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The department boss who pressed go on a “bungled IT program” that potentially stopped child safety officers from acting on time-sensitive risks to vulnerable children says it was launched for budgetary reasons.
The $183 million program, known as Unify, was launched in April this year – two years after its planned 2023 launch.
Department of Child Safety director-general Belinda Drew today admitted there were known issues with the system.
Belinda Drew (right) and Amanda Camm at a press conference today.Credit: Julius Dennis
“It is true to say at the point of the ‘go-live’ there were some concerns related to data and functionality, but we did not have the option to endlessly work on the system,” she said.
“Another key issue to that was budget.”
A six-week review by Deloitte has now begun, but Drew said the department is stuck with the program.
“We are dependent on this system, we do not have the ability to go back to the old system, and we cannot magically make a new system,” she said.
“We must make this system function as was intended.”
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Amanda Camm said she was only made aware of the issue last Wednesday, and the process of how the decision to launch Unify would also be reviewed.
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“All the information briefed to my director-general, and to me as the minister, provided the recommendation to go live and that it was all good to go,” she said.
Camm today said phase one of the review will focus on functionality, productivity and data management.
“This scope of work will also include stakeholder engagement across the department, particularly with IT staff and frontline managers and officials [in] child safety,” she said.
She said many of the issues with the system could not have been found until it was operational.
She said the public would be updated after the six-week process was over.
Opposition child safety spokeswoman Corrine McMillan said the government put children’s lives at risk by deciding to proceed with the new system.
“It’s terrifying that the LNP government chose to put the lives of the state’s most vulnerable children at risk to save money,” she said.
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