Despite a new drive to locate staff for Katherine, with added financial incentives, the ratios of trained staff to child protection cases is falling rapidly.

A Territory Families spokeswoman said as at May 1 there are currently 21 case managers in Katherine working on 749 cases.

This is an average of 35.7 cases per manager.

It is a far cry from the 1:100 ratio first exposed by a Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory last year.

The Royal Commission was told Territory Families could not keep enough qualified staff in Katherine tasked to child protection cases. 

In June last year there were 1313 open child protection reported cases in Katherine, with just 14 case managers to look after them, according to Territory Families.

Today Katherine has 21 case managers, the government spokeswoman said.

The NT Parliament was told recently the average caseload per Territory Families staff member located in Tennant Creek was 42.6 cases. 

Katherine now has 21 case managers working on 749 cases – an average of 35.7 cases per manager.

Across the NT there are 5712 cases being working on by 177 case managers and this is a combined average of 32.3 cases per manager.

Territory Families is trying to fill seven positions in Katherine – six Child Protection Practitioners and one Practice Leader.

It is not just the remote location, but the difficulty of the work which potential recruits find daunting.

The child workers attract salaries of $67,210-$95,996, the practice leader is being offered $98,959-$110,829.