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Definition

A count of concern reports meeting the Risk of Significant Harm (ROSH) threshold for statutory authority intervention, during the reporting period.


ROSH threshold screening occurs at the DCJ Child Protection Helpline. A child or young person is at ROSH 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 (see References below).

Indicator Summary

Numerator

Denominator
No description available
Computation

A count of Concern Reports assessed at the ROSH threshold requiring statutory authority intervention (calculated by counting Report Identifiers that meet the threshold for ROSH), in the reporting period.

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Disaggregation

This indicator may be disaggregated by:

Indicator Specific breakdown

Distribution/Table Path/Column Dashboard Filter Label
Child Protection Reporting - Base Data Asset CONTACTOR_TYPE_GROUP Reporter type
  PRIMARY_HL_ASSESSED_ISSUE_GRPD Primary helpline assessed issue
    Number of reports per child*

 

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 has been recoded into cluster using the District Common variable.

Demographic breakdown

Distribution/Table Path/Column Dashboard Filter Label …
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Reporting Information

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).

Framework Dimensions

Calculation rules

Computation Rule
Computation

A count of Concern Reports assessed at the ROSH threshold requiring statutory authority intervention (calculated by counting Report Identifiers that meet the threshold for ROSH), in the reporting period.

Numerators
Disaggregation

This indicator may be disaggregated by:

Indicator Specific breakdown

Distribution/Table Path/Column Dashboard Filter Label
Child Protection Reporting - Base Data Asset CONTACTOR_TYPE_GROUP Reporter type
  PRIMARY_HL_ASSESSED_ISSUE_GRPD Primary helpline assessed issue
    Number of reports per child*

 

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 has been recoded into cluster 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 grouped
  DISABILITY_FLAG Disability

The Annual Statistical Report disaggregates by Aboriginality, District, Number of reports, Reporter type and Selected issue.

Comments

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 District reflects where the child/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.
  • The ‘Other’ reported in the DCJ District breakdown includes data from the former Hunter New England District which cannot be split into the new districts and data where District could not be identified.
  • 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.

Since the implementation of ChildStory there has been a change in the way reporter type is reported. From 2017-18 onwards, the category of 'Non-mandatory reporters' has replaced the categories of ‘Community/Social organisations’, ‘Family members’, 'Subject child/young person' and ‘Other/Not stated’ which are no longer used.

NP (Not Publishable) refers to small numbers that are not published to preserve privacy of individuals.

Data ageing:

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

Data limitations:

  • Nil.

Data source:

Origin

References

In 2009 the threshold for legislative statutory authority intervention was amended from ‘risk of harm’ to ‘risk of significant harm’.

The NSW Interagency Guidelines outlines what is meant by ‘significant’ in ‘risk of significant harm’.

  • “This means the concern is sufficiently serious to warrant a response by a statutory authority (such as NSW Police Force or Community Services) 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 or young person’s safety, welfare or wellbeing, or in the case of an unborn child, after the child’s birth. 
    The significance can result from a single act or omission or an accumulation of these.”

https://reporter.childstory.nsw.gov.au/s/article/Significant-harm-policy-definition

Custom Fields

DCJ - Domain
Child Protection

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Indicator Sets that include this Indicator 0
Data Sets that are used in this Indicator 1