A further note on nomenclature: State and Territory legislation about mandatory reporting normally use the terms ‘reporting’ and ‘report’ to denote key concepts and actions in this domain. Government data systems often use the term ‘notification’ to characterize a report of child abuse or neglect, to distinguish such a report from one that is simply a general contact to the agency about a child’s general welfare unrelated to maltreatment. This research project is about reporting of child abuse and neglect. For simplicity, and because this project is driven by an exploration of legislative mandatory reporting duties regarding child abuse and neglect in practice, our analyses use the term ‘report’ to describe a report made to the Department about suspected child abuse or neglect which is classed by the government agency as a ‘notification’. See further Appendix 1, including Table 1.
