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Policies and Procedures
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Phases
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Intake
- Intake policy
- Receiving, registering and classifying a report
- Unborn child reports
- Section 38 consultations
- Child in contact with sex offender
- Family Court, Federal Circuit Court and Magellan List
- Referral from Children's Court - Criminal Division
- Court report request - Family Division
- Interstate requests
- Hague Convention - Child Protection
- Allegations of sexually abusive behaviour
- SOS client contact
- New allegations
- Irreconcilable differences
- Assessing and managing family violence in intake
- Changing the status of a child from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander during intake phase
- Conducting the intake risk assessment
- Intake to manage permanent care order
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Investigation
- Investigation policy
- Investigation plan
- First visit
- Completing the investigation following the first visit
- Decision on outcome of investigation
- Investigation of sexually abusive behaviour
- Decision making after TTR investigation
- Assessing and managing family violence during the investigation phase
- Conducting the risk assessment
- Protective intervention
- Protection order
- Closure
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Intake
- Case planning
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Court
- Applications by emergency care before a Bail Justice
- Directions hearing
- Applications by emergency care
- Affidavits and statutory declarations
- Initial court applications - by notice
- Permanent care orders
- Reporting back following a referral from the Criminal Division of the Children’s Court
- Return of temporary assessment order
- Temporary assessment order (without notice)
- Withdrawing a protection application
- Responding to subpoenas
- Warrants
- Court procedure
- Family violence
- Breaches, variations, revocations and extensions
- Applying for a suppression order for a child protection client
- Family Drug Treatment Court - procedure
- Family reunification orders and an alcohol or drug treatment condition for parents
- Information sharing with the Magistrates' Court and the Children's Court
- Information sharing
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Out-of-home care
- Care allowance
- Care teams
- Contact
- Education planning
- Interstate and international travel
- Kinship care
- Leaving care
- Passports
- Placing a child in out-of-home care
- Quality of care concerns
- Voluntary placements
- Secure welfare
- Accessing Better Futures Flexible Funding - procedure
- Applying for Home Stretch - procedure
- Applying for a Medicare number for a child in care
- Applying for a birth certificate - procedure
- Applying for evidence of citizenship on behalf of a child
- Authorising carers using the child specific authorisation
- My Health Record and children in out-of-home care policy
- My Health Record
- Overnight stays
- Referral to Better Futures - procedure
- Registering a child’s birth - procedure
- Working with Children Checks prohibition, suspension or interim negative notice - policy
- Working with Children Checks prohibition, suspension or interim negative notice - procedure
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National police history checks
- National police history checks policy
- CSOs undertaking national police history checks
- Contact with children placed in OoHC
- National police history checks for worker safety
- Placement approval where national police history check details are delayed
- Undertaking a national police history check
- Obtaining authorisation to request police checks
- Aboriginal children
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Children in specific circumstances
- Children related to DHHS staff
- Assessment of suitability for a youth control order
- Child found unattended at home
- Children in immigration detention
- Female genital mutilation - procedure
- Fire risk behaviours
- Forced marriage - procedure
- Gender diverse clients and recording gender identity - procedure
- High-risk youth
- High-risk youth panels and schedules
- Infant risk assessment and response decision
- Intensive bail
- L17 Family Violence Portal Historical Search
- Possible contact to AHCPES
- SIDS safe sleeping assessment
- Seeking assistance from SOS
- Sexual exploitation
- Undisclosed placements - procedure
- Unidentified abandoned child
- Youth control orders planning meetings
- Critical incidents
- Case allocation and transfers
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Health, Medical and Disability
- Case management: NDIS and children with a disability and/or complex medical needs
- Consent for medical examination and treatment
- Intake: NDIS and children with a disability and/or complex medical needs
- Managing cases where medicinal cannabis is being used
- Medical and forensic examinations
- Requesting a drug screen
- Young people with a cognitive disability who may require a guardian or administrator upon leaving care
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Phases
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Advice and Protocols
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Advice
-
Intake
- Intake phase
- Receiving and processing reports
- Re-reports
- Consultation with community-based child and family welfare services
- Unborn child reports
- Case conferences
- Family Court, Federal Circuit Court and Magellan List
- Court report requests - Family Division
- Referral from Children's Court - Criminal Division
- Interstate requests
- Malicious reports
- Hague Convention
- Irreconcilable differences
- Mandatory reporting
- Intake outcomes
- Concluding intake
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Investigation
- Investigation phase
- Investigation planning
- Conducting the first visit
- Joint visits with police
- Interviewing without parental permission
- Seeking information from other sources
- Verifying orders
- Temporary assessment orders
- Immediate removal of a child
- Substantiation
- VARE
- Court action
- Genograms
- Photographs
- Investigation outcomes
- Concluding investigation
- Protective intervention
- Protection order
- Closure
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Case planning
- Case planning
- Family reunification
- Family-led decision making (FLDM) model
- Internal review of decisions
- VCAT review
- Assessing and managing family violence in child protection - advice
- Identifying and achieving the permanency objective
- Request for, and provision of, a Statement of Reasons
- Risk assessment - advice
- Working with adult perpetrators of family violence
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Court
- Protection order descriptions
- Preparation for court
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Hearings
- Child attendance at court
- Closed court
- Conciliation conference addendum report guide
- Conciliation conferences
- Contested court hearings
- Directions hearings
- Guide for managing applications by emergency care before a Bail Justice
- Negotiating a settlement
- Placement in secure welfare services on s. 598 warrant
- Roles & responsibilities in court proceedings
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Legal processes
- Access to court reports
- Children's Court search warrants
- Children's Court witness summons
- Conditions on orders
- Confidentiality of mail to and from legal representatives
- Expiry of orders
- Interstate warrants
- Preparing the court report
- Responding to subpoenas
- Use of private information in court related documents
- Structure
- Appeals
- Family Drug Treatment Court - advice
- Suppression orders for child protection clients
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Out-of-home care
- Care teams
- Principles, roles and responsibilities for placement
- Kinship placement
- Voluntary placements
- Contact
- Placement changes
- Participating in activities
- Placement in a secure welfare service
- Quality of care concerns
- Cross border placements
- Wards of the State and Forgotten Australians
- Health
- Travel
- Administration
- Leaving care
- Permanent care
- Adoption
- Better Futures - advice
- Birth certificates - advice
- Home Stretch - advice
- Preparing a child for placement
- Working with Children's Check for kinship carers - advice
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Aboriginal children
- Responding to Aboriginal children
- Planning for Aboriginal children
- Assessing kinship care for Aboriginal children
- Placing Aboriginal children in out-of-home care
- Cultural plans
- Aboriginal child and family services
- Permanent care for Aboriginal children
- Aboriginal family-led decision making program
- Changing the status of a child from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander - advice
- Identifying Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children - advice
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Children in specific circumstances
- Infant risk assessment and response decision - advice
- High-risk youth
- High-risk youth panels and schedules
- SIDS and safe sleeping
- Children in contact with sex offenders
- Sexual exploitation
- Dual order clients
- Suicide and self harming
- Child exclusion condition on family violence orders
- Fire risk behaviours
- Unaccompanied homeless children
- Therapeutic treatment reports and orders
- Possible contact to AHCPES
- Children in immigration detention
- Children related to DHHS staff - advice
- Children related to DHHS staff
- Female genital mutilation - advice
- Forced marriage - advice
- Gender Identity and Gender Diverse Clients
- Home environment check
- Intensive Bail - advice
- L17 Family Violence Portal Historical Search - advice
- Undisclosed placements - advice
- Youth control orders - advice
- Critical incidents
- Case allocation and transfers
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Health, Medical and Disability
- Consent for medical examination and treatment
- Medical and forensic examinations
- Health and wellbeing of child protecton clients
- Mental health assessments and treatment
- Drug and alcohol assessments
- Drug screens
- Suspicious or unclear hospital admission or discharge
- Disability and complex medical needs - advice
- Immunisations
- Medicinal cannabis
- My Health Record and child protection
- Young people with a cognitive disability who may require a guardian or administrator upon leaving care - advice
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Intake
- Forms and secure documents
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Information sheets
- First visit
- Contact
- Court
- Emergency care
- Orders
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Review of Child Protection decisions
- Review of a child protection decision for young people
- Review of a child protection decision for parents
- Request for a review of a child protection decision form
- Review of Child Protection Decision for Parents - Easy Read
- Review of a decision made by Child Protection without a protection order - parents
- Review of a decision made by Child Protection without a protection order - young people
- Child sexual abuse information
- Privacy notices
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Authorising carers
- Information for young people re carer authorisation
- Information for parents re carer authorisation
- Information for carers re authorisation care by Secretary order and long-term care order
- Information for education and child care providers re carer authorisation
- Information for carers re authorisation IAO, FRO
- Information for carers re standard authorisation
- Permanent care
- Birth certificates
- Changes to Children's Court orders
- Child Link
- Forced marriage
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Health
- AOD treatment initiative for family reunification - fact sheet for child protection practitioners
- COVID-19 vaccinations for children and young people in care
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fact Sheet for Secure Care Services
- Drug screens - information sheet for parents
- Health care consent for children in out-of-home care
- Immunisation for children - information for parents
- Immunisation for children - information for young people
- Immunisation for children in out-of-home care - information for CPPs and CSO case managers
- Immunisation for children in out-of-home care - information for carers
- Immunisation for children in out-of-home care - information for immunisation providers
- My Health Record and children in out-of-home care - information for carers
- My Health Record and children in out-of-home care - information for parents
- My Health Record and children in out-of-home care - information for young people 14 years and over
- Identifying Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children
- Kinship care
- Other languages
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Tools and checklists
- Outreach kit checklist
- Investigation planning checklist
- Worker safety considerations
- Child & family snapshot and genogram tool BICPM
- Substantiation judgement matrix
- Areas of concern
- Case transfer checklist
- Authorising carers checklist
- Assessment tools
- Legal representation for children and families checklist
- Court preparation checklist
- Administering Children's Court orders summary table
- Better Futures Flexible Funding form
- Better Futures referral checklist
- CRIS Child Protection guides
- Case planning - what you need to know
- Certain Category B and C Offences for consideration in approving an after hours kinship care placements
- Child Protection student placements
- Completing an Australian passport child application form
- Counting time in out-of-home care
- De-allocation checklist
- Drug screen collection sites for child protection
- Emergency care - Buddy Bags for children
- Essential information categories
- Genogram program user guide
- How Child Protection interacts with My Health Records
- How to send an encrypted email in Outlook
- Infant response decision tool
- List of Information Sharing Entities (ISEs)
- PCA Families brochure
- SAFER and MARAM assessment tools
- Sexual exploitation information template process map
- When Children Go Missing, Fact Sheet for Obtaining Warrants
- Working with perpetrators of family violence to reduce risk to children - tip sheet
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Flowcharts
- Child protection process
- Case planning
- Intake phase
- Unborn child report
- Investigation phase
- Protective intervention phase
- Protection order phase
- Legal process
- Placement process
- LAC processes
- Changing the status of a child from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- Choosing the case plan permanency objective
- Conciliation conference flowchart
- Direction to parents to resume parental responsibility
- Family Violence Information Sharing decision trees
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Protocols
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Police, courts & legal services
- Police overarching principles
- Police
- Police contacts
- Police information exchange registered sex offenders
- Family Court & Federal Circuit Court
- Memorandum of Understanding with the Family Court
- MOU between CP and VLA for matters at the Melbourne Children's Court
- MOU between CP and VLA for matters at the Moorabbin Children's Court
- Community Correctional Services
- Living with mum (in prison) protocol
- Restricted access prisoners protocol
- Working with children check unit MOU
- Legal Aid
- Interstate warrants
- Information Sharing Protocol between the Department of Health and Human Services, the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria and the Children’s Court of Victoria
- Intra-DHHS
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Education & medical
- Early childhood agreement
- Education partnering agreement
- Drug treatment services
- Mental health
- Royal Children's Hospital
- RCH SCAN meetings
- RCH discharge planning & case conferences
- RCH placements
- Information Sharing Protocol between the NDIA and Australian States and Territory Agencies
- MOU between DET, DHHS, FSV, Catholic Education and Independent Schools Vic
- Commonwealth
- VACCA
- Family Services
- Professionals' reporting guide
- Crown Entertainment
- International child protection
- Interstate child protection
- ACSASS practice requirements
- Family violence referral protocol
- MOU with the Public Advocate
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Police, courts & legal services
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Service descriptions
- Out-of-home care
- Courts and legal
- Education & medical services
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Support services
- Use of interpreters
- Homelessness support services
- Parenting assessment services including PASDS
- Family services including Child FIRST
- Placement of children with mothers in prison
- Family violence services including perpetrator programs
- Finding Solutions family and youth mediation service
- Relationship counselling
- Grief counselling and grief and loss services
- Sexual assault services including services for sexual offenders
- Intensive case management service
- Youth support services
- Transition to independent living allowance
- Services for victims of crime including VOCAT
- Family Violence Child Protection Partnership
- Multidisciplinary centres
- AHCPES and SOS
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Specialist resources
- Family-led decision making
- Therapeutic treatment resources
- Early years science - brain development
- Vulnerable babies, children and young people at risk of harm
- Model litigants guidelines
- Transporting children and families
- Corrections fact sheet
- Abuse and harm - legal and practice definitions
- Child sexual exploitation
- Children at risk learning portal
- Cultural planning for Aboriginal children
- Culturally diverse children and families
- Family violence
- Forced marriage - community pack
- Framework for trauma-informed practice
- Healthcare that counts framework
- Kidsafe Victoria
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National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
- Children who may require accommodation outside the family home due to complex disability support needs - Guidance for child protection practitioners
- Leaving care planning for young people eligible for the NDIS
- Practice guidelines - NDIS and mainstream services
- Practice guidelines for Child First, The Orange Door, Integrated Family Services, Child Protection and Out-of-Home Care
- Out-of-home care toolbox
- Permanency amendments overview
- Permanent care manual
- Placement coordination and placement planning
- Practice leader case planning: Implementation and guidance 2018
- Stability planning and permanent care project report
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Advice
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Our Approach
- SAFER children framework
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Best interests case practice model
- Best interests case practice summary guide
- Infants and their families
- Children and their families
- Adolescents and their families
- Children with problem sexual behaviours and their families
- Adolescents with sexually abusive behaviours
- Child development and trauma
- Cumulative harm
- Families with multiple and complex needs
- Working with families where an adult is violent
- Child sexual exploitation practice guide for child protection
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Information sharing
- Information sharing in child protection practice
- Information security
- Breaches of privacy
- Freedom of information
- Privacy notices
- Child Information Sharing Scheme and Child Protection
- Child Link - advice
- Child Protection and digital platforms
- Connect For Safety Child Protection record search - advice
- Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme and Child Protection
- Privacy legislation and Child Protection
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Roles and responsibilities
- Case recording
- Consultation with specialist practitioners
- Powers of the Secretary when the Secretary has parental responsibility
- Charter for children in out-of-home care
- Human rights and child protection
- Complaints about inappropriate behaviour of legal practitioners
- Charter Of Rights For Parents And Carers With Disabilities Involved With Child Protection In Victoria
- Child Safe Standards
- Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme
- Reportable Conduct Scheme
- Multi-disciplinary practice
- Community Education
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Our Workforce
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Supervision
- Professional supervision
- Student placements
- Supervision within child protection presentation
- Effective supervision within child protection
- Functions of supervision
- Leading practice - frontline and middle managers
- Resolving individual workload concerns for child protection practitioners
- Child Protection professional supervision compliance
- Child Protection supervision - How to guide
- Staff safety and wellbeing
- Workload management
- Delegations and decision making
- Learning and development
- Operating model
-
Supervision
- Contact us
- Practice Dictionary
Child Protection Manual
The Child Protection Manual is the primary point of reference for child protection practitioners and managers employed by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services regarding statutory child protection policy, procedures and supporting advice. It also contains protocols, practice resources and tools, and links to materials external to the manual that are relevant to child protection practice.
Content is subject to change at any time, so any material printed for immediate use should not be relied on for future reference without checking the on-line version to establish that it is still current.
Where the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is referred to on this site, please note:On 30 November 2020, the Premier of Victoria announced a major Machinery of Government (MoG) change. From 1 February 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services became two departments: the Department of Health (DH); and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH). DFFH includes Child Protection. Content in the manual is gradually being updated to reflect this change.
Hot Topics
The Framework for trauma-informed practice supports a shared understanding of what trauma-informed means to children, individuals and families, professionals and volunteers.
Child Protection has legislated responsibilities to screen, assess and manage family violence risk using the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) framework. MARAM in child protection practice is now aligned with the SAFER children framework.
From 20 November 2021, SAFER is the risk assessment framework for Victorian child protection practitioners.
Policies, procedures and advice have been updated on the Child Protection manual to reflect the new way of working, and align with changes made to CRIS.
A new strategy to guide the attraction, retention, and development of the state’s child protection workforce has been launched by the Victorian Government.
There is a new client visit policy document. This document outlines the client visit policy and CRIS requirements.
The Client Visit Case Note on CRIS has been enhanced and is now required for use for every visit to a child.
A new Court report writing guide has been published to assist child protection practitioners in writing a court report using the new court report templates.
Welcome to our new look Child Protection Manual. You’ll find easier navigation; a practice dictionary to replace the glossary, and new features to enhance your experience using the site.
Be assured - all information from the previous manual has been maintained.
To assure the safety and health of child protection staff and their clients, changes have been implemented to how child protection practitioners do their work. Practitioners can find detailed information on these changes on the DHHS COVID-19 Hub site.
A new information sharing protocol has been has been developed between the Department of Health and Human Services (the department) and the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria and the Children’s Court of Victoria (the Courts). The protocol was established to respond to recommendation 28 of the Royal Commission into Family Violence.