Appendix A. Submissions and comments
Click the link below to download a PDF copy of A. Submissions and comments.
3. Improving child protection practitioner's court experiences
Our 2018 audit found that challenging experiences with other professionals in the court environment were a significant cause of CPP distress.
We recommended that DFFH do more to understand this mental health risk and improve support for CPPs in the court environment.
This chapter looks at DFFH's progress in addressing this recommendation.
2. Better supporting child protection practitioners
Our 2018 audit found that DFFH could improve its mental health support to CPPs.
We recommended DFFH holistically monitor CPPs' mental health, deliver specialised and accessible support to CPPs, and check if its support and services work.
This chapter looks at DFFH's progress in addressing these recommendations.
2.1 Monitoring CPPs' mental health
CPPs are regularly exposed to stressors and experiences that can affect their mental health and wellbeing. These include:
1. Making child protection practitioners' workloads manageable
Our 2018 audit found that unmanageable workloads were damaging to CPPs' mental health.
We said that DFFH should:
- explain the risks of excessive workload on CPP mental health to the government and ask for enough funding
- improve its workforce modelling to better understand what resources it will need in the future.
This chapter looks at DFFH's progress in addressing these 2 recommendations.
Appendix D. DFFH’s ICCMS structure and links
Click the link below to download a PDF copy of Appendix D. DFFH’s ICCMS structure and links.
Appendix C. Scope of this audit
Click the link below to download a PDF copy of Appendix C. Scope of this audit.
Appendix B. Acronyms, abbreviations and glossary
Click the link below to download a PDF copy of Appendix B. Acronyms, abbreviations and glossary.
Appendix A. Submissions and comments
Click the link below to download a PDF copy of Appendix A. Submissions and comments.
3. Factors affecting data quality
Conclusion
The factors that contribute to DFFH’s poor-quality child protection data include:
- DFFH does not comply with the Data Quality Standard
- CRIS is not fit for its intended purpose and its data quality controls do not always work
- child protection practitioners and caseworkers do not have time to record information in a timely way due to their heavy workload.
DFFH told us that it is aware of these issues and is working on a plan to address them.
2. Quality of child protection data
Conclusion
We reviewed CRIS data and found multiple instances of incomplete, inaccurate and inconsistent information.
This means that DFFH’s child protection data does not readily provide current and complete information on vulnerable Victorian children.
This also limits DFFH’s ability to make informed decisions that are in the best interests of vulnerable children.