Victoria’s child protection workforce – Caroline

I do the Child Protection role

and have done for a long time,

because I really enjoy the work that I do.

I find that it's very fulfilling and very rewarding.

I am able to vary the roles that I do,

and certainly at After Hours,

at least the flexibility in my work is very family friendly.

My name is Caroline,

I'm a Child Protection Practitioner

with the After Hours Child Protection Service

within the Department of Families, Fairness, and Housing.

After Hours is the crisis component of Child Protection.

So we operate out of general business hours.

So 24 hours over the weekends and public holidays

and after 5 o'clock and before 9:00 AM in the morning,

and we deal with general crisis only situations.

My first impression of the industry was,

"Wow. This is really interesting.

Something that I can really feel

that I can make a difference in."

I've always had a, quite a huge sense of social justice,

so this line of work certainly fits in

with what my sense of personal justice

is in trying to assist families and children.

What's kept me in this job for so long is the ability

to move within the department into different roles.

So if I've ever gotten to a point,

where I've felt that I'm a little bit stale

or not enjoying the work, as much as what I would like to,

there's an ability to move into a different role,

learn new skills.

So that's probably the biggest thing

as to why I've lasted so long.

Also, I very much enjoy working

with the families that we do.

It's very challenging work,

and that certainly keeps me interested.

The advice I'd give to people, who are looking at a career

in Child Protection is that it can be a very rewarding

and very fulfilling role.

However, it is a very difficult role.

There's lots of challenges in working with families

that are most vulnerable in our community.

However, it is exceptionally rewarding.

I wouldn't have lasted in this job for 27 years

without having a sense of achievement and reward

and a sense of being able to contribute

to helping those that are in most need.