- Historical critical Child Safety IT failure has the potential to put vulnerable children at risk.
- Crisafulli Government is working to fix the issues and ensure frontline staff have the information they need to help protect children.
- External audit to get to the bottom of the issues, more staff have been dedicated to regional intake services and the Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety has been asked to investigate the matter.
A critical IT failure in a program commissioned by the former Labor Government in the Department of Child Safety has the potential to put vulnerable children at risk.
In April this year the Department transitioned to a program called Unify, in line with a set timeline following five years of work under three different ministers from the former Labor government and $183 million in funding.
The bungled IT program has resulted in frontline child protection staff not being able to access timely and accurate information, as well as reporting functions delayed that could potentially put vulnerable children at risk.
It also has the potential to affect the Department's ability to meet its statutory obligations in the way it reports data.
The Department informed Minister Camm on Wednesday of the scale of the IT failure and over the past two days the following work has been undertaken:
- A team of nine Child Safety staff have been stood up to address serious failings in the regional intake services and to help address the IT failings.
- By Monday the Department will engage an external provider to undertake a full audit of the failings and the work that needs to be undertaken to fix the program.
At the time and with the information available the program was rolled out and thought to be working, but over the past few months and with information from frontline workers, it became clear there were issues including:
- Staff access to information that is crucial for the protection of children.
- Key information potentially being overlooked.
- The ability to share information with partner agencies.
- System navigation and design.
Minister Camm said the Department would continue working on a fix for the issues with the program to ensure vulnerable Queensland children are safe.
"The safety of vulnerable children is our top priority, we need to ensure that the Department have an IT system that is working so our frontline staff can continue their vital work," Minister Camm said.
"The former Labor Government set the wheels in motion for this IT rollout back in 2019, with three different ministers overseeing and bungling the development of Unify that is now potentially putting vulnerable children at risk.
"The Crisafulli Government is committed to being transparent with Queenslanders and that includes making them aware when there are issues that affect them like this one.
"I am committed to continuing to work through the issues with the Department and will act on the audit conducted by the independent external provider when that information is handed to me.
"I want to thank our frontline staff for raising the issue and I want to assure them we are working hard to rectify the issues they are facing."
