Protecting children at risk: an assessment of whether the Department of Communities and Justice is meeting its core responsibilities – report tabled in Parliament 5 July

The NSW Ombudsman has released the special report Protecting children at risk: an assessment of whether the Department of Communities and Justice is meeting its core responsibilities – tabled in Parliament 5 July.

The NSW Ombudsman has a statutory function of monitoring the provision of community services, including child protection services. Protecting children at risk reports on our work monitoring the key responsibilities of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), which is the state’s lead child protection agency.

The report concludes that DCJ cannot demonstrate that it is meeting any of its three core child protection responsibilities:

• to respond to any child reported at risk of significant harm (ROSH) who requires an investigation,
• to improve the safety and wellbeing of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) and secure safe, permanent homes for them, and
• to intervene early to prevent escalation of risk of harm to children, and keep families together.

The findings show that over the past eight years, an increasing number of children have been reported at risk of significant harm more than once, with the number who are reported five or more times in a year having doubled.

At the same time, the proportion of children reported at ROSH who do not receive a face-to-face response by a DCJ caseworker has increased from 71% to 75% between 2017-18 and 2022-23.

The available data also suggests that things are not improving for children who do go into OOHC, especially for Aboriginal children.

The report also highlights that, of those children who do leave OOHC, an increasing number return to care.

Download the full Media Release to find out more, including analysis of previously unpublished data, and important new findings about critical parts of the child protection system.

View the full and summary reports here.

Watch the summary video below.