A CORONER due to hand down significant recommendations to NSW’s child protection system has warned she won’t accept “inadequate resources” as an excuse for failing vulnerable kids. Magistrate Harriet Grahame also revealed she was seeing “terrible outcomes” for children supposed to be protected by Family and Community Services on a “daily” basis in her job. She made the stern comments yesterday during final submissions for an inquest into the deaths of two baby sisters who were born to an ice addicted mother and died within 15 months of one another. The inquest has previously heard about a catalogue of catastrophic failures by FACS, who knew for years their older siblings were living in a drug-ridden hell but ignored repeated warnings due to “competing priorities”. The two tragic half-sisters, known only as BLGN and DG, were three months and 19 days old respectively before they died from “undetermined” causes. BLGN was found lifeless in her cot in April 2014. DG was placed into foster care the day after she was born but died soon after due to health problems. “It worries me so deeply and I do believe that too many children have suffered permanent harm because of this policy of closing cases at an early stage for competing priorities,” Magistrate Grahame said. She said she would not accept that FACS had “too many children to see”. “I know people in the department have come to accept that but I don’t accept it. I see there is one agency with this responsibility (of protecting young people) and I don’t accept at all it can be shifted because of inadequate resources.” She said that four years on since BLGN’s death she still saw “terrible” outcomes for children at risk daily. “In my job I still see every day files that show significant and really terrible, terrible outcomes for children. I see it every day,” Magistrate Grahame said. Anne Horvath, acting for FACS, said that the organisation recognised there were problems and was already in the process of making significant improvements and were running pilot programs. The Daily Telegraph has previously revealed that FACS received repeated warnings about BLGN and DG’s mother which first dated back to 2010. One shocking report included the mother smoking ice in front of her children and one of her children — who is still alive — being burnt by a crack pipe. FACS also received a report of a shooting taking place on the family’s Western Sydney lawn over a reported drug debt. The girls’ mother yesterday broke down in tears as she spoke about losing her two little angels. “As much as it has completely broken me I guess one thing I can say … is I will forever be a proud mum to my angels,” she said. “I hope even though we haven’t got the answers we so desperately need that the girls make a mark on so many other young families from getting pushed to the back of priority cases (due to) a lack of resources.” In a statement yesterday Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward said the NSW Government was “committed to continuously improving the child protection system”. “My thoughts are with the family at this time and we will consider all recommendations made by the coroner in June,” she said. “Our caseworkers are now seeing almost 1 in 3 children, as a statewide average, compared to 1 in 5, in 2010. “We invested an additional $63 million in last year’s budget for more caseworkers on the frontline and more casework support workers.” Magistrate Grahame will hand down her findings from the inquest on June 8. -- ASHLEIGH GLEESON Reporter