Child Protection

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Are children in your care living in placements that are dangerous and harmful? With your leave, and that of the house, Mr Speaker, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms HILDYARD: In the Guardian for Children and Young People's annual report, when describing the ongoing staffing crisis the guardian notes:

These factors have led to such a shortage of residential care placements that, despite the strongest advocacy by my office, some children have been required to continue living in placements that are dangerous and harmful.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (15:00): I might just note that the previous guardian used to comment—I think for about 10 years it was ignored—about the large bed facilities and the danger that children were being left in, in places like Queenstown. In fact, not only did they ignore the previous guardian's calls to close these large bed facilities that were the source—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —of most of the runaways and most of the troubles and most of the issues but Labor sought to build a new one that caused troubles itself. Coming into government, I knew that Labor had made a complete mess of child protection. In fact, there's a very good article from interviewing Jay Weatherill, the previous minister, about just how wrong he got child protection and the mess that it was left in.

We moved very swiftly to close the Queenstown unit. We have also closed the Gilles Plains unit, we have downsized and capped the numbers in other units and we have refurbished. In fact, the Sturt Street assessment unit is now known as Diagonal Road. It looks like The Block have been in and renovated, it looks so amazing. It looks like a magazine cover when you take photos; it's absolutely stunning.

We have gone to great lengths to improve the living conditions of all our children. We have just built an architecturally designed specific home in Davoren Park. We will wait for six months or 12 months to get feedback from all the young people living there and the staff to see if there can be any enhancements made, but we are building homes that are homes that treat children the way that they should be treated, unlike what we saw when we came into government.

We have done extensive recruiting of residential care workers. We have more residential care workers than ever were employed before, and they are working in our residential care homes—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is called to order.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —which are of a better quality and standard than ever before. We have a rolling recruitment for residential care workers and—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —we continue to work with TAFE.

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Ramsay is called to order.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: Every two months we have new carers coming through. With the help of the Minister for Skills and Innovation, we have had 91 of our carers go through and do a certificate IV or diploma course, which means they can now not only be foster carers but they can get jobs in residential care, and some of them have and some of them are getting further experience. We are building depth and capacity throughout our department, and we are fixing the mess that I was left by the former Labor government.

In residential care, the other things that we are doing that are fantastic are that we have invested $600,000 in the Sanctuary therapeutic model. That is being rolled out over three years. It will enhance the experience, and it will be better for children as well as the workers. That training is being undertaken right now. The MyPlace program as well has led to the refurbishment of what was the Sturt Street unit and now the Diagonal Road location. We have also upgraded many of our other homes. We are proud of the investment that we are putting into improving outcomes for children and young people.