SA Government Introduces Bill Implementing Recommendations From Chloe Valentine Coronial Inquiry

Monday 11 May 2015 @ 11.09 a.m. | Crime

Last week, the South Australian Parliament introduced the Children's Protection (Implementation of Coroner’s Recommendations) Amendment Bill 2015, which will implement three of the Coroner’s recommendations from the inquest into the death of four year old Chloe Valentine.  Chloe died in 2012 after sustaining serious injuries from being forced to ride a motorbike and repeatedly crashing.  Her mother and her mother’s partner were later jailed for manslaughter by criminal neglect.

Background to the Case

Chloe’s death focused attention on problems with the state’s child protection services, which had received 22 notifications relating to Chloe and her care since she was a few weeks old.  Following the criminal trials, the Government announced that it would be holding a coronial inquest into the case and its handling.  The inquiry began in September 2014 and heard from 39 witnesses including Chloe’s family members and social workers and supervisors from Families SA.  Coroner Mark Johns handed down his findings on April 9 this year.  He called the system “broken and fundamentally flawed”, saying:

“Nothing less than a massive overhaul of Families SA and its culture and training of its staff will be sufficient.”

He also said it was “preposterous, frightening and concerning” that social workers failed to tell Chloe’s mother that her previous boyfriend was a convicted pedophile.

The coroner issued 22 recommendations in his findings, including both legislative and policy changes.  The Government has publicly resolved to support 19 of those recommendations, including supervising social workers with less than 12 months experience, re-training of Families SA staff, and negotiating with the Commonwealth to make a child protection income management regime permanent.  One of the most controversial recommendations, that adoption be introduced as an alternative placement option, is supported in principle, and another relating to police checks and transport of children is to be subject to further investigation.

Provisions of the Bill

The Bill introduced last week will amend the Children’s Protection Act 1993 to implement three of these recommendations, as outlined in the Explanatory Notes:

  • Amending the object of the Act to make it plain that the paramount consideration in the administration of the Act is to keep children safe from harm and that maintaining a child in her or his family must give way to the child's safety, and removing  the fundamental principles set out in section 4 to ensure that the objects of the Act are clear;
  • Amending the Act to recognise cumulative harm as a relevant factor in making decisions about the care of a child.  In assessing whether there is a significant risk that a child will suffer serious harm or a child has been abused or neglected, relevant officers will take into account not only the current circumstances of the child but also the history of the child's care and the likely cumulative effect of that history; and
  • Amending the Act to insert a new category of “qualifying offences”, including criminal neglect, endangering life, causing or creating risk of serious harm, manslaughter or murder, on a child previously born to them.

    “Under the amendments in the Bill, the Chief Executive must, if he or she becomes aware that a child is residing with a parent who has been found guilty of a qualifying offence , issue an instrument of guardianship in respect of the child. The child specified in the instrument will, for all purposes, be under the guardianship of the Minister for a period of 60 days. As soon as practicable within that period, the Minister must apply to the Youth Court for a care and protection order under Division 2 of the Act. If additional time is required to investigate the child's circumstances, the Bill makes provision for the Court to grant an extension of time on application of the Minister.

    Under the Bill, a newborn child who has not yet been discharged from hospital will be taken to be residing with a person if the child is likely to reside with the person, for example the biological mother, on being discharged.”

    The Bill also contains provisions dealing with a person who has committed a qualifying offence who is not the biological parent of the child, but is or will be residing or having contact with the child.

Last month, the Opposition spokeswoman from child protection, Rachel Sanderson, said they were generally supportive of the recommendations and would “work as best we can with Government to ensure that they’re implemented as quickly as possible.”

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