No social workers for 'high priority' children

Almost 850 children who are considered ”high priority” welfare and protection cases by social services have not been allocated a social worker, writes Stephen Rogers.

According to figures released by Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone, there were 25,189 open child welfare and protection cases nationwide at the end of January. Of those, 80% or 20,173 had an allocated social worker. Of the remaining 5,016, 1,287 were classed “low priority”, 2,886 “medium priority” and 843 “high priority”.