A Families SA supervisor has told an inquest he failed to properly oversee a novice social worker's investigation of abuse complaints about the mother of Chloe Valentine.
South Australian Coroner Mark Johns on Tuesday began the final phase of the inquest into four-year-old Chloe's death.
Chloe died of massive head injuries after being forced to ride a motorbike that repeatedly crashed over a three-day period in the backyard of her Adelaide home in January 2012.
The inquest has heard Chloe was never removed from her drug-using teenage mother, Ashlee Polkinghorne, despite enduring chronic neglect.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Families SA supervisor Trevor Bailey admitted he hadn't read a report co-authored by a novice social worker assigned to Chloe's case.
The court heard Craig Rainsford had been in the job for just eight weeks before he was tasked with investigating abuse complaints against Polkinghorne in December 2010.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Naomi Kereru, said the "woefully inadequate" report made no mention of allegations Polkinghorne was using drugs and may have been prostituting herself.
Mr Bailey said he believed at the time that Chloe wasn't in danger but conceded under questioning that his oversight may have put Chloe at risk.
"Possibly, yes," he said.
"There's always a level of risk. I don't know that there was anything else we would have done at that particular time."
Mr Bailey also took responsibility for the fact that Rainsford and another employee, Anna Clarke, failed to interrogate Polkinghorne and ignored requests to seek more information from whistleblowers.
Witnesses have revealed Polkinghorne was often given the benefit of the doubt by case workers, who helped clean her house and avoided confronting the teenager about her drug use.
Families SA received 20 abuse notifications during Chloe's short life.
The inquest continues.
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