Dozens of vulnerable children were deemed not at risk by Victoria’s child protection system. They are now dead

Victoria’s most at-risk children are falling through the cracks of a child protection system straining under increased demand and funding shortfalls, new reports show, as advocates warn of “stunning” gaps in data and lack of carer support. The state’s commissioner for children and young people has also raised the alarm about cycles of ineffective referrals to voluntary services, and closed reports in 35 cases of children who died after interactions with the system. “The commission has continued to see report after report to child protection with ultimately no improvement in the lives of children and young people. That needs to change,” the commissioner, Tracy Beaton said. The commission’s report, tabled in parliament on Thursday, comes a day after the state’s auditor general released a report showing the out-of-home care system was not fully meeting children’s needs. The reports come less than a week after Guardian Australia’s reporting on the inside of the kinship care system , through the story of a Melbourne childcare worker who took on the care of a baby she barely knew last year after a Friday afternoon phone call from child protection. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email The auditor general found the work of child protection services has long been stymied by delayed, inaccurate and incomplete data. …