This is a case of recent discussion in South Australia, and it this family was taken two nights after the department came and arrested DocSniper from our home.
This case, is a typical example on how they were not doing their jobs, and focus on innocent people, instead of the ones in need. This family was around the corner from me, and they were in dire straits of need, and what did the department do, close the door on them.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2284206.htmChild neglect case prompts debate on community responsibility
The World Today - Tuesday, 24 June , 2008 12:26:00
Reporter: Sara Everingham
BRENDAN TREMBATH: A mother of seven is due to face court in Adelaide today charged with the criminal neglect of five of her children.
Police arrested the woman after they found 21 children living in squalor in public housing in northern Adelaide.
The case has prompted calls from the South Australian Government for the community to do more to help families who appear to be experiencing difficulties.
There were similar calls after the recent deaths of twins in Queensland.
Sara Everingham reports.
SARA EVERINGHAM: On Sunday night police went to two homes in Adelaide's northern suburbs, there they found 21 children with extended family connections all living in overcrowded conditions.
Police describe the situation as shocking.
Their actions came after a mother of seven took her young son to hospital, he was suffering hypothermia and malnutrition.
Six children are still in hospital this morning and the South Australian Government is applying to have the children put into state care.
The other children have been allowed to go home.
As the mother is due to face court today the debate about South Australia's child protection services continues.
The woman's family was known to child protection authorities in Victoria where they once lived but the information was not passed on to authorities in South Australia.
The state's Minister for Families and Community Services Jay Weatherill says there had been child protection notices concerning the second family but he says they were at a relatively low level.
And he told ABC local radio in Adelaide this morning his department can't take all the blame when things go wrong.
JAY WEATHERILL: State child protection agencies are usually the ones that are demonised in the whole child protection debate but they just happen to be the closest people to the… when things go wrong. Now we cannot see child protection as just the responsibility of one agency. It's everyone's responsibility, every state government agency and anyone that comes in contact with that child.
It's not a question of just ringing up the phone and saying well my responsibilities are over.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Jay Weatherill says everyone in the community including neighbours has a responsibility to help families in trouble.
JAY WEATHERILL: Lend a hand, I mean why not lend a hand?
RADIO ANNOUNCER: We're not talking about the Brady Bunch here.
JAY WEATHERILL: I'm also taking about neighbourliness as well. I mean I'm taking about people that are bringing up large numbers of kids.
I mean what do you think we do when we go in to help a family?
I mean we give them some respite, we go in and do the usual things that social workers do with the families. Give them some time off, give them a break. Give them a hand, cook a meal, I mean these are the sorts of things that social workers do.
Now, we pay people to do that but it doesn't hurt to have a bit of neighbourliness as well.
SARA EVERINGHAM: There were similar calls after two 18-month-old twins died most likely having been starved to death in a suburban Brisbane home.
Their deaths had gone unnoticed for more than a week.
Dr David Wood from the child protection group Act for Kids was one person calling on community members to do more to notify authorities of problems.
DAVID WOOD: I think child protection is everybody's business, I think it's your business, it's my business. It's the person's business down the street. And so that means that we're responsible for keeping an eye out for kids, for our kids, for other people's kids and if we've got concerns we should notify them to the appropriate authorities.
Having said that the community has got to have faith that the people you notify to are going to respond appropriately. So they've got to have faith in the professionalism and the quality and the appropriateness and probably the timing of a response as well.
SARA EVERINGHAM: But the Child Protection Advocate Freda Briggs an Emeritus Professor in Child Development at the University of South Australia says the community can't take all the blame.
FREDA BRIGGS: You can't blame the community on what's happened recently for instance in Brisbane had the neighbours reported that a child was wondering into their homes and not adequately clothed or wanting food. It would not have been a priority case and my information is that there are many, many, many cases of neglect of children now.
So if children are showing signs of being neglected at school yes teachers must report. But you would know that departments throughout Australia have said that they only have the resources to investigate serious cases.
And therefore some of these cases of neglect are going to be missed.
SARA EVERINGHAM: South Australia's Minister for Family and Community Services, Jay Wetherill says there's been an explosion of notifications but concedes child protection officers are only able to get to the more serious cases when children need to be removed.
But he says the department still wants to hear from the public.
JAY WETHERILL: It completes the picture for us about the family and obviously if there are serious concerns we act immediately, and I mean the information that was clearly provided to us about… by the ambulance officers was acted upon immediately.
Police were dispatched, children were immediately taken into care.
The South Australian minister Jay Weatherill ending that report by Sara Everingham.
