Victoria’s child protection workforce – Jo

I would have to say my motivation everyday is the staff.

The staff inspire me to come to work every day.

They do such amazing work with children and families.

They're busy, they keep on top of work,

they ensure that children

are getting a better future for life.

I'm Jo, Deputy Area Operations Manager,

Investigation Response, Child Protection.

Coming into Child Protection, I'd worked closely

with Child Protection in the sector,

so I had a clear understanding of

what their role was and the

types of families and children

that they worked with and

was able to understand the role really well.

You also have the other benefits

of being able to develop a career in Child Protection.

There's so many different areas of Child Protection

you can work in that you can develop your career

and do different types of work

and at different times in your life.

I can see myself working here

for a long, long time.

I do know of staff in my office that

have been there 30 years.

Everybody knows the pressures

that you're under in Child Protection.

So everybody knows that everybody needs support.

So you have the support of team managers,

you have the support of colleagues,

there's a whole range of health and wellbeing programs

that are available as well.

And you also have supervision and reflective practice

with teams and with practice leaders.

A lot of people that are in Child Protection

have made friendships for life.

The practitioners are amazing.

They just bring an amazing skill set to Child Protection

and ensure that they can work really well

with families and ensure positive outcomes for children.