NSW Dept. Communities and Justice

A method to capture one or more instances of service (known as sessions) received by a client or group of clients that is expected to lead to a distinct outcome. A case may contain between one and an unlimited number of sessions.

A case record helps understand what funded activity is being delivered, the location it is being delivered from, the reason clients came to the service and the number of clients receiving a service. Each organisation can create cases in a format that best suits their needs. For users of the web-based portal, cases facilitate navigation and hold clients and sessions together.

• A case can operate over multiple reporting periods, for instance if a client returns to receive the same service.
• Depending on the nature of the service, a case can contain an individual, a couple, a family, or an unrelated group of individuals, such as a regular weekly or monthly group meeting.
• If a client attends a number of different funded activities, each of these is treated as a separate case.
• If a client receives the same services from a number of different locations (known as outlets) managed under the same program activity, each of these is treated as a separate case.
• To report a case, details are recorded about the activity, the location (or outlet) where the service occurred, and the client who will receive the service associated with that case record.

The process of assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and review for a given case. It aims to strengthen families and decrease risks to children and young people through integrated and coordinated planning.

A tool designed to identify the most appropriate level of care for a child. It focuses on the safety and wellbeing needs of the child, including developmental milestones, health and behavioural needs as well as social skill attainment. The tool improves transparency and consistency of placement decisions and focuses on the needs of the child.
The CAT score provides an indication of the level of care required.

It is used for all new out-of-home care (OOHC) placements, cases re-entering care, placement changes and transition of carers (and the children in their care) from Community Services to agencies.

What does the CAT do?

The CAT is based on behavioural issues and health and development needs applied across three age groups (under five years, five–eight years, and nine years and over). It then identifies a recommended level of care, across six levels of care and corresponding placement types.

The tool allows for a 30-day review period, during which the agency may request a review of an assessment completed by Community Services. These reviews are only conducted when new or additional information emerges that may affect the level of care required by the child.

Community Services caseworkers are working with non-government agencies to ensure the CAT is completed based on information about the behaviourial or health needs of a child available at the time of placement.

ChildStory is a collaboration tool that places the child at the centre of their story and builds a network of family, carers, caseworkers and service providers around them. Users will have access to information on a child, so they can better support them. ChildStory is the department’s information technology system for child protection and wellbeing. It encourages collaboration between a child’s network of family, carers, caseworkers and service providers to ensure their safety and wellbeing.

ChildStory Communities

There are five ChildStory communities for different people using the system:

• ChildStory Casework is used by Department of Communities and Justice practitioners, and key child protection practitioners in Police, Health and Education
• ChildStory Partner is used by non-government organisations and other government agencies
• ChildStory Reporter is used by mandatory reporters
• ChildStory YOU will be used by children and young people in care
• ChildStory Caring will be used by families and carers

An individual who receives a service as part of a funded activity that is expected to lead to a measurable outcome.

In the Data Exchange, clients are recorded in two different ways: individual clients and unidentified group clients.

In the FCS program, all clients will be recorded an individual clients. FCS provides face-to-face support (including online or digital interactions) where clients are known to the service. As such, no unidentified clients should be recorded for this program.

Individual clients must have a client record in the Data Exchange. Their client record stores their personal and demographic information. Their client record is attached to the cases and sessions they attend to indicate the services they received.

Corporate Information Warehouse (CIW) enables efficient online access to a large number of pre-defined reports. It provides an integrated view of data collected from ChildStory.

CIW is used by DCJ divisions, clusters and districts to facilitate operational management and corporate and performance reporting by enabling users to:

• View and analyse current daily/monthly data
• Monitor and track overdue and upcoming tasks, assisting individual casework planning
• Make informed decisions about service priorities and funding
• Evaluate processes and programs

Data is loaded and refreshed in CIW on a nightly basis. CIW also incorporates access to snapshot environments that are frozen at the end of each financial year.

A cultural support plan is an individualised, dynamic written plan or a support agreement that aims to develop or maintain children or young people’s cultural identity through connection to family, community and culture. Cultural support plans help to ensure that planning and decision–making are culturally appropriate and in the best interests of the child.

A cultural support plan is usually developed between the person and the agency in consultation with members of the cultural community (or relevant officer) and usually includes:

• Relevant cultural information, including about the child, his or her family, the nation and/or country, community, language, clan, ethnic/island or cultural group and personal history;
• Activities that maintain and support the child’s cultural identity and connection with communities and culture;
• Supports required to ensure that the child maintains his or her connections and is able to participate in activities documented in the cultural support plan.
• Cultural support plans may also be referred to as cultural care plans, cultural case plans or cultural plans. Cultural support plans that are part of provisional care plans are not included in the Child Protection National Minimum Data Set.

Data ageing refers to the requirement of a time lag in extracting data for reporting to accommodate the time between when a service activity occurs and when it is
entered into a client system. The time lag is determined by the minimum amount of time for data to be sufficiently complete in the source system to be accurately reported.

For example, caseworkers who see families in the community are not able to enter data in real time, so a period of time is allowed for that data to be entered. Data is typically aged for two months before extraction. As such there is a minimum of two and a half month lag between the end of a reporting period and the availability of finalised data. For example data for the reporting quarter ending 30 June will not be available until the 31st August (likely available 1st September) at the earliest.

Data ageing provides an opportunity for information recorded in the source system (such as ChildStory) after the fact, to be included in reporting and ultimately provide a more accurate depiction of the situation.

Unaged data is useful for tracking compliance with recording and identifying tasks that are outstanding.  Unaged data is only suitable for operational reporting and use by district staff for the purpose of managing outstanding casework tasks.

The National Agreement for Closing the Gap (Closing the Gap) is an agreement between Australian governments, along with a Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations, aimed at overcoming 'the entrenched inequality faced by too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that their life outcomes are equal to those of all Australians’.

Closing the Gap has its four Priority Reforms:

1. Formal partnerships and shared decision-making.
2. Building the community-controlled sector.
3. Transforming government organisations.
4. Shared access to data and information at a regional level.

Of particular relevance are indicators related to Target 9a and Target 12.

Target 9a: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized (not overcrowded) housing to 88 per cent.

Target 12: Reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45% by 2031.

The physical location where a service took place or where staff travelled from to deliver a service.

In the Data Exchange, an outlet is created using

• an Outlet name
• a street-level address

Outlets are responsible for managing services delivered to clients (grouped by cases and sessions).

Members of the community and mandatory reporters who suspect that a child/young person is at Risk of Significant Harm (ROSH) should report their concerns to the Child Protection Helpline. A child/young person is at ROSH if the circumstances that are causing concern for the safety, welfare or well-being of the child or young person are present to a significant extent. ROSH is determined by the Child Protection Helpline using SCRPT. 

What is meant by ‘significant’ in the phrase ‘to a significant extent’ is that which is sufficiently serious to warrant a response by a statutory authority irrespective of a family’s consent. What is significant is not minor or trivial, and may reasonably be expected to produce a substantial and demonstrably adverse impact on the child/young person’s safety, welfare or well-being. 

In the case of an unborn child, what is significant is not minor or trivial, and may reasonably be expected to produce a substantial and demonstrably adverse impact on the child after the child’s birth. The significance can result from a single act or omission or an accumulation of these. 

Safe and Supported: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021 – 2031 (Safe and Supported) is the framework to reduce child abuse and neglect and its intergenerational impacts, building on the the previous National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children 2009-2020, that laid the critical foundation for national collaboration on protecting Australia’s children. 

Safe and Supported is the key strategy supporting national efforts to make progress under Target 12 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, which aims to reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45% over 10-years (by 2031).

The SDMAC Panels reflect the Aboriginal Case Management Policy and its focus on Aboriginal people, families and communities leading decision-making. Panels are
consistent with the new legislative requirement for practitioners to make ‘active efforts’ to prevent children from entering out of home care, community involvement and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young Persons Principle. The participation element recognises that Aboriginal community representatives should participate in individual decisions about children and young persons.

SDMAC Panels operate in all districts and aim to improve how DCJ makes decisions about the safety, removal and placement of all Aboriginal children in each Community Services Centre (CSC).

Each SDMAC Panel includes Aboriginal practitioners to ensure consideration of culture remains front and centre of all decisions and representatives from Child Law to provide ongoing legal advice and guidance. Aboriginal staff who sit on SDMAC Panels receive ongoing support around their cultural safety. Decisions are informed by diverse perspectives and independent consultation with senior practice leaders before a Director Community Services makes a decision to remove a child from their family.
Resources, including information sessions and workshops, have been provided to each district and the ACiP Unit provides ongoing support.
Integrity and validation measures are planned to track the outcomes of decisions made by SDMAC Panels to help refine and improve the model over time. Changes to ChildStory and the establishment of a dataset are being developed to support this.

An individual instance or episode of service that are stored within a distinct case. A case can contain an unlimited number of sessions.

A session record includes the date the service occurred, the kind of service the client(s) received (known as service type) and which of the clients associated to the case were present. For organisations participating in the partnership approach, client pathways information (referrals out) is recorded at a session level. 

For two specific service types (advocacy/support and record searches), an instance of service is recorded even if the client is not physically present or is only present on the telephone. This is due to the nature of the service provided, and only applies if a substantive effort was put into providing the service and the client is directly benefiting from the service.

Structured decision-making (SDM) is a process that ensures each key decision in child protection is informed by information known through research to be relevant to that decision. A number of decision making tools underpin SDM and assist staff in making key decisions.
SDM is an approach to child protective services that uses clearly defined and consistently applied decision-making criteria for screening for investigation, determining response priority, identifying immediate threatened harm, and estimating the risk of future abuse and neglect. Child and family needs and strengths are identified and considered in developing and monitoring progress toward a case plan. 

Structured Decision Making® Goals

1. Reduce subsequent abuse and neglect.
   a. Reduce subsequent reports.
   b. Reduce subsequent substantiations.
   c. Reduce subsequent injuries.
   d. Reduce subsequent foster placements.
2. Expedite permanency for child/young person.

Structured Decision Making® Objectives

1. Identify critical decision points.
2. Increase reliability of decisions.
3. Increase validity of decisions.
4. Target resources to families at highest probability of future ill-treatment.
5. Use case-level data to inform decisions throughout the agency.