The provisional improvement notice, which calls for better recognition of the trauma suffered by frontline caseworkers and for the adequate management of psychological risks, was lodged by a Wollongong-based FACS health and safety representative.

The Public Service Association (PSA), the union representing child protection staff, is fighting to get the trauma experienced by FACS caseworkers recognised by the state government as being the same as that suffered by first responders such as paramedics. 

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission began hearing a case on the issue last week.

PSA industrial manager Kris Cruden said caseworkers often visited homes alongside police officers and paramedics, and should also be considered first responders. 

“They suffer the same sorts of traumas ... when they go out to people’s homes,” Ms Cruden said.

“It’s them who do sometimes find a child who has died, who they walk into a home where there is filth everywhere and drugs on a coffee table that are enough to kill a child.

“It’s them that faces that and they feel that very closely because part of their reason for being is to try to protect those children.”

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Ms Cruden said a child protection worker received the same assistance offered to a “desk-bound person” and called on the government to acknowledge the significance of the trauma encountered by frontline staff.

“They [caseworkers] are not riding a desk all day, they’re actually out there one-on-one with families and seeing these human disasters as they occur,” she said. 

There were 183 workers’ compensation claims by caseworkers for psychological injury in 2013-14, 197 in 2014-15, 204 in 2015-16, 181 in 2016-17, and 113 in 2017-18.

An increasing number of workers have reported experiencing trauma and burnout.

Ms Cruden said the member who lodged the notice “got sick of seeing his colleagues in these situations and not getting the proper amount of help”.

“We know of people who go home and cry for half a day on Sunday, just to get it out of their system, and then turn up for work on Monday,” she said.

“It’s something that no one should have to do on any sort of regular basis.”

Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward said “our wonderful frontline caseworkers” were seeing more children reported at risk of significant harm than ever before.

Workloads were regularly reviewed by the department, Ms Goward said.

A spokeswoman for FACS said the department “works to support the mental and physical health of our staff and has achieved a significant reduction in workplace injuries, including those arising from mental stress”.

“The total number of psychological injuries has fallen by 38 percent from 2013-14 to 2017-18,” the spokeswoman said.

FACS was investing $3.2 million on mental health and wellbeing training for all child protection practitioners, as well as a wellbeing check program for those who work on extreme and confronting cases, she said.

“After the death or serious injury of a child, any practitioner involved in the matter is offered access to debriefing and employee assistance programs,” she said.

“The Office of the Senior Practitioner reviews FACS’s involvement with children who have died and, throughout that process, support is provided to practitioners so they can talk about their work and provide input into the review and any recommendations.

“FACS has also recently implemented shared child protection decision making, improving results for families and reducing stress for individual caseworkers.”