• Introduction
  • Acknowledgments
  • The Department of Child Safety
  • Relevant legislation
  • Other key departmental documents
  • Accountability for children in Queensland
  • Framework for the participation of children and young people in decision-making
  • Respecting diversity
  • Recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities
  • Delegations
  • Child safety service centres: Staff roles and responsibilities
  • How to use the Child Safety Practice Manual
• Practice maps
  • Child Safety framework
  • Intake
  • Investigation and assessment
  • Ongoing intervention
  • Matters of concern
• General procedures
  • i. Decision-making about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
  • ii. Staff safety and well-being
  • iii. Structured Decision Making
  • iv. Statutory obligation to notify the Queensland Police Service of possible criminal offences
  • v. Case management
  • vi. Information sharing
  • vii. Making a referral to Evolve
  • viii. Referral for active intervention services
  • ix. The role of the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre
  • x. Writing affidavits
  • xi. Responding to client complaints
  • xii. Recording alerts for a child and family
  • xiii. Providing adoption services
  • xiv. The video taping or recording of departmental staff
• Chapters
  • 1. Intake
  • 2. Investigation and assessment
  • 3. Use of powers
  • 4. Ongoing intervention
  • 5. Intervention with parental consent
  • 6. Intervention with a child protection order
  • 7. Children in out-of-home care
  • 8. Regulation of care
  • 9. Matters of concern
  • 10. Unborn children
  • 11. Transfers
  • 12. Professional supervision
  • 13. Critical incident reporting
  • 14. Child deaths
  • 15. Family Court of Australia
  • 16. Youth justice and child protection interface
  • 17. Interstate matters
• Appendices
  • Appendix A: Acronyms
  • Appendix B: Glossary
• Practice papers
• Quicklinks
  • Previous versions
  • Printable version
  • Resources
  • Updates

15. Family Court of Australia

• 15.1 Working with the Family Court of Australia
• 15.2 Responding to allegations of harm to a child by a parent with a Family Court of Australia parenting order
• 15.3 Departmental intervention when a child requires protection from a parent with a Family Court of Australia parenting order
• 15.4 Responding to allegations of harm to a child when there are current proceedings in the Family Court of Australia
• 15.5 Responding to Hague Convention (child abduction) matters

15.2 Responding to allegations of harm to a child by a parent with a Family Court of Australia parenting order

Purpose

This procedure outlines the process for responding to allegations of harm to a child by a parent with a Family Court of Australia (Family Court) parenting order.

Intake

When information is received that a child is suspected of being harmed or at risk of harm by a parent, where there are Family Court parenting orders in place, the information is assessed in accordance with usual departmental intake procedures. If the caller is the other parent, it should not be assumed that the allegations are malicious or vexatious.

	Notifiers (1.2) Completing the screening criteria and response priority tools (1.7) Vexatious or malicious notifiers (1.12)

Parenting orders include those with whom the child is to live and the persons the child is to spend time with and communicate with. For the purposes of this procedure, the term 'contact parent' will be used for circumstances where a parent has an order to spend time and/or communicate with their child.

It should be noted that when a Family Court order is in place, the protective parent may be willing to protect the child, but may not be able to do so because of an order requiring the child to live with or have contact with the non-protective parent.

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Investigation and assessment of harm during Family Court ordered contact

A notification may be received about harm that occurred on a Family Court ordered contact visit. In determining the response timeframe for commencing the investigation and assessment, consideration should be given to when the next contact visit is due to occur. Every effort should be made to complete the investigation and assessment prior to the child's next contact visit.

If this cannot be done, the CSO will attempt to negotiate with the parent against whom the allegation has been made (the 'contact parent') to agree in writing not to exercise contact while the investigation and assessment is being conducted. This should be handled sensitively, clearly outlining the department's authority to investigate under the Child Protection Act 1999, section 14. The CSO must not require the parent with whom the child lives to negotiate the contact parent's consent.

If the contact parent will not agree to suspend contact and it is considered necessary to ensure the child's safety while the investigation and assessment is conducted, an application for a TAO or CAO should be made. A TAO or CAO directing a parent not to have contact, or to only have supervised contact with a child, overrides the Family Court order. The Family Law Act 1975, section 69ZK, provides that a parenting order made by the Family Court does not affect the operation of a state child welfare law in relation to a child.

In no circumstances should the parent with whom the child lives be told to prevent the child from having contact as ordered by the Family Court, without either the written consent of the contact parent or a Childrens Court order directing the other parent not to have contact. Compliance with such a directive by the department would place the parent with whom the child lives in breach of a Family Court order for which there are penalties under the Family Law Act 1975. These penalties include fines and imprisonment. A parent with whom the child lives will not be in breach if the contact parent has consented to not having contact, or an order has been made under the Child Protection Act 1999.

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Investigation and assessment of harm caused by a parent with whom the child lives, in accordance with a parenting order

Generally, the investigation and assessment process will be the same for a child subject to a parenting order as for a child where there is no Family Court order. If the contact parent is assessed as able and willing to safely care for the child, written agreement should be sought from the parent with whom the child lives, to reside with the contact parent, until such time that the assessment is completed and/or the matter is finalised in the Family Court.

	Departmental intervention when a child requires protection from a parent with a Family Court of Australia parenting order (15.3) Responding to allegations of harm to a child when there are current proceedings in the Family Court of Australia (15.4)

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