More than half the children who died in Queensland’s child protection system in 2021/22 did not die from natural causes, a new report says.
Queensland’s child protection workforce is short-staffed and must be restructured to meet the needs of vulnerable young people, a report says.
The Child Death Review Board (CDRB) has called for a restructure after probing 55 of the 69 child deaths in the protection system in 2021/22 in a report released on Thursday.
Half of those who died were First Nations children and most of the 33 boys and 23 girls did not die from natural causes.
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The report said three children were fatally assaulted or died after being neglected, six committed suicide and six drowned, with another five deaths still being investigated.
Five died from unintentional injuries, five were classified as sudden unexpected deaths in infancy and one was killed in a transport accident.
Most children were living with family or friends or living independently at the time of their deaths, the report said.
The CDRB warned critical staff shortages would continue to worsen in the coming decade if the child safety system’s workforce was not reformed.
“Workforce challenges are exacerbated in regional and remote areas with staff shortages in universal, secondary and statutory services,” the report said.
“Communities with the highest need are often those experiencing the greatest difficulty in filling vacancies and retaining staff.”
The report said government agencies overlapped in some areas of support and a more holistic approach to human services was needed to better ensure children, families and carers received quality support.
The CDRB also criticised the response to domestic and family violence, recommending children be considered specific victims in their own right.
Since it was established, the CDRB has observed a high prevalence of domestic and family violence across the cases it has reviewed.
In most cases, domestic and family violence was not directly associated with, or did not immediately precede, the child’s death, the report said.
“The impacts of domestic and family violence on family functioning and children’s wellbeing were evident,” it said.
State Attorney General Shannon Fentiman said the government would carefully consider the report’s recommendations.
“The death of a child under any circumstances is tragic … we will always look to make any improvements we can to strengthen this system and prevent future deaths,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
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