Identify and respond to children and young people at risk - NSW ...

noted that a department or organisation must ‘use its best endeavours
to comply with a request if it is consistent with its own responsibilities
and does not unduly prejudice the discharge of its functions.’ It may be
appropriate to give concrete examples of requests that would fit with
s.18. for example a service that provides parenting support gives
priority to a family referred by Community Services with a view to
avoiding the need for a child to come into care.
Departments and agencies may have specific procedures to identify requests
that are being made under s.18 provisions.
Participants may have examples of situations where they feel departments and
agencies have not contributed to a partnership approach. Acknowledge that
individual practitioners cannot control the attitudes and practices of others, but
they can take responsibility for their own contribution.
3.2 Legislation: responsibilities for practitioners
1. Reporting to Community Services
PowerPoint 3.7: Reporting to Community Services summarises
reports that can be made through provisions of the Children and Young
Persons (Care and Protection) Act. 1998.
The details of reporting risk of significant harm under s.23 will be reviewed later
in the training. Note that the threshold for reporting was increased to risk of
significant harm in January 2010.
The threshold has also increased to risk of significant harm for prenatal reports.
Prenatal reports are intended to allow assistance and support to be provided to
the expectant mother to reduce the likelihood that her child, when born, will
need to be placed in out-of-home care, and to provide early information that a
child who is not yet born may be at risk of significant harm subsequent to his or
her birth. Note that prenatal reports under s.25 are not mandatory. (When s.23
is reviewed the circumstances where they are mandatory will be covered.)
s.120 allows for reports of homelessness of a child to be made to Community
Services. A child may be homeless where their parent makes shelter available
but the child is not willing to live where their parent directs. If a parent will not
or cannot make shelter available a mandatory report would be made under s.23
(1) as the parent is not addressing the child’s need for basic care.
s.121 allows for reports of homelessness of a young person to be made to
Community Services. Reports can only be made with the consent of the young
person because legally they are entitled to decide where they want to live.
s.122 is a mandatory reporting provision that applies to people providing
residential accommodation who must report children living away from home
without a parent’s permission. This ensures that children who have left home
because the environment is unsafe receive protection but also ensures
appropriate involvement of parents in decision making about where a child
lives.
Keep Them Safe CHCCHILD401A – Facilitator’s Manual
© The NSW Technical and Further Education Commission
(TAFE NSW – Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank, 2010)
26