand on heart, that we are pulling out all the stops, we are getting results and we look forward to filling the vacancies that we have.
The SPEAKER – The minister’s time for answering the question has expired.
