Donna-Maree Gavin has only worked in child protection for a little over a year, but her work is already getting noticed, winning WA’s top prize for supporting youth.
CREATE Foundation — the national body that supports youth up to age 25 who currently have or are undergoing out-of-home care, such as foster care — named Ms. Gavin this year’s winner of the WA Caseworker Award.
And she was nominated by two young girls she helps.
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Ms. Gavin, who works in the Mirrabooka office of the Department of Communities, had worked in advertising for 20 years before making the career switch.
“Keeping children in care connected to families is a priority for me, and I am thrilled to have won this award,” she said.
While Ms. Gavin admitted the work had its challenges, she said they were “more than worth” the rewards and satisfaction she got from helping young people.
“It’s hard not to get attached to the kids and take the work in your heart and mind home, but I’m learning strategies to make sure I’m in good shape to help my community,” she said.
“I recently returned five children to their parents after nine months in a temporary shelter, and I will never forget their excited screams.”
Ms. Gavin said that one of the most important parts of her role was relationship building, where she believed she had the greatest impact on young people’s lives.
“I try to invest time in the people I support through my role, whether that’s the kids I work with, their caregivers, or their parents,” she said.
“I take the time to call or come by; call them back quickly and listen. It’s important that everyone feels that they’ve had a chance to be heard and that you’re doing what you say you will do.”
The award came as the state government announced its 2022-23 budget would allocate more than $75 million to staff and services that support children in care and children who can stay home safely.
This includes $36.7 million to provide and improve child protection services, with 36 new child protection workers to increase frontline capacity.
It follows an exclusive report in The West Australian that revealed that children in WAs outside the home care system were being shuffled between different care providers as often as every three months, causing internal problems over the lack of stability provided.
An internal report from the Department of Communities tracked the outcomes of 327 children from 2019 to 2021. It found that children were often moved between different caseworkers, with three-quarters having between four and seven case managers for two years.
And 65 percent had once been a controlled case, meaning they hadn’t been given their case worker.
The department’s deputy director-general Catherine Stoddart said the report amounted to less than 6 percent of children in care, with 5,208 at the end of 2021.
“Where possible, a child in care will keep the same case manager, but sometimes due to work pressure or staff changes, it is necessary to reassign cases to different employees,” they said—Ms—Stod dart.
“Caseloads are regularly reviewed, and team leaders must consider the child protection worker’s skills, capabilities, and experience when determining an employee’s caseload.”
