Concerns for child safety has increased in NSW, according to figures released by the NSW Ombudsman.
The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) is the primary government body responsible for the protection of children in NSW, operating under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.
Risk of significant harm (ROSH) has jumped in recent years, with reports to the DCJ increasing, straining staffing and resources and resulting in some cases being under-investigated.
A NSW Ombudsman report has found that in 2024-2025, 65 per cent of the 244,710, risk of significant harm reports were closed on the basis of insufficient capacity, a trend that has been steadily rising since 2022.
NSW Ombudsman, Paul Miller said that closing cases on the basis of NCTA (no capacity to allocate) does not align with the DCJ’s responsibilities, as set out in the Care Act.
“By closing reports without the necessary investigation and assessment, and despite caseworkers having concerns and, in some cases, serious concerns, that the child is at risk of serious harm, DCJ is failing its statutory responsibility under the Care Act,” Mr Miller said, on release of the report.
“Caseworkers have some of the most difficult, yet critical and impactful jobs in society.
“They should be supported by laws, policies and practices that are clear and consistent, and that support them to make the best decisions to identify and respond to those children who are most at risk.”
Springwood lawyer Susan Wild said that laws relating to child protection are drafted as well as they can be, but it is their execution that determines their effectiveness.
“The people working in the system are often young or inexperienced or dealing with very complex issues, often under a lot of stress,” Ms Wild said.
“In my experience, it results in high turnover or burnout among those employed in those areas, and so whilst the laws might be drafted as best we can in any circumstance, and laws are always changing, it is the way that we put them into effect that determines their effectiveness.”
Looking more broadly, across Australia, there has been similar increases in the volume of reports that the DCJ receives regarding the suspected maltreatment of children.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report indicates how many incidents of suspected maltreatment the DCJ has received. For the number of children count, a child is counted only once, even if they had multiple occurrences reported during the year.
Of the 530,000 reports of maltreatment across Australia in 2023 – 2024, 196,000 were investigated, meaning that child protection departments obtained more information and made an assessment about the harm or degree of harm to the child. From that number, 56,800 were substantiated, and the investigation concluded that a child had been, was being, or was at risk of being maltreated.
The above-mentioned case closures do not occur because the risk is low, but because no staff members are available to investigate. These shortages leave frontline workers managing overwhelming caseloads, contributing to burnout, high staff turnover and ongoing vacancies across the system.
Foster carer Colleen Fuller has been in the industry for 14 years and has experienced firsthand the repercussions of staff shortages on the children in her care.
Ms Fuller said many workers are expected to manage far more children than is realistically possible, making it difficult to provide adequate attention to each case.
“There’s been a really high turnover of staff. They burn out because there aren’t enough caseworkers, so they end up taking on too many kids. You can’t split yourself around 10 kids, but that’s what they’ve had to do here,” Mrs Fuller said.
“When I had four kids in my care, they [caseworkers] had my four kids, and then they had heaps of others because of the staff shortages. There weren’t enough caseworkers to go around all the kids, so they had to cram them in.
“It meant that half of them were getting forgotten about, and things weren’t getting done for them.”
Across the past eight years, the number of children known to the DCJ out of the number of children who died has remained stable, with 2024 having the smallest number known to the DCJ.
The DCJ’s annual report shows children who were reported because they or their siblings were suspected of being at risk of harm three years before their death.
In 2012, a Berkeley toddler died from multiple injuries; the mother was later charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence. Following the toddler’s death, dozens of Wollongong caseworkers stopped work for an hour over concerns that inadequate staffing led to the incident. They called on the NSW Government to fill empty caseworker positions.
Ms Fuller said that a lot of the time, caseworkers get burned out because they feel they aren’t being listened to when they’re trying to advocate for a child.
“They burn out and get upset because they’re not being heard,” she said.
“When they try to advocate for the kids that they have, sometimes it just falls on deaf ears, so they just leave because they’re burnt out.”
As such, Ms Fuller believed the implementation and effectiveness of child protection laws are being ignored due to staff shortages within DCJ.
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