The lives of children are being put at risk because Victorian child protection staff cannot cope with ever-increasing workloads, a worker has warned.

The whistleblower, who wants to remain anonymous, has a decade of experience in the sector and said caseloads for child protection staff had become unmanageable since Luke Batty, 11, was killed by his father in February.

She said six months ago, a team of protective service investigators would receive about 10 reports a week from police and courts requiring investigation.

Recently they have been getting 15 reports in a day.

"Whilst it's a good thing that the community and other services are reporting more to us, we just don't have the capacity to respond to the demand and we're not coping," she said.

The child protection professional has spoken out in the hope the Government will acknowledge the need for greater resources.

The whistleblower said complaints to the department were falling on deaf ears.

"What's in the back of my mind is potentially we could have a child death," she said.

Predicted rise in child abuse reporting 2012-13 - 73,000 reports

2012-13 - 73,000 reports 2013-14 - 81,000 reports

2013-14 - 81,000 reports 2014-15 - 90,000 reports Source: DHS

She said staff had been averaging 13-hour days in the past two months but still could not manage their ever-increasing workload.

"We are constantly responding to a crisis and cannot work on our own allocated cases and do the preventative and supportive work that the families require," she said.

The Department of Human Services (DHS) said there were 73,000 reports of child abuse last year and that figure was expected to climb to 81,000 this year and 90,000 next year.

It has funded 23 new positions to handle this year's increase.

But the union representing the workers said that was well short of the 146 child protection officers identified by the department as necessary to cope with the mounting workload.

Government is working to prevent child abuse: Mary Wooldridge

Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge acknowledged more people were reporting child abuse in Victoria, but she said the Government was doing something about it.

"As a result of things like Luke Batty's death, the royal commission into child sexual abuse and other cases, we have had a significant increase in reporting," Ms Wooldridge said.

"It's growing at about 15 per cent per year, but in some areas there have been higher growth rates.

"As a result the Government is obviously working with those local teams where there are a significant increase in reports."

Ms Wooldridge said the Government was responding to the whistleblower's concerns that there was not enough time for preventative work.

"We're investing in the response to that but also very significant investment to try and work with families earlier so it doesn't get to that point," Ms Wooldridge.

"The most recent budget last month also invested in what's called child first, that's where we work with families before they enter the statutory system.

"We've also instituted new programs where we identify young mums who are at risk of abuse or neglect of their children and work with them earlier so that does not occur."

Ice affecting more families referred to child protection

Child protection staff said the common denominator in many cases was use of the drug ice.

It is estimated a third of all reports involve the drug, which is bringing a new demographic to the attention of welfare agencies - middle class parents.

Addressing an ice forum in Geelong earlier this month, Christine Faulkner, the director of the Barwon region of the DHS, gave the example of a father of three who had started using the drug.

"In five months, the children were no longer being fed during the day or showing up at school," she said.

A department spokesman said there was no specific data on the number of ice-related cases being referred to Child Protection Services.

"However, it is clear that ice is affecting a greater proportion of families who have come to the attention of child protection," he said.

Ms Woolridge said the Government is working on an educational program to tackle the problem drug.

"We want to make sure people know that it's a dirty drug, that it is not safe to use, and we're targeting particular cohorts of people ... to prevent them from using that in the first place," she said.

"But if they do, we are then significantly expanding our treatment systems, whether that be in a residential bed-based service, or a counselling service."