An extra 42 frontline Family and Community Services caseworkers will be available to meet face-to-face with children at serious risk of harm under a $63Â million funding injection in next week's state budget.
The money will also fund an additional 66 casework support workers, an extra 23 workers on the Child Protection Help Line and 10 more workers on Joint Investigation Response Teams.
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Gladys Berejiklian's priorities as Premier
Gladys Berejiklian has made clear her plans as NSW's 45th Premier â but can she pull them off?
The funding will be spread over four years, with $18 million in 2017-18 comprised of $6 million for extra frontline caseworkers, $9.5 million for casework support workers and $3 million for help line and response team workers.
The announcement comes three months after a parliamentary inquiry found the NSW child protection system was in crisis and the department was incapable of addressing long-standing problems which result in "generations of lost children".
The report found the 17 per cent of the $1.9 billion FACS budget spent on early intervention was inadequate and recommended a one-off injection for "evidence-based prevention and early intervention services".Â
The FACS caseworker dashboard for the March 2017 quarter shows there were 2001 case workers but funding for 2128. It shows that during 2016 of the 79,814 children at risk of serious harm in NSW only 24,114 - or 30 per cent - were assessed face to face.
A spokesman for community services minister Pru Goward said this compared with one in five children seen face to face in 2010 under the Labor government.
The government was unable to say by how much it anticipated the additional caseworkers would improve the percentage of at-risk children assessed face to face.
But Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said additional caseworkers "will mean more of these children can be seen more quickly, including a face-to-face assessment".
"Often these harrowing cases impact our caseworkers deeply and providing additional support workers for them is aimed at helping to ensure they are strong enough to keep doing this job," he said.
"Supporting the children and families who are most at risk in our society is an absolute priority."
Ms Goward said increased community awareness about child abuse and neglect has seen more calls to the help line and the extra funding "will help us continue this important service".
On Monday health minister Brad Hazzard announced that the June 20 budget would include an extra $100 million in palliative care services for terminally ill patients and their families over four years.
He said the money will fund palliative care training for 300 nurses and allied health staff, 300 scholarships to enhance the palliative care skills of rural and regional staff and 30 extra palliative care nurses in hospitals, homes and nursing homes.
It comes as a cross party working group prepares to introduce to parliament a voluntary assisted dying bill that would allow terminally ill patients aged 25 years and over to legally end their lives with medical assistance.