The substantiated report caveat. A caveat must be noted about interpreting data on the outcomes of reports for this purpose, as it has been consistently concluded that ‘unsubstantiated’ notifications do not differ markedly from ‘substantiated’ notifications in service need (Drake, 1996; Hussey, et al., 2005; Kohl, Jonson-Reid, & Drake, 2009). However, where enabled by the data obtained, some tentative conclusions may be drawn concerning measures of effectiveness based on the following assessments per annum and over time, for different maltreatment types, of:
the contribution of mandated reporter groups and other reporter groups to total numbers of notifications and total numbers of substantiated notifications;
comparison of numbers and outcomes of notifications across jurisdictions where only one jurisdiction had mandatory reporting;
exploration of changes in numbers and outcomes of notifications after introduction of the legislative mandatory reporting duty;
number of notifications by mandated reporters which were screened out at intake;
This stage of the project therefore generates evidence in each jurisdiction about the reporting practice of different reporter groups regarding different types of abuse and neglect, which can inform the identification of opportunities to harmonise the various statutory regimes. However, decisions on whether, how, and to what extent to harmonise the statutory regimes require policy deliberations and decisions by various government departments.
