I liked your old tag too.
Please let me tell you you will not win.
They know who you are here in this forum, they spend more time hurting real people than helping them.
In fact while you are supporting them, they are haunting you, not nice.
Is it private child care is that bad or good?
Well kids first, just this mornings headlines will do, DOC,s has barred that 15 year old from seeing his 12 year old, soon to be a mum.
Why not before she fell pregnant?
Do you know how little workers get paid in child care? even private enterprise?
Horrible story,s of working single mothers struggling to feed a family on those wages exist.
My bottom line is friend please never let your guard down, DOC,s is far better hurting innocents than helping the needy.
If ever whistle blowers could unite and go public without fear some storys would be world headlines but white wash will never go out of fashion.

Hey Belly, I did figure I didn’t have a snowballs chance… [Smile]

Funny aye, do you know when I was first questioned about online activities in the next breath I was asked if I could do separate reports on the children I have instead of combined ones like I had been doing – will make it easier to file them. Staggering really.

NGO caseworkers get more than DoCS caseworkers whose base salary is over 50,000.00 last I heard - NGO caseworkers get more benefits than DoCS caseworkers and company cars as well. Why not, DoCS are paying for it. I missed the single mother story but “child care” is like pre-school?

This morning’s headlines are a joke, a kid sleeping with a kid isn’t even interesting. I don’t see what DoCS were supposed to do to begin with. I’ll put bets on the girl seeing the boy again. Placing a runaway kid with either parent usually results in them running the opposite way. The media are again having a bleat while the big stories that really affect all foster children just slip on by. They will take the baby, not many foster homes take mother and child. Red Cross runs a home for young mums in Sydney. DoCS funds them plus they charge the girls rent from their single mother benefits.

I would happily blow the whistle if not for the hostages they have in my home, it may even be the reason why they left me some but since I did go the Ombudsman’s office (and this was only a short puff on a whistle) I have had no new Short Term placements, my local caseworkers don’t understand it. But DoCS is one thing, an NGO is a much scarier beast Belly.

No matter what DoCS is doing to me I can see that them being diminished in any way will leave children vulnerable to abuse.

Pied Piper

DoCS sound like witch hunters of old - I don't understand why they would be pursuing you on sites like Alternet. OK, you need to keep your head down for the time being. There's an old saying about walking softly and carrying a big stick. So I imagine you'll have to bide your time and keep a record on everything for when you can stick your neck out again.

I agree with Belly on the wages for basic care workers - they're woeful, but case-workers receive a reasonable package and I take your point that NGO case-workers are better paid but from the same bucket as DoCS, which helps the case for privatising being more expensive and no more effective.

In the middle of this all are the children - I despair, what can I say? Our priorities are freaked.

All I can say is that I send all the love and hope and good luck that I can to you. If you just felt a little better, that was because you were given a big hug.

DoCS are a bit weird. Oh the website stuff; someone made an allegation to an office in Queensland which got passed to my local office on the Central Coast. See I’m crap at not identifying myself.

But anyways, the allegation was that I uploaded a photo of a foster child to Altnews. I never did and the owner also wrote and told them I never did. Allegation came from someone I had a bit of a debate with online. Hey she started it and I had no idea that I was dealing with someone with a personality disorder at the time.

Looking around different sites all the information I am getting back is that NGO’s get up to 5000.00 a week per child which about 300.00 they pass on to the caregiver a week and keep the rest to fund management. I get 200.00 a week per child working through DoCS (and that is perfectly adequate for your average under five). I am still trying to find an accurate figure because it seems more nuts than I thought the government could be. The taxpayers should be spewing.

Haha... I thought my night time cold pill had just kicked but nup I find out it was a hug from Fractelle.[smile]

I think I just continue bringing it up everywhere I can find until someone listens.

Oh and the personal meanness I am experiencing from DoCS; well hubby has written to them demanding to know if they have blacklisted his wife and why and asking it be noted what a hurtful situation they have placed me in. The blacklisting appeared the day the Ombudsmans office called my local DoCS, nothing to do with the photo allegation, that was quite recent.

Julie sorry you have indeed blown it.
Take this advice from an expert, keep your head down.
I wear my heart on my sleeve.
You do too.
I truely with my every breath am middle of the road unionist.
That means I am for fairness and equity in all things.
I was at a funeral the other day, for a workmate.
Old bosses reminded me they thought I was a trouble maker.
I knew I had been no such thing, but once told each of them right from wrong.
This time?
I smiled and let it go over my head.
In coming months they will deal with me again, this time as union official looking after my ex work mates.
They will see a wiser man, one who controls his feelings thinks before talking, my old bosses need no help from me.
In your fight,the same one I have filled my life with, for kids safety you must box not brawl.
DOCs holds great fear for me, those kids deserve better, we should never pay some people to have children kids are to wonderful to be treated so badly.

I am unable to shut up Belly but cheers for my name in public ya goose.[smile]

If each situation I have been in regarding foster children I could think to myself “yep they did their best under a difficult situation” then that is life, people, even kids, suffer sometimes.

I do however agree with the privacy of the child being important. A question: Can I sacrifice some children for the good of more without the certainty it will do any good?

I may have been the other way round to you Belly, trained in NZ where the local child services will ring or come and see you, be straight up and give you a damn good telling off. I kept my head down for years and did my babysitting without comment through some really weird situations. Then recently it was just pushed too far and hopefully my local department wont repeat that soul destroying mistake again. One thing is children being messed about and not treated with a lot of thought, entirely another to be told something will cause a child to be terrified and then just carry on anyway.

Aussie child services seem to be a completely different beast, everything covered up and not spoken about, no confirming or denying and a lot of silence and non replies to questions. One caseworker said everything was about politics and butt covering and little to do with the children. I believe caseworkers suffer more from inside the department than what they see on the outside.

PSA haven’t gotten back to me – how do I make a Union let me join for free? The fees are based on income and of course I don’t have a predicted income. If you earn something like 7000.00 a year the annual fees were around 149.00 – seemed a bit rough to me.