Queensland's Minister for Children has been forced to intervene to stem the growing tide of complaints from foster carers in the state's north, who say children's safety is being jeopardised by bureaucrats.
Leanne Linard flew to Townsville to address widespread allegations of case mismanagement within the child safety sector.
Ms Linard and the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs director general, Deidre Mulkerin, were told that foster carers did not know how to escalate concerns about decisions the department made on behalf of vulnerable children.
"We heard carers here say that that used to be a really well understood system some time ago," Ms Linard said.
Townsville disability and child safety advocate Mark Claydon was one of several stakeholders within the child safety sector who made complaints to the department about case management in Townsville.
Children's safety overlooked
Mr Claydon said he feared the department was rushing the reunification process, leaving vulnerable children at risk.
"Some of them [are] being removed from long-term stable, and what I would call loving, environments where their needs are met," Mr Claydon said.
"They're being placed back in positions with family and community at short notice, where due diligence hasn't been fully conducted.
Mr Claydon first raised his concerns with the department in the form of a seven-page letter in July 2021.
The letter questioned whether the department had an unofficial policy to reunite children, particularly Indigenous children, back with their biological family by the age of 16, rather than focusing on their overall safety and wellbeing.
Ms Linard rejected the existence of such a policy and said Ms Mulkerin had investigated the claims.
"That is not a policy, I'm not sure if it has been confused with other things and the focus on reunification with families," Ms Linard said.
"If that's not possible, then that's when Child Safety removes them."
Urgent reform needed
A department spokesperson said efforts would be made to address complaints about communication issues between the department and foster carers.
This included work with local carer support groups, creating more points of contact for carers to report issues, and a personal email to every carer from their manager providing them with information about how to escalate issues.
But Mr Claydon said the communication issues were the fault of the department, not carers.
"Carers know how to escalate matters, they know how to escalate concerns," Mr Claydon said.
"We've got a complaint system that does nothing.
Mr Claydon said issues within the sector in Townsville were much more "deep seated" and that the minister needed to conduct a "deep dive investigation" into individual case management complaints in Townsville and across Queensland.
