Residential care workers call for independent complaints system amid fear of reprisal for speaking out

Australia Broadcast Center

6 hours ago

A teenage girl laughs and says she's going to start a fire.
She grabs anything she can find in the residential care home and sets it alight — first in the fireplace, and then on the stove.
Her youth workers rush to stop her and cut off the gas.
The house is already in ruins, with doors kicked off hinges and windows smashed in.
Hours earlier, workers physically separated the girl from her housemate after they punched, slapped and kicked each other.
Incident reports seen by the ABC show the chaos continued for several days within the residential care home.
In one entry, a worker describes the girls threatening to use garden lamps as a weapon against a staff member who was forced to hide as a colleague attempted to calm them.
In another, a worker says they were forced to call police to report a missing child, that one girl had threatened to kill the other, and they were the only staff member on shift.
A youth worker with knowledge of the situation told the ABC these are just some examples of Queensland's broken residential care system.
But they don't feel safe to speak up under the current framework.
"We just don't have anyone to complain to. It's all internal," they said.
The youth worker said the girls had significant trauma and it was "ridiculous" to place them together.
They said doing so put them and the staff members at risk.
"Before they were even housed together, they had a punch-up at a shopping centre on the meet-and-greet," they said.
"They were throwing chairs at each other and shopping centre security had to get involved."
During the days-long ordeal at the residential care home, one girl attempted to stomp on the other, who bit her leg and assaulted a worker in her path.
Later, one of the teenagers chased the other around a dining table with a belt in hand.
In the incident reports, one of the girls tells a worker they are causing havoc to be kicked out "because she knows how to do it, 'p*** off your [house mate], p*** off the workers, and destroy the place'".
The ABC has spoken with several workers who are urgently calling for an independent complaints mechanism that allows reports to be made anonymously and without fear of reprisal.
"We need to be able to report safety concerns anonymously to an external body," one worker said.
As of December 31, there were 2,212 children in residential care — more than double than five years ago and the highest number of children and young people in residential care nationally.
The LNP promised last September that an independent complaints escalation process for complex cases would be set up by 2030.
Since taking government, the party has announced an 18-month commission of inquiry into the child safety system — set to commence on July 1.
The worker said it's a start, but more urgent action is needed.
"I've reported several health and safety concerns (publicly) to the department that were never addressed," they said.
Queensland's Children Commissioner Luke Twyford said it was "unacceptable" for children to act out in violent ways but also "understandable" when they were detached from meaningful relationships and placed in residential care.
He said he wants to see "bold" and "innovative policy reform" from the inquiry while it is being conducted, adding the "current system is not fit for purpose".
"I continue to call for an improvement in how the state fulfils its role of a parent," he said.
"If we're not focusing on the quality of care that kids get then we're going to see increased crises and increased antisocial behaviours from the children whose needs we should do more to meet."
Glass cloaks the floor of another residential care home.
Two glass doors have been completely smashed through, and white powder falls from fist-sized holes punched into the plasterboard.
A worker says a young person brought a group of older friends back to the home to confront them.
"[Several] young persons attempted to 'jump me'," the worker said.
The worker was protected by a reinforced door and security screen but says many children in resicare are exposed to this environment.
They said on another occasion, they found a hammer-knife multi-tool on a child under the age of 14 after she attempted to stab workers with it.
In a company-wide email, the worker's organisation told employees not to speak to media ahead of the commission of inquiry.
But they don't want to stay silent. They believe there needs to be more oversight of the providers making profit from housing vulnerable children.
Another former youth worker who spoke to the ABC believes for-profit and not-for-profit residential care homes should be phased out and the government should run them instead.
The worker said they observed the neglect of children and other serious concerns during their time in the sector.
They said these issues were ignored, prompting them to leave.
"A tip off hotline is a great idea but it's going to be absolutely useless if it's Child Safety investigating itself," they said.
"Any independent body needs to have the legislative power to go into Child Safety and get the information, all of it, and talk to every person involved, including the children."
Tom Allsop, the CEO of PeakCare — Queensland's peak body for child and family services — said all children in residential care and workers "deserve to feel safe and no level of violence is acceptable".
He said an independent complaints review process to escalate serious concerns about complex cases was "long overdue".
"While PeakCare welcomes the upcoming commission of inquiry, we urge the Queensland government to learn from previous inquiries and not just repeat the mistakes of the past," he said.
"Without a significant commitment to improving the capacity of the child protection system, children, families and the workers who support them will continue to fall through the cracks," he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Child Safety said the "commission of inquiry will provide an opportunity to improve outcomes for Queensland's most vulnerable children and young people. "
They said "funded service providers are required to ensure the organisation has effective feedback, complaints and appeals processes."
"Services are also expected to follow incident reporting guidelines, including reporting criminal offending to police," the spokesperson said.
Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm said she planned to take her time to "unpack the issues and not rush into changes, without having all the information."
"I have asked Commissioner Paul Anastassiou KC to deliver interim reports while the inquiry is ongoing and will act on those reports, including if he raises the need for an urgent change to our complaints process or other reform as needed," she said.