Should the head of the Department of Child Safety in Cairns North Resign

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Article in the Sunday Mail 27th Feb 2010

http://lukesarmy.com/images/lukes-dad/reference-policeman?pid=17

More than six months before a two-year-old boy died from head injuries suffered in the home of his elderly foster carer, autorities were directed not to place children under three with the 74-year-old.
The boy,known as Luke, was removed from his drug addicted parents and placed into the home of the elderly carer in Cairns on Christmas Eve, 2008,with three other, older state wards.
On January 12, Luke was rushed to hospital with head trauma.He never woke from his coma and died six days later on January 18.
A child safety worker in north Queensland told The Sunday Mail the elderly carer was unwilling to change nappies, and the responsibility for performing such duties was given to one of the other foster children.
The child protection worker claimed Luke's head injuries were suffered in a fall while one of the children, believed to be aged eight or nine, was changing his nappy.
As the State Coroner's Office prepares to launch an investigation into Luke's death, The Sunday Mail, has obtained a document circulated in 2008 that clearly states the elderly carer was never supposed to look after babies and toddlers under three years of age.
The document, titled Current Placement Details 2008, is used by foster care agency Families Plus when sourcing foster carers. It clearly advises that the elderly carer must be sent children aged between three an 18 years of age.
Officers from the Department of Communities determine the appropriateness of foster care placements, but a spokesman said the department had never seen the document.
"Respite and emergency care only,no long term, no bedwetting,soiling,two short term placements maximum," the document reads.
"No children under three years. Carer does not want children in nappies,due to age."
Despite the widely circulated advice contained in the document, Luke was placed with the carer late on Christmas Eve because of the dire lack of carers in regional Queensland.
Before his death, Luke was one of nearly 8000 Queensland children placed on protection orders or living in foster and other out-of-home care.
Families Plus, a division of Lifeline, refused to comment on the matter.
Luke was an emergency placement but there was plenty of time to recognise his placemnent was not appropriate, the child safety worker said.
"The department is ultimately the guardian of these children but they simply do not know what is going on.
"The caseloads are too high,workers and carers are under incredible pressure and the department's child safety are just not out there visiting these children."

So the next step is royal commission

They simply can't ignore this.

Other sites crusading for children lost in the system

Australian Legislative Ethics Commission

ihategovdept.com

Justice for Nathan

Help for parents of children who have been removed by Govt.