House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-12-01 Daily Xml

Contents

Child Protection

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:52): My question is to the Premier. Has any child received a rapid welfare check since 9 November and, if so, how many?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:52): I thank the member for the question. Can I also say in relation to that question, thank you to SAPOL, the Department for Child Protection and the Department of Human Services and other departments that are working very, very closely and in a very coordinated way to ensure that those checks are conducted.

I am advised that as of 29 November, 37 per cent of the assessments have been completed. Of those that are not complete, another 13 per cent are underway. SAPOL continues to do an outstanding job coordinating the effort, and all agencies are certainly working very, very closely together to progress those assessments.

Of the visits that have been entirely completed—the 37 per cent I spoke about—there have been a variety of intervention pathways depending on the circumstances and the particular context for that family. As we have spoken about in this place before, a number of families deal with very complex and deeply interconnected issues. Often families grapple with intergenerational trauma, with poverty, with domestic violence, with substance misuse and with mental ill-health. So, depending on the particular circumstances for any of those families, a variety of intervention pathways have been pursued.

Where an intensive family preservation service is involved, such a service has continued to work with the family to address any ongoing concerns. For other children, family group conferencing may have been initiated and safety plans may have been implemented—again, depending on the circumstances of the particular family—and, of course, referrals to other appropriate services may have been made. Of course, ongoing DCP assessment continues for those particular families, again, taking account of their particular circumstance.

As the shadow minister and the member would appreciate, we cannot provide details about the outcomes of those assessments for individual children; it would be inappropriate to do so. Certainly, I am very pleased to provide that update, that report.