Hon Nick Goiran asks the Minister for Child Protection about instances where the Department of Communities did not report missing children in care to the WA Police Force, following up on a previous question. The Minister provides details on the reasons for not reporting in each instance.

AnsweredQoN 236Legislative Council
Asked
20 March 2024
Portfolio
Child Protection

QuestionView source ↗

CHILDREN IN CARE —
WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
236. Hon NICK GOIRAN to the minister representing the
Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the supplementary
information provided on 12 March 2024 to question without notice 72, asked on
29 February 2024.
(1) Of the six
occasions that the department did not report a child to the WA Police Force as
a missing person, how many were for the
reason that the carer had already reported the child as missing to the WA
Police Force?
(2) What were the
reasons on the other occasions?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following response has been provided by the
Minister for Child Protection. The Department of Communities advises as
follows.
(1) There were two occasions.
(2) On one
occasion, the WA Police Force was already actively searching for the child; on
one occasion, the child was located before a
referral was completed; on one occasion, the child was recorded as missing
across the period when the
nomenclature changed and did not meet the agreed definitions of a missing child
when the memorandum of understanding came into effect; and on one
occasion, the child's placement type was incorrectly determined to be ''missing''
and subsequently changed.

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