Labour hire firm had six child safety complaints in mandatory scheme’s first month

Queensland’s new mandatory reporting scheme received six complaints in its first month about one labour hire company that provides workers to residential housing for children in the care of the state.

The reporting scheme, run by the Queensland Family and Child Commission, was launched in July to allow suspicious behaviour in child protection, educational, early childhood and care services to be flagged.

Within a month of the scheme getting off the ground, it had received six complaints about workers from Edmen Community Staffing Solutions, a labour hire company that provided workers to various residential housing providers.

At the time, roughly 15 per cent of the complaints made had been about labour hire workers, highlighting the potential risk within the system of workers moving across the residential houses and organisations.

Edmen was recently sold to Healthcare Australia (HCA), officially rebranding in August, two weeks after the six cases had been flagged.

Conduct that must be reported includes concerns or allegations of child sexual offences, sexual misconduct in relation to or in the presence of a child, ill-treatment of a child, significant neglect, violence and behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child.

Child safety expert and head of the University of Queensland’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, Professor Karen Healy, said it was important to remember not all complaints are substantiated, but the concentration at Edmen could indicate a worrying trend.

“I think anywhere where you’ve got a high turnover of staff, you can increase the risk of people coming into the system who are unsuited to the role or who have motivations that may be improper,” she said.

Overall, Healy said she was supportive of the scheme, but said independence and procedural fairness had to come first to ensure people trusted the system.

“Any system to pick up misconduct will face challenges from highly motivated individuals who are seeking to engage in wrongdoing,” she said.

Last week, Attorney General Deb Frecklington said 666 complaints had been reported in the first 10-weeks of the scheme , with 39 people stripped of their Blue Cards, and 200 matters referred to the police.

Since the reportable conduct scheme came into effect, Blue Card Services have considered information received through the scheme as part of their risk assessment process, and can suspend blue cards where there appears to be an imminent risk.

A department of justice spokesperson said they could not comment directly about the matters involving Edmen, but said the scheme had strengthened the law.

Similarly, Queensland Family and Child Commission principal commissioner Luke Twyford said he would not comment about specifics, but he encouraged all organisations covered by the scheme to review their safeguards proactively.