Child Abuse and Neglect: a socio-legal Study of Mandatory Reporting in Australia

VIC	In Victoria, ‘reports’ or ‘intakes’ are ‘caller-defined’ meaning that most intakes will be initially classified as ‘notifications’. However, Victoria adopts a more stringent approach to this than in Tasmania and the ACT. Intakes are recorded as ‘notifications’ when the reporter either expresses significant concern for the wellbeing of a child, or believes that a child is in need of protection. This may have the effect, relative to other jurisdictions which do not employ this approach, of somewhat inflating the number of ‘notifications’. The agency then determines whether the ‘notification’ has sufficient information to require an investigation.
We requested only data on notifications of child abuse and neglect. Because of the approach taken in Victoria to defining ‘notifications’, we received this data, but it will reflect an inflated number of initial notifications. We did not request data on reports made under Victoria’s differential response system (ChildFIRST) as the study is focused on reports of child abuse and neglect of a higher level of seriousness.
NSW	In NSW, all initial ‘reports’ or ‘intakes’ are first screened by the agency to determine if they meet the threshold of ‘risk of significant harm’. These reports are the NSW ‘notifications’; those that do not meet the threshold are classed as ‘child concern reports’. Hence, ‘reports’ or ‘intakes’ are ‘agency-defined’: the child protection agency determines at intake whether the intake is a child concern report or a child protection notification. The agency then determines whether the ‘notification’ has sufficient information to require an investigation.	We requested only data on notifications of child abuse and neglect. We did not request data on reports made under New South Wales’s differential response system (child wellbeing units) as the study is focused on reports of child abuse and neglect of a higher level of seriousness. We were provided only with data on reports of significant harm for 2010-2012, and earlier summary tables showing partial data on reports of significant harm.