SA Child Protection Royal Commission Needs to Make "Ambitious" Recommendations, Guardian for Children Says
By Daniel Keane
South Australia's outgoing guardian for children has challenged the royal commission into the child protection system to be ambitious in its recommendations, saying previous overhauls have only tackled "low-hanging fruit". Pam Simmons will leave the job next month after more than 10 years in the role. Since June 2004, she has been a strong voice for children in state care. The current royal commission is being headed by former Supreme Court justice Margaret Nyland and was prompted by the crimes of former Families SA carer Shannon Grant McCoole. It is due to hand down its findings next year. It follows other major inquiries scrutinising the state's child protection mechanisms including the inquest into the 2012 death of Chloe Valentine, and the Debelle Inquiry, which released its findings in 2013. Ms Simmons said one of the biggest priorities was the creation of a system that is better at encouraging victims to come forward. "If there's anything that we can learn from these tragedies, it's certainly that we have to take seriously what children say to us, and we have to act on it," Ms Simmons said. "What I fear is when we have major inquiries like the present royal commission, when they report and recommend, it tends to be the low-hanging fruit that gets picked off. "The kind of higher, more ambitious but terribly important changes [can] waste on the tree, or you only half pick them. "It's relatively easy to appoint a guardian or build more residential care units or provide more social workers. Sure, it costs money, but it doesn't fundamentally change the operation." We need to listen 'more closely' to children Last month, Ms Simmons warned about a rapid rise in the number of children in interim state care which, she said, had "ballooned this year". She also said there were 13 new notifications of alleged serious sexual abuse of children in foster care and 12 in residential care last financial year. There should be more [for children in care] to make up for their prior disadvantage and trauma. Pam Simmons "One of the major shifts that's needed is in relation to listening much more closely and being open to what children have to say," she said. "The other major shift though is put more effort into supporting families [and] being really serious about early intervention when families are struggling. "They are the bigger changes in both approach and culture." Ms Simmons said child protection and family support services remained underfunded, following cuts in the 1990s. "We're significantly below what is spent on a national level," she said. She also highlighted a shortage of foster carers in the state, and said there was still too much reliance on residential care. "When I came into this role, there was a gap between what we would expect and aim for these children if they were born to us, and what we were prepared to accept because they're now children of the state," she said. "There shouldn't be a difference. If anything, there should be more [for children in care] to make up for their prior disadvantage and trauma." Ms Simmons replacement will be senior advocate Amanda Shaw, who will take up the role in December.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.