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Child protection and support services (CPSS) - notifications, investigations, and substantiations NMDS pilot (2008)

This item has been retired and is not recommended for use by any registration authority.

Definition

The Child Protection and Support Services National Minimum Data Set (CPSS NDMS), is designed to capture information on all children and young people involved in the child protection systems throughout Australia.

There are three collections within the pilot CPSS NMDS, all of which are unit record data. The first is the child protection specific data, which includes notifications, substantiations and investigation and services provided. The second is data on children who are on care and protection orders. The third is data on children in out-of-home care.

Child protection notifications, investigations and substantiation data collection.

All notifications made to the child protection authorities during the collection period should be included. Also, any notification that was made during a previous reporting period that was finalised in the collection period should also be included.

A notification consists of reports made to an authorised department by persons or other bodies making allegations of child abuse or neglect, child maltreatment or harm to a child. Notification should not include reports regarding wider concerns about children or families which are classified as child concern reports.

Notifications are relevant to persons who are aged 0–17 years, and to unborn children in jurisdictions where they are covered under the child protection legislation.

The implementation of the unit record data collections across all jurisdictions has not been finalised. Further results from the pilot testing and current aggregate data collections will be investigated prior to completion of a revised NMDS.

Metadata items in this Data Set Specification

Below is a list of all the components within this Dataset Specification.
Each entry includes the item name, whether the item is optional, mandatory or conditional and the maximum times the item can occur in a dataset.
If the items must occur in a particular order in the dataset, the sequence number is included before the item name.

Data Elements
Reference Data Element Data Type Length Inclusion #
Child protection notification—assessment decision date, DDMMYYYY Date/Time 8 mandatory 1
Child protection notification—assessment decision type, code N - - mandatory 1
Child protection notification—care and protection order flag, code N Number 1 optional 1
Child protection notification—contact date, DDMMYYYY Date/Time 8 mandatory 1
Child protection notification—employment service type, code N[N] Number 2 mandatory 1
Child protection notification—investigation commencement date, DDMMYYYY Date/Time 8 conditional 1
Child protection notification—investigation conclusion date, DDMMYYYY Date/Time 8 conditional 1
Child protection notification—out-of-home care flag, code N Number 1 optional 1
Child protection notification—relationship to child of source of notification, code N[N] - - mandatory 1
Child protection notification—unborn child status, code N Number 1 mandatory 1
Child—abuse and neglect type, code N
Specific Information:

In the Child Protection NMDS, this data element can be collected twice:

  • the primary type of abuse or neglect; and
  • the secondary type of abuse or neglect.

Where more than one type of abuse or neglect has occurred, the primary type of abuse should be the most serious type of harm, as determined by the investigating officer.

The secondary type of abuse or neglect should also be used where there is more than one abuse type recorded. The second most serious abuse type, as determined by the investigatory officer, should be provided.

 Number 1 mandatory 1
Person (address)—Australian postcode, code (Postcode datafile) {NNNN}
Conditional Inclusion:

In the Child Protection NMDS, this data element is collected a minimum of three times:

  • the postcode where the child was living at the time of the contact;
  • the numeric descriptor for a postal delivery area aligned with locality, suburb or place and defined by Australia Post for the residential address of the child immediately prior to entering out-of-home care for the first time; and
  • the numeric descriptor for a postal delivery area, aligned with locality, suburb or place and defined by Australia Post for the specific address of the out-of-home care placement.
 - - mandatory 1
Person (address)—suburb/town/locality name, text A[A(49)]
Specific Information:

In the Child Protection NMDS, this data element is collected a minimum of three times:

  • the suburb/town/locality name where the child was living at the time of the contact;
  • the full name of the general locality containing the specific residential address of the child immediately prior to their entry into their first ever out-of-home care placement; and
  • the full name of the general locality containing the specific address of the out-of-home care placement.
 - - mandatory 1
Person—person identifier, (child protection and support services) NX[X(13)]
Specific Information:

This data element is implemented three times in the Child Protection NMDS. It is collected for the following three items:

  • a code that uniquely identifies a client within a state or territory’s child protection system (unique client identification number);
  • the unique identification number of a child who is the sibling of (or who has a significant attachment with) the subject child and who was living in the same home as the child. This includes biological, adopted, foster, step or half-brother or sisters (client sibling/significant other identification number); and
  • a code that uniquely identifies a caseworker within a state or territory’s child protection system (unique caseworker identification number).

The unique client identifier should be assigned by the state or territory community services department when the child first comes in contact with the department. The child should retain the same unique identifier across time. This data element should be recorded for each child for each contact, care and protection order and out-of-home care episode.

Any sibling of the child subject to the contact should be also be allocated a unique identification number. This code can be recorded at any stage the client is in contact with the child protection agency, including when the client is on a care and protection order, and or out-of-home care episode.

Each caseworker is to be assigned a unique ID by the Community Services department that will be retained by the caseworker and will remain unique to the caseworker through time. Within each state and territory, each caseworker should be identified by a code using consistent format. The identifier should be assigned by the state or territory community services department when the caseworker is first employed in this role. The caseworker should retain the same unique identifier across time.

 - - mandatory 1
Service event—assistance type, child protection code N Number 1 conditional 6

Comments

Origin:
Child protection and support services data dictionary. AIHW Version 1.0 Oct 2005.

Comments:
The implementation of the unit record data collections across all jurisdictions has not been finalised. Further results from the pilot testing and current aggregate data collections will be investigated prior to completion of a revised NMDS.

References

Child Protection and Support Services National Minimum Data Set Data Collection manual. AIHW Sept 2005.
This content Based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material. Attribution provided as required under the AIHW CC-BY licence.

Related content

Relation Count
As a numerator in an Indicator 0
As a denominator in an Indicator 0
As a disaggregation in an Indicator 0