❓ Question raises concerns about inaccuracies in the Child Protection Case Management System (Assist) and their impact on reporting the whereabouts of children in care. The answer provides assurances of accuracy and ongoing improvements.
AnsweredQoN 68Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the Auditor General’s Report, Child Protection Case Management System – Assist , dated 21 March 2025, and I ask: (a) are you concerned that the report found that “some child locations are not accurate in Assist” and “in early 2024, it took a business unit in Communities four days to determine the location of 12 children as the information was not in Assist but stored in a separate spreadsheet”; (b) on how many occasions have errors such as these, referenced in (a), resulted in children being inaccurately reported to the Minister and the Director General in the daily report on any children whose whereabouts are unknown; (c) when was that daily reporting, referenced in (b), first commenced under former Minister McGurk; (d) was daily reporting continued for the entirety of the term of service of Minister Winton; (e) is the new Minister committed to the continuation of daily reporting in this term of government; and (f) noting that the Auditor General also found that “some child protection teams use spreadsheets outside of Assist to record the location of children in group homes… due to the difficulties in storing group home addresses in Assist. This means, other business units cannot rely on Assist to quickly ascertain the accurate location of children”. Has this gap in Assist been corrected?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
20 May 2025
Responded by
Minister for Agriculture and Food representing the Minister for Child Protection
Response time
5 days
The Department of Communities (Communities) advises:
(a) Communities has a professional and highly qualified child protection workforce. Communities has clear practice guidance and has a continuous improvement approach to all practices and procedures. Assist Mentors also work alongside child protection staff to support the operation and use of Assist.
(b) None known. Reporting to the Minister and Director General includes a variety of cross-checking measures to ensure accuracy.
(c) 1 March 2022.
(d) Communities has continued to provide information relating to ‘missing’ and/or ‘unaccounted for’ children in care to the relevant Minister since 2022.
(e) The Minister receives daily reports on ‘missing’ children. Reports on ‘unaccounted for – not in contact’ and ‘unaccounted for - in contact’ young people are received weekly.
(f) All group home addresses are available in Assist. Communities is taking measures to raise user awareness of recording of addresses in Assist.
(a) Communities has a professional and highly qualified child protection workforce. Communities has clear practice guidance and has a continuous improvement approach to all practices and procedures. Assist Mentors also work alongside child protection staff to support the operation and use of Assist.
(b) None known. Reporting to the Minister and Director General includes a variety of cross-checking measures to ensure accuracy.
(c) 1 March 2022.
(d) Communities has continued to provide information relating to ‘missing’ and/or ‘unaccounted for’ children in care to the relevant Minister since 2022.
(e) The Minister receives daily reports on ‘missing’ children. Reports on ‘unaccounted for – not in contact’ and ‘unaccounted for - in contact’ young people are received weekly.
(f) All group home addresses are available in Assist. Communities is taking measures to raise user awareness of recording of addresses in Assist.
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