Advertisement

Child protection experts demand reforms following girl's death

Child protection experts demand reforms following girl's death

Child protection advocates are demanding urgent reforms after the shocking death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine.

She was forced to repeatedly ride a 50kg motorbike until she finally fell and died from horrific injuries in 2012.


Yesterday, her mother Ashlee Polkinghorne and her then-partner Benjamin McPartland were jailed for more than four years over the death.

Families SA has defended its handling of the case.

“I’m satisfied that on the basis of the information that staff had at the time, they made the right decisions,” deputy chief executive of the Office for Child Safety David Waterford said.

It has also denied claims it received more than 200 reports about the family, saying there were 22 notifications.

“A number of those notifications were found not to have a basis,” Mr Waterford said.

Critics say the system used to report child abuse is failing.

Last June 7News tried calling the 24-hour hotline and waited for two hours and seven minutes.

At the time, Families SA said it would look into the problem.

Today, 10 months later, 7News tried calling again.

It still took one hour and 53 minutes, just 14 minutes quicker than last June.

That is despite an extra four staff being put on.

A call-back service was due to start in September, but seven months on, it still is not up and running.

An online reporting system has been introduced, but it is only for non-urgent cases.

“It is never acceptable when people are trying to make a report and they find it very difficult,” child protection expert Dr Elspeth McInnes said.

There will be an independent investigation into Chloe’s death, conducted by the same agency that which examined the so-called house of horrors case, where 21 children were found living in squalor at a Parafield Gardens home in 2008.