One the state’s most in-need areas, Walgett is about to be left without any child protection workers the NSW Public Service Association has revealed. 

NSWPSA Regional Organiser Tom Hooper told the Western Plains App that Walgett has already been without a child protection worker for a long time. 

“They had one admin staff member - she is resigning after 15 years” Mr Hooper explained. 

“They also had one case worker who does out of home care who is also resigning. That means the office will have no staff - and they will have to get workers in from other offices, which are already under-staffed and over-worked”. 

Mr Hooper blamed poor salaries, poor use of work flow structuring systems by senior management and a blow-out in costs for children living in out of home care for causing the resignations across the region and across the state. 

There were 15,628 children classified as at “risk of significant harm” in Western NSW in 2022-23 according to data by the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ). 

“Only one in four of them are actually being seen by caseworkers because of a staff shortage” Mr Hooper said. 

Statistics from the DCJ from the last quarter of 2023 showed 256 full-time equivalent caseworker vacancies in NSW.  

That is more than double the number of full-time equivalent caseworker vacancies compared with 2022.   

Child protection workers are also protesting in Cobar. Image: supplied 

Child protection workers started a month-long strike on Thursday 11 April as a response to persistent issues such as low wages, burnout, and understaffing.  

Currently, there is only one Out of Home Caseworker in Coonamble, who has two support workers to assist her. They work with children in foster care. 

There are four vacant Child Protection Caseworker positions in the town.

Minister for Families and Communities, Kate Washington told the Western Plains App 

“Talks with the PSA are ongoing, and we will continue to negotiate with caseworkers in good faith, as they do one of the most important jobs - caring for the state’s most vulnerable children”. 

Tom Hooper. Image: The Daily Telegraph. 

Ms Washington said the Labor Government had scrapped a “punitive wages cap imposed by the former coalition government” and is embarking on significant structural reform to fix the broken child protection system that we inherited. A critical element of our reform will involve the attraction and retention of caseworkers.” 

It comes as a the New South Wales Auditor-General has criticised the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) saying child protection in NSW "is inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable", and the department was “ignoring calls for improvement”. 

It found that of the 112,000 children classified as at risk of significant harm by the DCJ last financial year, 75 per cent received no home-based safety assessment. 

Ms Washington told the Western Plains App “The findings of both the NSW Auditor-General’s reports confirm everything we’ve been saying since we came into government - that the child protection system is in need of significant structural reform. 

“The recommendations of these reports create a critical roadmap for reform, strengthening our drive for positive change.