00:00 Once designated to a case worker, now children in Tasmania's out of home systems like foster care are assigned to a team.
00:10 Instead of having a person to contact, they are given a generic phone number and email address.
00:16 Of hundreds moved to the new system in southern Tasmania, a quarter of them have a disability.
00:22 That meant that children with highly complex needs, including children that I have met as an advocate in detention, were being managed through a team based case management model.
00:31 The change was driven by staff shortages. The Children's Commissioner has been reviewing the system and says it's not working.
00:39 These are situations where children's rights under the Charter of Rights, and there are nine of those rights, are not being upheld.
00:47 The Commissioner found children didn't feel safe, didn't receive health care when needed, and weren't consulted and listened to seriously.
00:55 She found they didn't have regular meetings alone with workers, weren't treated respectfully, didn't have safe contact with their family, and were less supported in their education.
01:05 This is the most important job we have in the state, the care of at risk kids.
01:10 And we ask child safety workers to do it with one hand or both hands tied behind their back. It has to end.
01:16 It hasn't been a perfect system, but it was a response to a set of circumstances at the time, and we will learn from it, and we will work towards a longer term model.
01:27 Out of home care will be outsourced to the private sector, as recommended by the Commission of Inquiry.
01:32 But case management will still be the responsibility of the state government. Establishing how that will work could take years.
01:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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