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Definition

A combination of contactor type and contactor role, as represented by a label.

Components

Data Element (this item)

Representation

This representation is based on the value domain for this data element, more information is available at " Child Protection Notification Source Label A(50) ".
Description

The categories for ‘Hospital/health centre', ‘Departmental officer’, ‘Non-government organisation’ and ‘Other’ should only be used for people that could not be elsewhere classified. For example, a medical practitioner employed at a public or private hospital should be recorded as a ‘Medical practitioner’ not as ‘Hospital/health centre'.

Data Type ALPHANUMERICSTRING
Format A(50)
Maximum character length 50
Values
Value Meaning Start Date End Date
Permissible Values Subject Child/Young Person Any person who notifies the department regarding a concern about themselves
Anonymous This category covers all those notifications received from a person who does not give his or her name.
Child Care personnel Any person engaged in providing occasional, part-time or full-time day care for children.
DoCS (now CS) officer Any person, not classified above, who is employed by a state or territory community services department.
Friend/neighbour An unrelated person or acquaintance who is known to, or lives in close proximity to, the subject child or their family, or to the person believed responsible for the abuse or neglect.
Medical practitioner This category includes only registered medical practitioners. This includes both general practitioners and specialists in hospitals or in the community.
Hospital/health centre Any person not elsewhere classified who is employed at a public or private hospital or other health centre or clinic.
Other health Any person engaged in supplementary, paramedical and/or ancillary medical services (for example, nurses, infant welfare sisters, dentists, radiographers, physiotherapists and pharmacists). It does not include social workers and non-medical hospital/health centre personnel.
Non Gov Organisation Any non-government organisation not classified above that provides services to the community on a non-profit-making basis.
Parent/Guardian A natural or substitute parent, spouse of a natural parent, adoptive parent or spouse of an adoptive parent or any other person who has an ongoing legal responsibility for the care and protection of a child.
Sibling Sibling includes a natural (i.e. biological), adopted, foster, step-brother or half-brother or sister.
Other relative Other relative includes a grandparent, aunt, uncle or cousin. The relationship can be full, half or step, or through adoption, and can be traced through, or to, a person whose parents were not married to each other at the time of his or her birth. This category also includes members of Indigenous communities who are accepted by that community as being related to the child.
Police Any member of a Commonwealth, state or territory law enforcement agency.
School personnel Any appropriately trained person involved in the instruction of, or imparting of knowledge to, children or providing direct support for this education. This includes teachers, teachers' aides, school principals and counsellors who work in preschool, kindergarten, primary, secondary, technical, sporting or art and crafts education.
Social Worker Any person engaged in providing a social or welfare work service in the community.
Other All other persons or organisations not classified above (e.g. ministers of religion or government agencies and instrumentalities not classified above).
Supplementary Values Not entered This category includes all reports that are received from an unknown source.

Comments

Guide for Use:

This item refers to the personal or professional capacity of the person who is making the notification. For example, if a person contacts the department as a concerned neighbour and in the conversation it becomes apparent that this person is a police officer, this person is still recorded as a neighbour, as they did not call in their capacity as a police officer.

The source of notification is classified according to the relationship to the child allegedly abused or neglected or harmed.

Collection Methods:

This item should be recorded at the time of the notification to the Department responsible for child protection. If a notification is made more than once about the same event, then only the first notification is recorded. Therefore, only the first person to notify about the event should be recorded.

Origin

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2013. Child protection national minimum data set, data collection manual 2012-13. AIHW: Canberra.

Related content

Relation Count
Input in Derivations 0
Output in Derivations 0
Inclusion in Data Set Specifications 0
Inclusion in Data Distributions 2
As a numerator in an Indicator 0
As a denominator in an Indicator 0
As a disaggregation in an Indicator 0