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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
• xv. Recording sensitive clients
• xvi. Downgrading or deleting an approved notification
• Resources

xvi. Downgrading or deleting an approved notification

Purpose

This procedure outlines the process for downgrading an approved notification, or deleting a notification that has previously been approved.

Authority

• Policy No. 372-2: Recordkeeping policy, and other public service standards

Responsibilities

1. When approval has been granted to downgrade or delete an approved notification, the CSO is responsible for:

• editing relevant documents within the intake event in ICMS
• completing replacement and amended documents and submitting them to the team leader for approval.

2. The team leader is responsible for:

• consulting with the senior practitioner about the decision to downgrade an approved notification to a general enquiry or child concern report, or deleting an approved notification
• seeking approval of the decision from the CSSC manager
• re-opening the relevant intake event and forms in ICMS
• re-assigning the screening criteria/response priority form when the notification is to be downgraded
• approving the amended screening criteria and new child concern report, or the new general enquiry (when a notification is downgraded) in ICMS
• deleting the notification in ICMS
• deleting the investigation and assessment event in ICMS.

3. The CSSC manager is responsible for:

• approving any requests to downgrade or delete an approved notification.

Principles to guide decision-making

If a CSO or team leader believes a notification should be downgraded or deleted, the following principles apply:

• the deletion or downgrade must be in accordance with current policy and procedures
• electronic records must be reliable, protected, authentic and secure from unauthorised access and alteration
• approved documents contain information and decisions about departmental business processes and therefore must be retrievable within a central system.

	Decide the response (Ch 1 2.6) Record the investigation, assessment and outcome (Ch 2 4.2)

When a decision is made by the CSSC manager to downgrade an approved notification, because the concerns received did not constitute a notification response, all information within the original document must be recorded in ICMS, either as a general enquiry or a child concern report, prior to the deletion of the notification.

When a decision is made by the CSSC manager to delete an approved notification (where there is an exact duplicate notification) all information recorded in both notifications must be contained in the notification that is to remain in ICMS.

Both new and previously recorded and approved notifications will be available to clients following a Freedom of Information request.

When to downgrade or delete an approved notification

A request to downgrade or delete a notification must be based on the need to ensure the integrity of departmental records. It is not an appropriate response to downgrade a notification that has not been responded to within a timeframe prescribed by the policies and procedures that were current when the information was recorded.

The decision to downgrade an approved notification should be a rare occurrence and may occur in the following circumstances:

• following the decision by a receiving CSSC that an approved notification that has been transferred from another CSSC does not meet the threshold for a notification and should be recorded as a child concern report (in accordance with current policies and procedures)
• following a review, quality assurance process or audit of work undertaken by another team leader, senior practitioner, manager or other senior staff
• following specific policy and procedural directives that have been endorsed by the Director-General and implemented, resulting in changes in practice and a need to review existing work.

It may be appropriate to delete an approved notification when an exact duplicate notification has been inadvertently recorded.

Any request to downgrade or delete an approved notification must be in writing and have the approval of the manager of the CSSC responsible for the completion of the investigation and assessment. The approval decision must take into account the responsibility of departmental staff to make, keep and preserve complete and accurate departmental records.

	Transferring investigation and assessment cases (11.1)

Procedure for deleting and downgrading a notification

The procedure to delete or downgrade a previously approved notification, within a CSSC or the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre, is outlined below.

1. The issue or request is raised with the appropriate team leader and the recorded child protection concerns and rationale for the request will be discussed.
2. The team leader must ensure the request meets the requirements of current policy and procedures and must consult with the senior practitioner.
3. If the team leader endorses the request, an email outlining the request and the rationale for the decision will be forwarded via the team leader to the CSSC manager for review.
4. If the decision is not endorsed by the team leader, the investigation and assessment must be commenced within the response timeframe, or as soon as possible.
5. On receipt of an email requesting the downgrading or deletion of a notification, the CSSC manager will review the request and the rationale, and, if in keeping with current policy and procedures, approve the request and advise the team leader and CSO by return email.
6. If the request is not approved by the CSSC manager, the investigation and assessment must be commenced within the response timeframe, or as soon as possible.

Downgrading a notification

When a decision is made to downgrade a notification, the CSO, in consultation with the team leader, must determine the appropriate way to re-record the information in ICMS, either as:

• a child concern report: when there are child protection concerns that do not meet the threshold for recording a notification and should have been 'screened out'
• a general enquiry: where the information relates to harm or risk of harm to a child, but where the information will not be responded to by the department, for example:
  • harm to a child by an unknown person in the community, that is referred to the QPS for action
  • harm or risk of harm to a child that lives in another jurisdiction, where the information is to be forwarded to that jurisdiction for a statutory response.

The decision to downgrade a notification for a child subject to current ongoing intervention is also to be recorded in a case note in the ongoing intervention event in ICMS, to ensure the information is considered as part of the intervention with the child.

Downgrading a notification to a child concern report

When a request to downgrade a notification to a child concern report is approved by the CSSC manager, the following steps will occur:

• The team leader will re-open the intake event and the screening critieria/response priority form and reassign it to the CSO.
• The CSO will attach a copy of the approval email from the CSSC manager to the intake event in ICMS.
• The CSO will amend the screening criteria/response priority form and create a new child concern report. The child concern report must include all of the information from the notification, including all subject children, relevant persons, child protection concerns and information about the recorded harms.
• The CSO will send the amended screening criteria tool and the completed child concern report to the team leader for approval.
• The team leader will ensure that additional text is added the supervisors comments section in both the child concern report and the notification to record information about the downgrading process, including the original document type, who created it, the date the document was originally approved and by whom, the new document type being created and the rationale for the decision to downgrade.
• The team leader will delete the notification from the intake event.
• The team leader will re-approve the screening criteria/response priority form and approve the child concern report in ICMS.
• The team leader will ensure that any information recorded in the investigation and assessment event is recorded elsewhere in ICMS, for example, in a case note in the intake event, and then will delete the investigation and assessment event, ensuring that a rationale is also recorded.

Downgrading a notification to a general enquiry

If a request to downgrade a notification to a general enquiry is approved by the CSSC manager, the following steps will occur:

1. The team leader will re-open the intake event and the record of concerns form to allow editing by the CSO.
2. The team leader will delete the screening criteria/response priority form from the intake event and provide a rationale when prompted.
3. The CSO will attach a copy of the approval email from the CSSC manager to the intake event in ICMS.
4. The team leader will ensure that additional text is added to the supervisor's comments section of the record of concerns form to record information about the downgrading process, including the original document type, who created it, the date the document was originally approved and by whom, the new document type being created and the rationale for the decision to downgrade.
5. The team leader will delete the notification from the intake event and provide a rationale when prompted.
6. The CSO will amend the record of concerns form to reflect a 'general enquiry' outcome and complete the document.
7. The team leader will ensure that any documentation in the investigation and assessment event is recorded elsewhere in ICMS, for example, in a case note in the intake event, and then will delete the investigation and assessment event, ensuring that a rationale is also recorded.

NB: Deletion of forms within the event must occur before the CSO completes the re-opened record of concerns, as the recording of the general enquiry outcome closes the intake event.

Deleting a notification

When a request to delete a notification is approved by the CSSC manager (because there are duplicate notifications recorded), the following steps will occur:

• The CSSC manager will email approval for the deletion of the notification to the team leader and CSO. A copy of this email is to be attached to the child's intake event on ICMS that is not to be deleted.
• The team leader must ensure that all the information recorded in both notifications is contained in the notification that is not to be deleted, prior to deleting the duplicate notification.
• The team leader must ensure that additional text is added to the supervisor's comments section of both notifications, about the deletion process, including the rationale for the decision to delete the notification.
• The team leader must ensure that any documentation in the investigation and assessment event is recorded elsewhere in ICMS, for example, in a case note, and then delete the investigation and assessment event, ensuring that a rationale is also recorded.

	Record the investigation, assessment and outcome (Ch 2 4.2)

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