I’m one of the lucky ones.

My mother was forced to relinquish my twin John and I as babies, and we spent time in an orphanage. But we were fostered and later adopted together by the same family.

Later, as CEO of AnglicareSA, my personal story coloured my approach to our foster care and family preservation services. I knew how important it was for children to be safe, to be loved, and to belong.

It could have easily turned out so much worse for me.

The “wicked problem” of child abuse and neglect has been highlighted in recent months by the tragic deaths of two children, but the ongoing neglect and abuse of children in chaotic families goes unnoticed by most.

Data from Adelaide University’s BetterStart Health and Development Research, led by Prof John Lynch, reveals the problem is growing.

About 20,000 children are born in South Australia each year; of these about 1,000 have care concerns registered with the Department of Child Protection (DCP) before birth, and a further 1,000 children have notifications of care concern before they are one year old.

That is 2,000 of the 20,000, or 10% of infants have notifications of suspected abuse or neglect each year.

The rate of notifications of suspected abuse and neglect is also spiralling:

• 25% of children born in 1999-2000 had been notified to DCP by age ten
• 30% of children born in 2001-2002 had been notified to DCP by age ten
• 40% of children born in 2007-2008 had been notified to DCP by age ten
• Notifications of abuse and neglect is now one in three children.
• In 2019/20 there were over 75,000 notifications regarding 39,000 children and over 20,000 families. Of these some 70% were already known to DCP.

The sheer number of notifications means that the overworked and overwhelmed DCP staff have no real chance of reaching all these children. So, in addition to better supporting them and acknowledging the complex challenges these staff face, we need to dramatically slow the influx of notifications.

We can do this by following the research and the data. It’s telling us we need to offer more intensive intervention services, much earlier, to support families to seek help before they fall into crisis.

The evidence shows that families in which abuse and neglect is reported tend to require support from a range of agencies due to substance abuse, domestic and family violence, poor mental health and insecure housing.

While abuse and neglect occur in all socio-economic circumstances and in all locations, abuse and neglect are highly correlated with poverty.

Abuse and neglect of children is also related to the history of the parents. Sadly, young first-time parents who were themselves abused or neglected have a much higher chance of their children being removed.

The sheer number of notifications means that the overworked and overwhelmed DCP staff have no real chance of reaching all these children

Unfortunately, many children who are removed from their birth families have poor life outcomes in terms of repeated failed placements, high rates of welfare dependency and involvement in the criminal justice system.

It’s no secret that the intergenerational impact of abuse and neglect has severe consequences. Aside from the loss of so many failing to reach their full potential, the escalating costs of Out of Home Care and other interventions are unsustainable.

The accumulated evidence points the way towards early prevention, so families are supported with wrap around services before the abuse and neglect renders the children unsafe.

South Australia should turn to the “Child Friendly” approach taken by Leeds in the United Kingdom. It turned a failing child protection service into an outstanding one.

The Leeds City Council engaged the whole community to support the wellbeing of children and young people so that children and their parents are supported by the community as well as by an integrated service and support network.

The success in Leeds came from intervening sufficiently early so that having identified the risks to the children, the family can be supported to become safe and nurturing.

Often our interventions are understandably skewed towards families where abuse and neglect are entrenched in order to divert families from removal and placement of children in care.

However, significant change at this late stage is much more difficult and costly than earlier more effective interventions.

Screening to identify families in need of support much earlier on requires tight integration of services to work together to identify families manifesting one or more of these risk factors.

And given the size of the problem and the current lack of resources, we need to follow the data and focus on those indicators that reveal those at greatest risk and greatest need for early intervention and prevention.

We also know that Aboriginal families are over-represented in child protection statistics. Sadly, we currently primarily apply European approaches to family and parenting programs. Collaborating with First Nations communities to support their children in culturally appropriate family settings would provide a better way forward.

The data clearly show a high correlation of child abuse and neglect with poverty, so with limited resources we should focus on those locations with the greatest socio-economic disadvantage and young parents with a history of Out of Home Care.

Working together to support families is a challenge for government and non-government service agencies, all of which have their own assessment and intake priorities. Much closer coordination between health, education, police, human services, housing and child protection agencies is required to detect and support these families.

Child safety and wellbeing must be paramount so when intensive family support programs are unable to make significant change, then action must be taken by DCP to safeguard children and young people. My experience suggests this will be the case in up to 25% of these families.

Child protection and wellbeing is the ultimate challenge for government and for the whole community. The evidence is in, many of the building blocks are known and now it needs to be put together as a coherent whole.

Wicked problems are solved by the alignment of disparate forces for a common purpose. This requires strong leadership and obsessive effort, both of which I believe are within our grasp.

Peter Sandeman is an Adjunct Professor in the Flinders University Centre for Social Impact, the Anglican Canon for Social Justice and is the previous CEO of AnglicareSA