DISABLED CHILDREN

In reply to the Hon. K.L. VINCENT (23 February 2011).

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women): The Minister for Education and Child Development has been advised:

1. Social workers taking calls at the Child Abuse Report Line are required to collect an extensive range of information when receiving a notification.

This includes information about the needs, strengths and vulnerabilities of the family, children and parents. The checklist to guide staff in this regard includes a prompt to consider and record issues relating to physical or intellectual disability.

2. When notifiers provide advice that a child has a disability, this information has previously been recorded in a free text section of the Client Information System. Therefore it has not been possible to aggregate and report on this information. The new Client Case Management system currently being rolled out in Families SA, Department for Education and Child Development has been built to collect information about disabilities in a way that the department will be able to aggregate and report on information in future years.

3. & 4. With regard to calculating the percentage of notifications involving children with disabilities resulting in criminal charges being laid; the decision about whether there is sufficient evidence to launch a prosecution is a matter for the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions. Whilst the Department does not routinely collect this information, the department is aware that only a small number of cases of confirmed child abuse or neglect, regardless of the disability status of the child progress to a prosecution.