Investigation and assessment

Graphs

Number of notifications requiring investigation, by outcome, Queensland, 2006-07 to 2010-11

Year	Substantiated	Unsubstantiated	Unable to be commenced / completed	Investigations not yet finalised
2006-07	10108	10734	1151	6518
2007-08	8028	10021	805	6149
2008-09	7315	11140	693	4260
2009-10	6922	10429	674	3860
2010-11	6598	10429	545	4083

Proportion of notifications requiring investigation, by outcome, Queensland, 2006-07 to 2010-11

Year	Substantiated	Unsubstantiated	Unable to be commenced/completed	Investigations not yet finalised
2006-07	35.5 %	37.6 %	4 %	22.9 %
2007-08	32.1 %	40.1 %	3.2 %	24.6 %
2008-09	31.3 %	47.6 %	3 %	18.2 %
2009-10	31.6 %	47.7 %	3.1 %	17.6 %
2010-11	30.5 %	48.2 %	2.5 %	18.9 %

Tables

Description	Annual	Quarterly
IA.1: Notifications requiring investigation, by investigation and assessment outcome, Queensland	Excel (XLS, 45 KB)	Excel (XLS, 44 KB)
IA.2: Notifications requiring investigation, by investigation and assessment outcome and child safety zone, Queensland	Excel (XLS, 31 KB)
IA.3: Notifications, by whether investigation and assessment commenced within the response timeframe, Queensland	Excel (XLS, 47 KB)	Excel (XLS, 46 KB)
IA.4: Notifications with a substantiated or unsubstantiated outcome, by time taken to complete investigation and assessment, Queensland	Excel (XLS, 47 KB)	Excel (XLS, 49 KB)
IA.5: Notifications requiring investigation, by investigation and assessment outcome and region, Queensland	Excel (XLS, 48 KB)	Excel (XLS, 50 KB)

What is an investigation and assessment?

All notifications recorded by the department are investigated and an assessment is made as to whether the child needs protection.

Once it has been determined that a matter will be recorded as a notification, the child safety officer must determine how soon the investigation and assessment will commence, considering the child protection concerns, the child's need for immediate safety and the risk of harm to the child in the near future.

An investigation and assessment is considered to have commenced when the subject child is sighted and interviewed by an authorised officer or when a pregnant woman is first sighted, interviewed and consents to the investigation and assessment when the notification relates to an unborn child. In exceptional circumstances where an authorised officer is not able to access and sight a child within the response priority timeframe, the subject child or pregnant woman may be sighted by a police officer or health professional who can provide information to the department in relation to the safety of the child.

An investigation and assessment is commenced within one of the following response timeframes:

• 24 hours
• 5 days
• 10 days.

The investigation and assessment process involves reviewing the child protection history of the child and family and determining who will be involved in the process. Child safety officers then gather information by sighting and interviewing the child and interviewing their parents. They may also gather information from other agencies and individuals.

Investigations will usually be conducted with the consent of the parents. Where this is not possible or appropriate, an application is made for an assessment order to enable the investigation to take place.

In Queensland, an investigation and assessment must be completed and approved within:

• two months of the date of the notification or
• where the decision has been made that a child will have a 'substantiated - child in need of protection' outcome and a referral is made to the family group meeting convenor, within seven days of the date of the referral.

Why this topic is important

The department has the statutory authority to investigate allegations that a child has been harmed or is at unacceptable risk of harm, assess a child's need for protection or take other actions that are considered appropriate.

The department's response to all notifications is to conduct an investigation and assessment. A thorough investigation and assessment is critical in determining the current and ongoing safety and protective needs of the child.

Trends

Of the 21,655 notifications recorded by the department in 2010-11, 17,572 had an investigation finalised in the reporting period. Of these:

• 6,598 (37.5 per cent) resulted in an outcome of 'substantiated' - where it is assessed that the child has experienced significant harm and/or there is unacceptable risk of harm and there is no parent able and willing to protect the child. Where the risk of future harm is present and the child does not have a parent able and willing to protect them, a child is considered to be in need of protection.
• 10,429 (59.4 per cent) resulted in an outcome of 'unsubstantiated' - where there was no evidence that the child has experienced significant harm and there is no unacceptable risk of harm. In these instances the family may be referred to a support service to help them address risk factors that may lead to future harm.
• 545 (3.1 per cent) were unable to be commenced, or commenced but were unable to be completed due to circumstances beyond the control of the department, and were subsequently closed. This may occur in circumstances where insufficient information is available or where a family is unable to be located.

The remaining 4,083 notifications were recorded as not yet finalised, representing 18.9 per cent of all notifications recorded in 2010-11. A notification may not be reported as finalised within the financial year it commenced because the investigation was still in progress, the investigation was completed but the outcome was not yet recorded on the central system, or the investigation was completed and entered on the central system but yet to be approved.

The number of notifications that were determined to require a 24 hour response during 2010-11 was 4,763. Of these, 3,776 had an investigation and assessment commenced within 24 hours, 631 were not commenced within 24 hours, and a further 356 did not yet have an investigation commencement date recorded.

There are a number of reasons that may prevent a child safety officer from sighting and interviewing a child or pregnant woman within the required timeframe. This includes instances where:

• there are serious concerns for staff safety, and a police officer is unavailable to accompany staff within the response timeframe
• geographical distance or lack of access due to seasonal conditions prevents an authorised officer, police officer or health professional from sighting the child
• the family are not at home or unable to be located at that time
• the notification is recorded on a Friday night or Saturday by the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre and police or a health professional are not available to sight the child.

For those notifications with a finalised investigation 58.7 per cent were completed, that is, assessed as substantiated or unsubstantiated, within 60 days (0 to 60 days). There are a number of reasons why an investigation and assessment may not be considered completed within the timeframe. In particular, in accordance with national counting rules, investigations with an outcome of "no investigation and assessment outcome" - that is, the investigation was not able to be either commenced or completed due to factors outside the department's control - are considered to not be complete for the purposes of this measure. This may happen, for example, in cases where the family have relocated. A further exception to completing an investigation and assessment within 60 days is when the approving team leader undertakes any key steps related to the investigation and assessment. In such instances another team leader or child safety service centre manager must approve the investigation and assessment.