New South Wales' Auditor-General found 75 percent of children presumed to be at risk of significant harm got no home safety assessment, and called the child protection system 'inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable'
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The Audit Office of New South Wales' June 2024 performance audit of the child protection system examined the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ). It found that in 2022-2023 DCJ identified 112,592 children presumed at risk of significant harm, but 75 percent did not receive a home-based safety assessment from a caseworker, and that DCJ closed 63 percent of the cases citing 'competing work priorities'. In August 2023, 471 children were living in emergency care arrangements, including hotels, motels and serviced apartments, at a cost of about $300 million in 2022-2023. The Auditor-General made 11 recommendations to DCJ, including developing a strategy to end the use of hotels, motels and serviced apartments for children in out-of-home care and measuring and publicly reporting children's physical safety and psychological wellbeing in care.
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