Warning: This story contains descriptions of the deaths of children.
One of the Queensland child safety officers overseeing the Kerri-Ann Conley case says the deaths of the Conley toddlers in an overheated car could have been prevented if she hadn't been forced to juggle the cases of more than 20 children at the same time.
Alexandra Boscoe worked directly with Kerri-Ann Conley and her eldest daughter for about six months in 2018 and is now speaking out about the crippling workloads facing child safety staff.
"I just want to see change for the people that I know that still work for the department and for the future of our children's safety," Ms Boscoe said.
Last week, Conley was sentenced to nine years in prison for the manslaughter of her two daughters, Darcey-Helen Conley, 2, and Chloe-Ann Louise Conley, 1, after she left them in her car in Waterford West, south of Brisbane, in 2019.
Speaking within strict legal limits, Ms Boscoe said at the time she was working with Conley and Darcey, her workload was too high to be able to do her job.
"I think that if I had more time and a lower caseload, I would have had more time to actively work with Kerri-Ann more intensely and really get to the bottom of the issues she was facing, which could have prevented the deaths of Darcey and Chloe," Ms Boscoe said.
She said she was working with more than 20 children, even though a previous Queensland commission of inquiry had recommended that officers should have responsibility for no more than 15.
"It makes me feel upset that I didn't have that time to devote to the family and it also makes me angry because it's not taken seriously enough to support child safety officers within that space within those caseloads," she said.
She told ABC Investigations that this workload meant weekly or fortnightly visits with families fell by the wayside.
The ABC asked the department if officers are unable to meet basic tasks required of them because they're overloaded.
In response, it said it would be inappropriate to comment during the appeals period and ahead of "any future reviews by a coroner".
In 2017, the Conley family entered a formal voluntary arrangement — called an Intervention with Parental Agreement (IPA) — with child safety which required Darcey to remain at home. Darcey was only several months old at the time.
The department had intervened after receiving reports related to Conley's chronic use of the drug ice, with the aim of working intensely with the family to build a safe environment for Darcey at home.
'The police should have provided this information'
As revealed by Background Briefing, Darcey was taken into foster care when Conley breached conditions placed on her by child safety.
She was returned to Conley in December 2017 after several clean drug tests.
Ms Boscoe took on the case in early 2018.
At the time, her enormous workload was largely made up of children on IPAs, which are high-risk cases because the children stay in the home with the parents.
Ms Boscoe said that child safety officers working with families on these types of arrangements should have no more than four families on their books at a time because the work is so demanding.
"You could do some really intense work with the families and get some really positive outcomes rather than quick fixes and getting more meaningful impact on the families to really focus on better future outcomes, not just in-the-moment outcomes."
The ABC has independently confirmed that Conley refused to continue working with the department at the time child safety closed her case in July 2018, concluding Darcey was safe in her mother's care.
The case closure meeting was attended by Ms Boscoe and multiple child safety managers.
Darcey and Chloe's tragic deaths later prompted an investigation by the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC), which criticised child safety for closing the case.
But in the lead-up to that decision, child safety asked the Queensland Police Service for any relevant information it held concerning the family.
The QFCC found the police failed to tell it about reports that Kerri-Ann was taking and allegedly dealing drugs.
Ms Boscoe was appalled by the revelation.
"The police should have provided this information in terms of our information-sharing requirements," she said.
"I didn't know that happened … I'm just in shock."
"That information is certainly critical information that could have been put forward to us to be able to make a more robust assessment.
"I can't say if that assessment would have been different, but it definitely would have provided us with that critical information to make a more informed assessment."
The Queensland Police Service declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to do so during the appeals period for the Conley matter.
'The children should have been removed'
Background Briefing also revealed that Darcey's father, Peter Jackson, made repeated warnings to the department of child safety three weeks before the girls died.
Mr Jackson told the department that he'd received a text message from Conley which said she'd left Chloe in the car for hours overnight.
Around the same time, a doctor also reported concerns to the department that Darcey had been exposed to methamphetamines at her mother's house.
Mr Jackson had taken Darcey to hospital after finding the girls at Conley's house in the aftermath of a drug binge.
When the ABC showed Ms Boscoe Kerri-Ann's text message to Peter and a doctor's letter detailing concerns about Darcey's exposure to drugs, she was visibly shaken.
She said she thinks that should have been sufficient evidence for the department to intervene.
"So, with that information … I believe the children should have been removed from that household where that was happening."
Ms Boscoe was not privy to those reports coming in at the time because they were made to a different section of the department.
The QFCC investigation found that instead of removing Chloe and Darcey from their mother's care, child safety's intake team dismissed Mr Jackson's and the doctor's reports as unreliable because it was believed they were part of a custody dispute.
A recent Queensland Family and Child Commission report found that 69 children known to the department of child safety died in the year to June 2022.
Of those deaths, 55 have been investigated by the Child Death Review Board.
Three children died due to fatal assault or neglect. In the year prior, 10 children died in those circumstances.
Mr Jackson has called for a commission of inquiry into the department's handling of cases like Darcey and Chloe's.
Ms Boscoe agrees that this is needed to truly examine the failings within the department.
"I believe there should be an inquiry into the caseloads that child safety officers hold and the workload pressures, and the knowledge and training of child safety officers, as well, to make these decisions."
The union representing child safety officers in Queensland, the Together Union, said caseloads are still too high, including in the region where Ms Boscoe worked.
It also told the ABC that officers do their best to achieve the case plan goals with families but it's not always possible when they have too many children to look after.
"When the number of children allocated to a child safety officer is too high, our members tell us that they cannot to do all of the tasks that are required of them.
The Queensland Government said the current average caseload for child safety officers across the state is 16.
'Please don't listen to me'
Ms Boscoe said the girls' deaths have affected her profoundly.
"You get to know the children as well and you have your own sort of love for them, so I was definitely shocked and went through a grieving process for the children, the family and mum as well."
After the girls died, she started to doubt her ability to work with other families.
"Whenever I would step foot in a family's house and provide information to families, and it could be really low-level issues, I would constantly think that, please don't listen to me, your children are just going to die."
She left the child protection field in February 2021.
For the full investigation into Darcey and Chloe's death, download the Background Briefing podcast: How the system failed to save Darcey and Chloe.
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