Proportion of children and young people involved in Risk of Significant Harm (ROSH) reports

The Operational Business Review reports monthly.  

The Annual Statistical Report reports annually.

Published by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.

This indicator allows monitoring the demand for child protection investigations, including making resource decisions.

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

Caseworkers in DCJ Child Protection Helpline apply the Structured Decision Making (SDM) Screening and Response Priority (SCRPT) tools to reports to determine the level of response category.

• ‘Other’ in the ‘Other/NA’ reporting category for response priorities include reports marked as ‘no response required’ and those with the required information left blank. ‘NA’ (Not Applicable) relates to ROSH reports where additional children were recorded at the time of the field assessment. The data reported for “Other/NA’ in 2019-20 is not directly comparable to that reported in the previous years, because: the large number of ROSH reports with blank final response priority reported for 2019-20 were attributed to the Streamlined Response Pilot in Northern NSW District, where the Response Priority Tool was no longer being used to determine the response priority. ‘Not Applicable (N/A)’ mainly relates to ROSH reports where additional children were recorded at the time of the field assessment. The data reported for ‘Other/NA’ in 2019-20 is not directly comparable to that reported in the previous years as a large number of ROSH reports with blank final response priority reported for 2019-20 are attributable to the Streamlined Response Pilot project underway in the Northern NSW District where the Response Priority Tool is no longer being used to determine the response priority.
• ‘Prenatal reports’ are reported under ‘Carer: other issues’ prior to 2012-13. 'Other issues' includes ROSH reports where additional children were recorded at the time of field assessment; hence, Helpline assessed issue is not applicable.

The data for non-Aboriginal children and young people also includes children and young people with Aboriginality status "not stated".

The district reported in this measure reflects where a child or young person’s case plan is held at their first ROSH report in the reporting period.

• The Hunter New England District was split into Hunter District and New England District from 2018-19. This means that no data will be displayed for Hunter District or for New England District before 2018-19 and no data will be displayed for Hunter New England District after 2017-18.
• Statewide Services also includes 'not entered', in most cases where reports don't require a field response after an assessment/screening is undertaken at the DCJ Child Protection Helpline.
• The ‘Other’ reported in the DCJ District breakdown refers to; reports which could not be classified under Statewide Services or a DCJ District; or reports from the former Hunter New England District which cannot be split into the new districts.

Data limitations:

• The LGA is derived based on the postcode 2019 to LGA 2020 concordance sourced from the ABS. The postcode is based on the location at contact of the CYP when the ROSH reports were received in the Helpline during the year. A new postcode 2022 to LGA 2022 concordance from the ABS are currently being reviewed and will be applied from 2023-24 onwards.

Data source:

• Key Information and Directory System (KiDS)/Client Information Warehouse (CIW) for data before 2017-18.
• ChildStory/Minimum Data Set (MDS)/Corporate Information Warehouse (CIW) for data after 2017-18.
• ABS Estimated Resident Population, NSW at 30 June Preliminary (Catalogue 3101.0 Table 51)

Data ageing:

Data is aged two months, unless otherwise indicated as preliminary.

Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998