Almost 100 child protection jobs are forecast to be cut over the next 12 months, with abuse prevention experts questioning how the system will cope with fewer resources.
NSW budget papers reveal 56 staff involved in the assessment of children at risk of serious harm will be lost in 2016-17.
The papers reveal a reduction of 35 staff supporting children in foster care.
The proportion of children at risk of serious harm receiving a face-to-face check from a caseworker has at stalled at about 30 per cent, according to figures from the Department of Family and Community Services.
Improving the child protection system has been identified as a NSW government state priority.
The deputy chief executive of the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, Leesa Waters stressed the need for better early intervention.
"You could keep investing in the child protection system but there is never going to be enough to adequately cover all the children at risk," she said.
"There needs to be a real commitment to prevention but I don't believe we are seeing a lot of that from the state government."
Premier Mike Baird said the government's greater commitment to child protection was already paying dividends.
"Protecting our most vulnerable is one of the most important things a government can do," he said.
"Of all of our priorities this one is the one that is already showing the most encouraging results and, while we have a long way to go we are already seeing a real difference.
"We can never be complacent but I am determined to get this right."
Opposition community services spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk questioned how cutting jobs would help.
"The child protection system was already stretched to breaking point," she said. "We simply cannot continue down this path and expect outcomes to improve."
A FaCS spokesman said the staff reductions would affect its central office and free up more resources for frontline child protection.
He said job cuts to early intervention programs would not reduce services directed to children.
According to FaCS, the child protection system will receive an extra $21 million this year and the out-of-home care budget will increase from $1.014 billion to $1.079 billion to support 22,000 children.
He said more children are receiving face to face assessments from caseworkers, with the most recent figures showing a 7 per cent increase.
The most recent FaCS data shows 75,394 children were reported to be at risk of serious harm with 21,547 receiving a face-to-face check.
The state's child protection system is the subject of an upcoming parliamentary inquiry with a case worker telling Fairfax Media that staff were pressured to complete cases quickly without doing adequate risk assessments.
"The shift away from quality, actually building a relationship with the child and their family, is very short-sighted," said the caseworker, who cannot be identified.
"In the long term it will mean that more children end up in out-of-home care because the early intervention was not done at the outset.
"It's a train wreck being played out in slow motion."
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