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Definition

A count of child and young person concern reports received by the DCJ Child Protection Helpline, during the reporting period.


A child and young person concern report relates to the initial contact made at the Child Protection Helpline from mandatory or non-mandatory reporters who have reasonable grounds to suspect a child or young person is at Risk of Significant Harm (ROSH) and has current concerns about the safety, welfare or wellbeing of the child/young person.  Child and young person concern reports are then assessed to determine whether the threshold of significant harm is reached.

The child and young person concern report is classified according to whether the report meets the ROSH threshold or is assessed as requiring no further response at that point in time or alternatively can be forwarded for information or other action.  Reports that do not meet the ROSH threshold are assessed as requiring no response at that point in time.

Counting Rules

Numerators

Calculation rules

Computation

A count of Child Identifiers with a Valid Report Flag equal to 'Y' and a Contact Start Date during the reporting period.

Disaggregation

This indicator may be disaggregated by:

Indicator Specific Breakdown

Distribution/Table Path/Column Dashboard Filter Label
Child Protection Reporting - Base Data Asset CONTACT_OUTCOME Contact outcome
  PRIMARY_HL_ASSESSED_ISSUE_GRPD Primary helpline assessed issue
  CONTACTOR_TYPE_GROUP Reporter type

Geographic Breakdown

Distribution/Table Path/Column Dashboard Filter Label
Child Protection Reporting - Base Data Asset DITRICT_COMMON District
  DITRICT_COMMON Cluster*
  BUSINESS_UNIT_COMMON Business unit

* District Cluster is coded using the District Common variable.

Demographic Breakdown

Distribution/Table Path/Column Dashboard Filter Label
Child Protection Reporting - Base Data Asset ABORIGINAL_STATUS_GROUPED Aboriginal status
    Age*
 

AGE_AT_CONTACT_GROUPED

Age grouped
  DISABILITY_FLAG Disability
  GENDER Gender

* Derived from date of birth.

The Annual Statistical Report disaggregates by Age at contact (grouped) and Contact outcome.
The Operational Business Review disaggregates by Aboriginality status, District and Business unit.

Unable to render indicator:internal_disaggregation

Alignment

Rationale

A concern report relates to the initial contact made at the Child Protection Helpline from mandatory or non-mandatory reporters. This provides an overview of need and allows a tracking over time.  

Alignment: This aligns with national reporting in Report on Government Services (RoGS)

DCJ - Domain
Child Protection

Reporting Information

The Operational Business Review reports monthly.  

The Annual Statistical Report reports annually.

Published by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.

Further Information

Comments

Given that a child may be reported multiple times, the total number of concern reports may be larger than the total number of children involved in concern reports (ie a child/young person may be subjected to multiple reports.)

Since the implementation of ChildStory, there has been a change in the way contact outcomes are reported. From 2017-18 onwards only the categories 'ROSH reports' and 'Non-ROSH reports' are used to report contact outcomes in child and young person concern reports. Risk of significant harm status refers to screening at the DCJ Child Protection Helpline. A child/young person is at risk of significant harm if the circumstances that are causing concern for their safety, welfare or wellbeing are present to a significant extent. This means it is sufficiently serious to warrant a response by a statutory authority irrespective of a family's consent.

Data ageing:

  • Data Ageing is two months, unless otherwise indicated. Therefore, the data for this measure will be available two months after the end of the month in which the data first becomes available.

Data changes:

Data limitations:

  • Nil.

Data source: