NSW: Report on NSW child deaths released

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-2004
NSW: Report on NSW child deaths released

A new report says the New South Wales Department of Community Services was alerted
to an alarming number of children who subsequently died in suspicious circumstances.

State Ombudsman BRUCE BARBOUR has released his first Reviewable Deaths Annual Report,
which looked at the deaths of children and young people between December 2002 and December
2003.

The report reviewed 137 deaths in detail, and found 61 per cent had died in suspicious
circumstances or from abuse or neglect.

In 75 per cent of those cases, there had been a risk of harm concerning the children
reported to DoCS in the three years before their death.

Twenty-two per cent of children who died were Aboriginal.

Mr BARBOUR says better measures could have been taken to care for the children, but
there was no guarantee that they wouldn't have died.

He says the responsibility for children lies with parents, as well as DoCS.

AAP RTV af/jel/rcg/rt

KEYWORD: DEATHS (SYDNEY)

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