Monday 06 May 2024
The Community and Public Sector Union - State Public Sector Federation (CPSU-SPSF) welcomes the decision by the Albanese Government to introduce a weekly payment for social work students on placement. The CPSU-SPSF is the Child Protection Union and the Union for Probation and Parole Officers.
Social Workers play key roles in state and territory governments including staffing the child protection services, supporting detainees and parolees from re-offending through programs, and monitoring in corrective services facilities, youth custodial centres and those on community corrections orders.
Community and Public Sector Union/Civil Service Association (CPSU/CSA) Branch Secretary, Rikki Hendon, said the union welcomed this small step into addressing the serious child protection crisis facing Western Australia.
“Child Protection in Western Australia is a breaking point. This small step in the right direction is welcome, and we look forward to progressing dialogue with the Albanese Government towards the development of a national plan to increase the supply of social workers in the Australian workforce to meet the need for critical public services and support.
“WA Premier, Roger Cook, and Deputy Premier, Rita Saffioti, will soon hand down their first budget at the helm of our state’s finances. Our members hope to see significant measures introduced in this budget to stem the crisis in WA’s Child Protection and Family Support system, where it has become impossible to perform best-practice social work.”
Quotes attributable to CPSU-SPSF Federal Secretary, Karen Batt:
“CPSU estimates that in statutory Child Protection alone there is demand for over 2000 more social workers with social worker vacancies creating a crisis for our most needy children with only a small fraction of reports to our Child Protection agencies being investigated.”
“A number of children are in care but are not being given the support, monitoring or help they need because there are not enough social workers to manage the out of home care arrangements. Early intervention and prevention programs are simply not occurring as needed, if we are to turn around the Closing the Gap Targets and address Aboriginal disadvantage, programs such as this are required to get more social workers into work and helping our most needy.”
ENDS
- The CPSU/CSA covers 44,000 general public sector workers, one-quarter of the WA public sector, including child protection officers, youth custodial officers, park rangers, veterinary scientists and dental technicians.
- Note to Journalists: Please ensure the full acronym, “CPSU/CSA” when mentioning us. The CPSU/CSA and CPSU are separate organisations with the latter covering Commonwealth, ACT and NT public sector workers.
- The CPSU/CSA is a WA Branch of the CPSU-SPSF, along with the WA Prison Officers Union.
- Further quotes from CPSU-SPSF Federal Secretary, Karen Batt, are available here.
For more information or to arrange further comment from Branch Secretary Rikki Hendon, please contact CPSU/CSA Reception on 08 9323 3800 and ask for the Media and Stakeholder Engagement Officer.
