Phone 4342 2070 Fax 4342 2071 Email us

2002 (c) Peninsula Community Access Newspaper Inc

 

Staff pledge for Woy Woy DOCS

 

The State Coalition has pledged to increase staff numbers at the Woy Woy office of the Department of Community Services (DOCS).

The Liberal and National Parties have called on the Government to urgently appoint an additional 200 frontline child protection officers, with the majority to go to rural and regional areas, particularly those areas where families are at high risk of abuse.

The Woy Woy office has been named as one of the regional offices which should have a staff increase.

"Revelations at a Parliamentary Inquiry that DOCS officers are not even able to respond to the most urgent cases of child abuse is extremely disturbing," said Opposition leader Mr John Brogden.

"Family support services have told the Parliamentary Inquiry that there is a crisis in country NSW which has seen frontline staff of DOCS and non-government agencies overwhelmed."

Research had revealed that for every dollar spent on protection and intervention we save $7 of taxpayers' money which would otherwise have to be spent on juvenile justice, corrective services and in dealing with other social ills.

"In any case, no cost is too great to protect our children.

"The NSW Labor Government may fail to put much needed additional workers into DOCS before the March election, but we pledge that a Coalition Government will have those officers at the frontline of the war against child abuse."

The additional staffing, expected to cost $10-20 million, and improvements to the management and systems in DOCS would be among the Coalition's first priorities, Mr Brogden said.

Press release, May 22