ix. The role of the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre
Purpose
This procedure outlines the role and function of the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre (CSAHSC) and the interface with CSSCs.
Introduction
The CSAHSC is a 24 hour service that provides after hours frontline service delivery and responses across the state, to clients of the department, the community, other government departments and community agencies, in response to child protection and youth justice matters.
Two teams of full time staff (Child Safety Officers - After Hours Service (CSOs-AHS) rotate through a 12 week roster cycle. Additional part-time and casual staff are also rostered on during peak times (particularly at weekends and during evening shifts). The CSOs-AHS are supervised by two full-time and two part-time team leaders.
The CSAHSC profile
The CSAHSC is located in the Brisbane CBD and provides a statewide service, including services to remote and rural areas, with the majority of work occurring via the telephone. There is a limited capacity to respond to critical and urgent matters, including urgent notifications, in the Brisbane metropolitan area, however, this is subject to negotiation between the CSSC and the CSAHSC.
Strong partnerships exist between the CSAHSC and other government agencies, such as the QPS and Queensland Health, working in an after hours environment. As many local community services are not available after hours, heavy reliance is placed upon government partners, in particular QPS Child Protection Investigation Units (CPIU), to ensure the immediate safety and well-being of children.
Similar partnerships have also been developed with on-call foster care and youth worker agency staff across the state. These partnerships assist the CSAHSC to provide consistent responses and improved service delivery outcomes to children subject to departmental intervention, who find themselves in crisis and at risk.
The CSAHSC crisis intervention model
The CSAHSC primarily responds to critical and immediate safety issues. The role of the CSO-AHS is to secure a child's safety and address the presenting issues. This involves:
- identifying the key issue, for example, homelessness
- identifying the outcome that will immediately alleviate the presenting issue, for example, accommodation
- developing an action plan to achieve the required outcome, for example, locating a placement
- problem-solving until the outcome is achieved, for example:
- making a referral to a placement service or youth shelter
- negotiating overnight accommodation
- arranging transport to a placement
- providing all parties with a plan for the immediate future and information about where
to access ongoing support or intervention, for example:
- seeking TAOs under the Child Protection Act 1999, section 30
- advising that overnight accommodation has been secured
- arranging transport to the appropriate CSSC
- forwarding records to the relevant CSSC.
In this respect, the role of the CSO-AHS differs significantly from that of a CSO who, for example, may provide intensive intervention with parental agreement and/or services to children on child protection orders. It is not the responsibility of a CSO-AHS to undertake specific case-related, therapeutic or assessment roles.
Understanding the nature of the after hours role assists CSSC staff when deciding whether referrals to the CSAHSC are appropriate.
Interface between the CSAHSC and CSSCs
1. Managing child protection matters
The CSAHSC provides a statewide after hours intake function. Child protection matters are received, recorded and managed by the CSAHSC, including:
- general enquiries
- child concern reports
- notifications
- additional concerns
- unborn child high-risk alerts and assessing child protection concerns following the birth of a child.
When a notification with a 24 hour response timeframe is received after hours, the CSAHSC will take action to ensure the investigation and assessment is commenced within the required timeframe. To do this, the CSAHSC works closely with the QPS, particularly the CPIUs across the state, to sight children and develop safety plans. Other government agencies, including Queensland Health, are often involved in the after hours management of presenting child protection matters.
Considerable negotiation and work occurs around these cases to ensure the immediate safety of children, and CSOs-AHS work in close collaboration with the QPS when joint investigation and assessments are required. The CSAHSC will take more intrusive action when a child's safety cannot be achieved, including:
- negotiating care agreements
- initiating TAO applications
- undertaking placement action, when necessary.
Following action by the CSAHSC, all recorded matters are referred to the relevant CSSC.
2. Children subject to ongoing intervention
A significant component of after hours work relates to the management of children subject to child protection orders or ongoing intervention. This includes responding to children and their carers when:
- difficulties are experienced with a child's behaviour
- a child has expressed suicidal ideation and a management plan is required
- carers or parents experience after hours issues associated with family contact
- a child has absconded from their placement
- an emergency placement is required
- a placement ends due to behavioural or other presenting issues
- urgent medical treatment and authority is required.
In addition, the CSAHSC regularly locates, negotiates and secures emergency, short-term placements for children and provides after hours support to foster and kinship carers and foster and kinship care services.
3. After hours referrals
The primary communication tool between the CSAHSC and CSSCs is the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre: After hours referral form.
The purpose of this form is to provide the CSAHSC with:
- current information regarding client families where after hours contact is considered likely
- advice about a predicted situation and the contingencies developed by the CSSC in response to the situation
- clear instructions and rationale for any requested action, for example:
- an application for a TAO
- returning a child to a placement
- assessment of a presenting after hours scenario and the action necessary to ensure a child's safety
- liaising with the CPIU to determine the immediate safety of a child
- details of placement options arranged if placements are anticipated or required.
When requesting specific action by the CSAHSC, CSSC staff will undertake the following actions.
- Complete the 'Child Safety After Hours Service Centre: After hours referral form' - ensure the CSSC team leader approves the information provided and action requested.
- Complete any necessary supporting documentation (unless in exceptional circumstances), for example:
- a draft TAO application
- advice of placement options.
- Cut and paste the 'Child Safety After Hours Service Centre: After hours referral form' into a 'Referral' case note (as per the drop down list for ICMS case note types) and title it 'After Hours Referral'.
- The CSSC team leader must phone the CSAHSC team leader to advise them of the after hours referral (including the ICMS event number and client names) and discuss the work request.
4. Recording by CSAHSC
Service delivery by the CSAHSC occurs across the continuum of child protection (and youth justice services). As the CSAHSC does not hold any case management responsibility, all client contact is recorded in ICMS.
All information recorded by the CSAHSC will contain the following information:
- the presenting issues and specific actions taken by the CSO-AHS
- the outcome of the actions taken
- a plan outlining any further recommended actions.
Documents completed by a CSO-AHS include the following:
- any relevant information or document in ICMS
- critical incident reports
- missing persons reports (a form developed by CSAHSC to record information regarding a child who is identified as 'missing' from their usual placement).
Additional functions and recording requirements undertaken by the CSAHSC include:
- recording all child deaths in Queensland
- receiving a copy of all 'HRA form 1' forms in relation to unborn children
- recording 'SR1 Suicide Risk Alert' forms and receiving copies of 'SR1 Suicide Risk Alert' forms in relation to children who are clients of the department and/or the Department of Communities
- recording 'Record of advice of arrest' forms after business hours and forwarding them to the relevant Youth Justice Service Centre, Court Services Unit and/or the relevant CSSC if the young person is on a child protection order
- managing and recording details in relation to after hours detention of young people in watch-houses
- organising admissions to youth detention centres after hours, for young people where bail has been refused
- receiving 'Request for interstate alert' forms from another jurisdiction when the family's address is unknown, and where appropriate, recording information in ICMS
- providing the outcomes of after hours departmental child protection history checks to interstate child protection agencies
- recording reports from the QPS about domestic violence
- responding to 'reasonable suspicion of abuse and neglect' forms from Queensland Health
- after hours management of the Central Screening Unit functions, including the processing of paperwork, police checks and departmental history checks for the provisional approval of carers.
Liaison with CSSC 'on-call' staff
When responding to after hours matters, CSAHSC staff make every effort to resolve the issue upon presentation, without requiring contact with CSSC staff. There will be times, however, when it is necessary to contact the on-call CSSC staff member to request additional information, or where specific case-related information is required to assist the assessment and inform the response.
On-call staff may also be contacted, as the delegated officer, when approval for certain actions is required.
CSAHSC access to all relevant information and important case-related details, either recorded in ICMS or provided in a 'Child Safety After Hours Service Centre: After hours referral form', will help limit the need to contact the on-call staff member.
It is the responsibility of each CSSC manager to ensure the CSAHSC has a current copy of the CSSC on-call arrangements.
CSSCs also provide CSAHSC with details of foster carers, youth shelters and youth worker services, including the availability of staff and carers who provide considerable after hours support to children in out-of-home care.
Additional services
The CSAHSC also has the capacity to provide:
- emergency relief
- emergency commercial accommodation
- emergency transport, for example, a rail warrant.
These services are only to be considered when all other viable options have been exhausted. Decisions regarding the use of these options must be clearly recorded in accordance with the CSAHSC recording requirements.
Managing conflict
At times conflict may arise between the CSAHSC and a CSSC. This may relate to a specific case-related issue or an issue between staff members. If immediate resolution is not possible, or the issue is of a more serious nature, the matter will be referred to either the CSAHSC or CSSC team leader for resolution between team leaders.
If the conflict occurs in relation to decision-making and the recording of child protection concerns, the conflict must be resolved in a timely manner, to ensure compliance with departmental procedures and timeframes. For example, a disagreement over the appropriateness of a 24 hour response timeframe for a notification must be resolved within 24 hours. Where team leaders are involved, the team leader who approved the original decision should be consulted.
Addressing issues as they arise is an important aspect of building relationships between the CSAHSC and CSSCs and contributing to improved outcomes and consistent delivery of services to children and families who come into contact with the child protection system.
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- Last updated
- 30 January 2009
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