Victoria’s child protection workforce – Taanya

I love the difference that we make

to children in their families.

And I have a really strong commitment to children.

My name's Taanya

and I'm the Director of Child Protection

across Bayside Peninsula.

And I work for the Department of Families,

Fairness and Housing.

I have a Social Work degree and had heard a lot about

the work of Child Protection.

I made a decision to come and work for Child Protection

primarily because I'd had a fantastic

student placement experience.

I really loved the people that I worked with

and was really passionate about the work of Child Protection

and its goal to keep children safe and well in families.

The most rewarding part of the job

is seeing the difference that we

and individual Child Protection Practitioners

make to children and their families.

And the other thing for me that's personally rewarding

is seeing people start in the program

as a new practitioner thriving in their work

and sort of being promoted into more senior roles

as they advance their career.

In the absence of Child Protection and the connections

we often make between children

and the broader service system,

these children often don't have a voice.

And what that means is they're exposed

to really terrible experiences in their family.

It is really important that there's somebody

looking after children across the State of Victoria.

And I hope part of our work is keeping them safe,

but also moving them into a really successful

adulthood and life.