http://news.theage.com.au/national/docs-picks-up-wrong-girl-at-school-20081127-6j2w.htmlDoCS picks up wrong girl at school
November 27, 2008 - 9:13AM
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The embattled Department of Community Services (DoCS) has apologised to the parents of a child mistakenly taken from a western Sydney primary school by one of its staff.
The seven-year-old was picked up on Wednesday by a DoCS contact worker who had gone to the school to take another girl to an appointment with a speech therapist, a joint Education Department and DoCS statement said.
The DoCs worker provided Penrith South Primary School with the girl's full name and was taken to a classroom by a staff member, but the wrong child was identified.
The worker realised she did not have the right girl after they had driven away from the school, quickly turning around and bringing her back to the school within 10 minutes.
Simon and Sara Raffan, the parents of the seven-year-old girl, Angel, said they were distressed when they were told about the mix up.
"How can someone go into a school with no paperwork, simply say they are from DoCS and just take a child," Mr Raffan told The Daily Telegraph.
"It could have been a paedophile or a killer or anything. They never even asked any questions."
The incident comes just days after a year-long special commission of inquiry into child protection in NSW, which found the department needed an extreme overhaul.
"(The departments) have apologised unreservedly to the families involved in an incident," the joint Docs and Education statement released on Thursday said.
"The DoCS regional director has spoken to the father of the girl who was incorrectly picked up and personally apologised to him and his family for any distress that they have experienced.
"Education Director General Michael Coutts-Trotter has called the father of the child who was picked up to apologise on behalf of the department."
Both departments have promised to investigate what went wrong and if protocols needed to be improved, the statement said.
