HelpLine and Child Protection Surveys

In 2001 ACWA in association with the Family Support Services Association (FSSA) and UnitingCare Burnside ran two surveys asking member agencies to provide information on their experiences with the DoCS HelpLine.

The DOCS Helpline is an integral part of the child protection system in NSW. It is a crucial resource for receiving, assessing and planning action for children and young people at risk of harm. It is essential to the success of the DOCS Helpline that all those involved, both government and non-government agencies continue to improve and review its functioning and effectiveness in a spirit of openness and co-operation. Two reports on the Survey results can be viewed here:-
Survey 1 April 2001 and Survey 2 August 2001

In 2002 ACWA, UnitingCare Burnside, FSSA, NCOSS, the Womens Refuge Movement and YAA combined to undertake a survey of ngo reporting of child abuse and neglect and the DoCS follow up. The results of the Survey have been collated and analysed.
A detailed report and a summary are available as .PDF files.

In 2004 ACWA released a research report on non-government child and family workers’ experience of mandatory reporting. This was called Expectations and Reality and investigated further the factors which influence the making of reports by non-government child and family service providers, the expectations of reporters when they make a report, and their views as to whether or not children are better protected by the new NSW child protection reporting system.

In June 2005 The NSW Audit Office released a performance audit of the Helpline operated by the NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS). The report states that DoCS has responded well during the audit initiating action to address matters raised as the audit progressed. The report acknowledges that DoCS has:

• adopted a central intake model for collecting child protection information, providing greater assurance that reports are assessed consistently
• improved the overall performance of the Helpline, reducing the average call waiting time to less than five minutes
• introduced processes to fast-track reports that clearly indicate a child is in imminent danger
• routinely monitored urgent reports to ensure they are referred in accordance with the service standards
• commenced a review of the assessment framework to identify additional tools to better weight risk and urgency.

Issues identified as requiring further attention include:

• the abandonment rate (the proportion of callers who hang up) before speaking to a caseworker
• improving the requirements for taking and recording child protection information
• achieving service standards established for low and moderate risk reports
• improving data quality so that Helpline data can be used as a reliable indicator of demand to guide DoCS state-wide planning.

There are a number of specific recommendations covering Review of minimum requirements, enhancement of software, quality improvement and working with mandatory reporters.
The report can be accessed at the Audit Office website.