Commissioner talks with Community Affairs Committee about Queensland kids

The Commissioner for Children and Young People and Child Guardian, Elizabeth Fraser, welcomed the opportunity to speak with the Community Affairs Committee about issues for Queensland kids on a regular basis.

The introduction of the Parliament of Queensland (Reform and Modernisation) Amendment Act 2011 (the Act) has changed the parliamentary committee system, including reforms to allow CEOs of statutory authorities to be directly questioned during Estimates hearings.

In addition, Ms Fraser will meet the Community Affairs Committee a further two times each year to discuss matters of interest to the joint parliamentary committee.

At this year’s Estimates hearing, the Commissioner provided the Committee with information and advice about Commission processes and outcomes over the 2010-11 financial year, particularly regarding the blue card system and the Community Visitor Program.

The Community Affairs Committee heard that the Commission processed a record 298,750 blue card applications in the last financial year, which marked an increase of 7% from the previous year and nearly 9000 more in the volunteer sector.

The Commissioner acknowledged that the year had produced significant challenges which directly affected normal processing times for blue cards, but importantly, Ms Fraser was pleased to report to the Committee that application process times were returning to pre-flood benchmarks.

The Committee heard that the blue card system currently monitors approximately 510,000 blue cards on a daily basis and, in the year gone, 677 high risk individuals were prevented from providing child regulated services, and over 400 organisations were audited for compliance with their risk management obligations.

Minister for Community Services and Housing and Minister for Women, the Honourable Karen Struthers MP, articulated the value and robustness of the system.

"Effectively, we have a world-class system operating in Queensland that is nationally and internationally renowned," Minister Struthers said.

During the year, the Commission has worked with its partners to strengthen the blue card system by successfully putting in place:

• systems and processes to enable legislation to reduce duplication of criminal history screening, and
• a new blue card database with the capability and capacity to accommodate the new processes and increased volumes.

The Community Affairs Committee also heard that, in 2010-11, the Commission completed regular and frequent visits to over 7,604 children in care which generated over 41,100 reports to confirm or generate advocacy about the safety and wellbeing of the individual children.

Over 3,756 site reports were completed relating to residential services and other visitable sites such as mental health facilities, boarding schools, externally supported sites and detention centres.

The Commission’s Community Visitor Program is a unique and valuable function which allows the Commission to independently monitor the circumstances of all children and young people living in foster homes, residential facilities and detention centres through a program of scheduled and unscheduled visits. These visits are generally conducted on a monthly basis.

Adjustments to visiting schedules are made for certain children (only in foster care) where information and evidence about the status and circumstance of the child over a six-month period describes a stable situation and no concerns. Importantly, the Commission’s Community Visitor (CV) continues to make assessments on individual situations, and if required, the monthly visit schedule can be resumed.

"Achieving this scheduling flexibility reflects a level of confidence in some parts of the child safety system, based on a substantial body of knowledge made possible by the Commission’s established Community Visitor function. Importantly, it indicates that a number of children are receiving appropriate standards of care," Ms Fraser said.

"It also means we can focus on visiting those children whose circumstances need more attention. We have also been able to visit remote areas more frequently. All detention and residential facilities are still visited monthly."

CVs actively supported children and young people during Queensland’s natural disasters through telephone contact to establish their immediate safety and wellbeing.

The Commission’s next meeting with the Community Affairs Committee will be in September and October this year.

For more information about the Estimates hearing (Community Affairs Committee), please refer to the Hansard transcript of parliamentary proceedings.

Last Updated: August 29, 2011

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