Some of Victoria's most vulnerable children have been left in the care of convicted sex offenders by the state's child protection agency.
In one case, a child monitored by the Department of Human Services (DHS) was living with a convicted sex offender, despite the child's disclosures of abuse by the offender in the past.
In another case, it took the DHS 17 days to act on a complaint that two boys, aged five and six, were living with their grandfather, who is a convicted child sex offender.
By the time the department went to intervene, the boys had gone but they were eventually found and relocated.
In his 2008-09 annual report, Ombudsman George Brouwer raises serious questions over the department's capacity to protect children.
None of the DHS staff interviewed by Mr Brouwer's office knew how to conduct a police check on prospective carers.
Community Services Minister Lisa Neville said her department had failed in its duty of care to the children involved in the cases singled out by the Ombudsman.
"No child should be placed in a situation where they may be at risk and that did happen in these cases," she told reporters on Wednesday.
Ms Neville has been summoned to a meeting with Premier John Brumby on Wednesday night to finalise a package of measures designed to improve the protection of children.
The premier said he was deeply concerned about the failures highlighted in the report.
"If you look back at every government in our states or around Australia there would be governments ... that would say in hindsight, they should have done more in relation to protecting children," he told reporters.
"We will be announcing further initiatives and further policies to make sure that we don't have children that slip between the gaps and that children are given the importance within the system and within government that they rightfully deserve."
Ms Neville told parliament it was unacceptable that mandatory police checks were not conducted by DHS.
"It is unacceptable, in even one case, for the department not to follow these procedures," she said.
Ms Neville has asked DHS secretary Fran Thorn to conduct a review of every placement to ensure criminal checks have been carried out.
Mr Brouwer found DHS staff had excessive workloads and received inadequate supervision.
One child protection supervisor had 64 children waiting to be allocated a child protection worker.
Mr Brouwer found there were several unsupervised children on Children's Court orders.
"This means that courts have determined these children are in need of protection, yet the Department of Human Services has been unable to provide an adequate level of monitoring," he said.
The threshold for intervention increases as resources were stretched to meet demand, Mr Brouwer said.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the system was stressed and the government was to blame.
"The responsibility of this government is to protect children. They're not protecting children, they're actually exposing children and it's an absolute outrage," he told reporters.
The failure of the legal system to protect 'our' (read children of the masses) children is DELIBERATE, and designed FOR the criminal element.
IF the lawmakers were serious the laws would be amended accordingly, promptly.
The so-called family resolution centres DO -NOT protect the very children they are supposedly designed to do,
INSTEAD they are mass information collection points into the detailed lives of the individuals concerned, to be on government records.... FOREVER !
THEY FAIL TO PROTECT CHILDREN !!! !!! !!!
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