Mr chairman: Good morning. I welcome Mr Vatskalis, and invite you to introduce the officers accompanying you, and if you wish to make an opening statement on behalf of the Department of Health and Families. Minister vatskalis’ portfolios

ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010 
answer it. Are they full-time workers? Can you answer that one?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: Yes, they are full-time.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: The last of the half dozen or so recommendations was that NTFC act to immediately 
address the backlogs involving initial assessments and case allocation, and to give priority to 
implementing the recruitment and retention strategies developed by their internal review team. Has 
that been done?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: I will begin to answer the question by saying intensive work has been 
undertaken by the central intake team to address the backlog, including staff working additional hours 
and over weekends to reduce that backlog. Recently, I was provided with data that it was reduced to 
almost zero.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Is that backlog in the central intake team?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: Yes.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Specifically?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: Yes.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: It is near zero?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: It was at that time.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: When was that?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: That was a couple of weeks ago.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: What about other case backlogs referred to in one of the coronial findings? There was 
a backlog of cases, some cases with no one getting to them for months and months. What is the 
situation there?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: There are still pressures on the intake team in responding in a timely way 
to getting matters addressed. That is an ongoing issue to ensure we have the initial assessment 
undertaken by experienced staff in a timely way. That is something we are constantly working through 
with the intake team to ensure there are staffing levels addressed to address that backlog.
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: There is also a significant number of notifications, a significant increase from past 
years. In 2007-08, there were 3616 notifications; in 2008-09, it went up to 6189 notifications. Also, a 
lot of these notifications have been assessed. Some of them they follow because they are valid, some 
of them they find that people moved interstate, they were false allegations, there was insufficient 
information, or some of them did not warrant any further assessment. And 2819 were proceeded to 
investigation.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Okay. The Children’s Commissioner, in his report, said there was ‘a recent external 
review into the intake services’, and made a number of recommendations in that review to improve 
the efficiency of the services and, thus, increase capacity. The Children’s Commissioner was referring 
to the Tolhurst review in June 2009. Have all of those recommendations been implemented?
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: There were 41 recommendations. The department accepted the recommendations 
and proceeded to implement them. Some of them are currently under way, others we are progressing, 
and some of them have already been adopted. But, Clare can answer on that.
 

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ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: There are 15 recommendations which have been implemented, including 
intake event and the resolution of policy issues impacting on workflow. Fourteen recommendations 
will be implemented on July 2010, with seven of the 14 recommendations relating to structured 
decision-making ...
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Sorry, can I interrupt? Is that 14 part of the 15 recommendations?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: No, that is a separate 14.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: That is additional. So, we will be up to 29 out of 41?
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: Yes.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Okay, thank you.
 
 
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: Seven of the 14 recommendations relate to structured decision-making 
and will be implemented on 1 July. The remainder of the recommendations relate to work processes - 
for example, installation or upgrade of a new phone system - and we are planning for implementation 
in mid-July 2010. 
 
 
Five of the recommendations are not within the scope of the implementation project that we have 
commenced; for example, the development of the differential response framework and the 
management of the child protection workload. Seven of the recommendations relate to ongoing 
activities; for example, improving work flow, recruiting additional staff, and designing the service 
model.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Thank you. Minister, what budgetary allocation was made in the budget to ensure that 
half of, or thereabouts – a bit over half - of the recommendations will be implemented? You made no 
mention in your budget response.
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: Our budget has increased significantly. On top of our budget, we have actually 
provided extra money to hire extra people. We have allocated $40m to employ 76 people in order to 
fill some of the gaps and to address some of these recommendations. Most of these people will be 
frontline - 64 will be frontline, different levels. Some of them will be university qualified, other people 
will be frontline, but will not be university qualified, because not everybody has to be a Child 
Protection Officer. Some of them will be assisting, and some of them will have to provide support.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: I have some specific questions about that new staffing allocation, but can we not get to 
that now? My question was what is the chunk, if you like, from this budget that goes to increasing the 
capacity of the department to implement these recommendations because, clearly, it is resource 
intensive. So, has a chunk been allocated?
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: Yes. We have allocated $87 000 for consultancy for the SDM, the structure, and we 
have $50 000 worth of telephone system, and have provided additional staff to intake to increase the 
number of baseline staff and team leaders. Of course, money was allocated for the Tolhurst 
consultancy.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Okay. So, no specific allocation over an above that?
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: No.
 
 
Ms CARNEY: Okay, thank you. How many intake workers are currently employed in the Central 
Intake Team?
 
 

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