Tech glitch meant child safety cases unreported
Queensland’s Child Safety Minister says 272 cases of possible child abuse or neglect that went unreported because of a computer glitch have not needed intervention so far.
It was revealed on Tuesday that the reports were not passed on from schools to the Department of Child Safety, from September 2013 to January 2015, due to an Education Department computer firewall.
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Earlier this year, a separate IT problem was reportedly the cause of 644 reports regarding suspected abuse not being passed on to police.
The Opposition’s Tracy Davis asked Minister Shannon Fentiman in a budget estimates hearing if any of the 272 children involved in the latest glitch were at significant risk.
“All of these [272] cases have been actioned, they are given absolute priority,” Ms Fentiman said.
“None of them so far has required intervention.”
Consultants Deloitte are investigating the communication breakdown between schools and the Child Safety Department, and another computer problem that blocked reports that were supposed to go to police.
But the estimates hearing was told the unreported matters were a small proportion of the case load.
“For the year ending March 31st, more than 18,000 reports from school personnel had been received by Child Safety,” Ms Fentiman said.
In total she said her department dealt with more than 100,000 reports each year from all sources.
“Child Safety receives more than 300 reports about concerns people hold about a child each and every day,” she said.