Definitions and practices in the ACT affect the counts of notifications and investigations. Significantly, in the case of the ACT, a qualification must be made in relation to this previous point. As indicated in Appendix 1, the ACT uses a caller-defined protocol when receiving intakes. Essentially, this means that all concerns referred to the child protection agency are initially classed as a ‘notification’ of suspected child abuse and neglect, and not only those related to suspected maltreatment. This will have the effect of inflating the number of notifications in the ACT. The agency then determines whether an investigation is required. Because this decision whether or not to investigate is taken on this wider class of intakes, the ‘investigation rate’ in the ACT may appear low.
