THIS PROCEDURE COMMENCES ON 30 SEPTEMBER 2026, AT THE SAME TIME AS THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YOUTH JUSTICE ACT 2024
The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing is committed to supporting young people involved with Child Protection and Youth Justice to achieve safety, wellbeing and positive development. Practitioners should be familiar with best practice for supporting children and young people in the justice system and their obligations under the Youth Justice Act 2024 (YJ Act). The YJ Act recognises that children and young people have capacity for rehabilitation and positive development and promotes early intervention, collaborative practice and shared responsibility to improve outcomes.
See the Youth Justice Website for more information.
Guiding Youth Justice Principles
The YJ Act establishes guiding principles for the youth justice system that must be considered when performing functions or exercising powers under the YJ Act. The principles include:
- children must be treated differently to adults, recognising their vulnerability, developmental stage, dependency on adults and unique capacity for rehabilitation and positive development;
- responses must emphasise prevention, diversion and early intervention;
- the importance of coordinated planning, communication and information sharing;
- victims’ rights and the harms done to them should be recognised
- parents, family and persons of significance in a child’s or young person’s life have a shared responsibility to help the child or young person to rehabilitate, positively develop and not offend.
The YJ Act includes the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (the department) Secretary within the definition of 'parent' where they hold parental responsibility for the child. This highlights the importance of Child Protection involvement in decision-making as a ‘parent’ of a child to achieve the best outcomes for children who are involved in both the Youth Justice and Child Protection system.
The YJ Act includes a Statement of Recognition that Aboriginal children and young people are over-represented in the Youth Justice system, particularly in custody, due to inequality, and structural and institutional racism caused by colonisation and laws, policies and systems. The YJ Act also includes specific guiding principles for Aboriginal children and young people, which are:
- the right of Aboriginal children and young people to self-determination must be supported by providing them with the opportunity to express their views and promoting their participation and the participation of their family, kin and Elders, in decision-making processes that affect them.
- Aboriginal family extends to kinship and that connection with family, kin, community, culture, Country and Elders are the foundations needed for Aboriginal children and young persons to thrive.
For detail about the guiding principles, Statement of Recognition and specific guiding principles for Aboriginal children and young people, see the Youth Justice Website
Practitioners must apply the guiding principles to the fullest extent possible when exercising a power, performing a function or making a decision under the YJ Act. This applies when undertaking functions such as coordinating services, case planning and sharing information and includes:
- effective and timely information sharing
- supporting restorative justice options including group conferencing
- attending Youth Justice Planning Meetings
- attending court where required
- supporting involvement of parents, carers and family members in the Youth Justice process
- taking into account the additional principles for Aboriginal children and young people
Case planning and best interests
Children and young people involved with Child Protection and in care can experience significant vulnerability, particularly due to the impact of trauma and abuse, which for some can involve challenging and complex behaviour and leave them open to exploitation and criminalisation. Children and young people involved with both Child Protection and Youth Justice require a flexible, trauma-informed and collaborative response across services.
Child Protection and Youth Justice each have legal responsibilities in supporting the needs of children and young people involved with their services. Child Protection decisions and actions should be guided by the best interests of the child or young person. All services supporting the child should work flexibly and collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes.
Child Protection will prepare a case plan for children and young people where they have investigated and substantiated a report regarding harm or risk of harm to that child or young person. Where a child or young person becomes involved with Youth Justice, Child Protection may need to review their case plan to reflect the child or young person’s current circumstances, identified risks, support needs and any relevant Youth Justice planning or court orders. Collaborative case planning helps ensure the child or young person, their family and other professionals have a shared understanding of the goals, supports and actions needed to address issues of wellbeing, harm and risk.
Youth Justice will prepare a Youth Justice case plan for all sentenced young people on community and custodial orders. These Youth Justice case plans will reflect the requirements of section 450 of the YJ Act and any Family or Criminal Division Children’s Court Orders. Children and young people will receive a Youth Justice case plan that is age and developmentally appropriate; addresses their individual needs, risks and underlying causes of offending; fosters their abilities and strengths; and includes timely information from public services bodies and service providers, like Child Protection.
See Case Planning for more information.
Cultural Planning
Under section 176 of the Children, Youth and Family Act 2005 (CYFA), Child Protection is required to develop and implement a cultural plan for all Aboriginal children and young people in care. Child Protection is responsible for developing the cultural plan in consultation with the child or young person’s care team and the Senior Advisor – Aboriginal Cultural Planning (employed by a local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation). For more information, see Cultural Planning.
Under part 18.3 of the YJ Act, Youth Justice is required to offer an opportunity to Aboriginal children and young people to develop a Youth Justice cultural support plan after a Youth Justice community or custodial order is made. This includes a child or young person who is transferred from a prison to a youth justice custodial centre. Youth Justice may also offer an Aboriginal child a cultural support plan while on bail or remanded where it is practicable to do so.
Under section 753(3) of the YJ Act, the information sharing provisions in Chapter 15 do not apply to Youth Justice Aboriginal Cultural Support Plans. Instead, the Aboriginal cultural support plan and any information contained in the plan, can only be used or given to any person with the consent of the child or young person.
There may be cases where a child or young person involved with Youth Justice will have an existing Child Protection cultural support plan. In these situations, and if the child or young person consents to the existing plan being shared, Youth Justice can assist a child or young person to request a copy. Additionally, Youth Justice can request information from Child Protection or another entity for the purpose of developing a cultural support plan. Queries regarding information sharing should be directed to the Information Sharing team.
Coordinated practice and joint participation in care teams
Coordinated practice supports Child Protection and Youth Justice to work together in the best interests of the child or young person through collaborative planning, effective communication and shared decision making.
Care team meetings provide a forum for Child Protection, Youth Justice, the child or young person, their family (where appropriate) and other relevant professionals to coordinate services, manage the day-to-day care and best interests of the child or young person and support planning in line with the overall case plan.
When planning care team meetings for an Aboriginal child or young person, practitioners must consider the guiding Youth Justice guiding principles specific to Aboriginal children or young people, including their right to self determination and importance of family, kin or Elders to attend meetings where appropriate.
Care team meetings should be held regularly and in line with organisational policy and respond to the child or young person’s needs, risks and protective factors. See Care Teams – procedure
Participation in Youth Justice High Risk and Multi-Agency Panel meetings
The YJ Act legislates Youth Justice Multi-Agency Panels (MAPs) and Youth Justice High-Risk Panels.
These panel meetings oversee and coordinate service delivery to children and young people involved with Youth Justice who are at high risk of serious offending.
Where a child or young person is involved with Child Protection and Youth Justice, Child Protection and other relevant services involved may be invited to participate in the panel meetings. Participation in Youth Justice High Risk and MAP meetings is delegated to Child Protection executives.
Multi-Agency Panels (MAPs)
MAPs support the early identification of emerging behaviours and risks to help ensure children and young people receive the services and support they need. Collaboration across the service system helps identify barriers to engagement, coordinated responses and reduce the risk of further offending.
A child or young person is eligible for oversight by a MAP if the child or young person is at high risk of engaging in serious offending or causing serious harm and is:
- subject to youth justice supervision in the community on a supervised community-based order or supervised or intensive bail or sentence deferral, or youth parole order
- held in custody in a youth justice custodial centre, or
- subject to current criminal proceedings and previously supervised by a MAP.
MAPs bring together relevant services such as Child Protection, Housing, Department of Education and Department of Health to identify emerging risks and coordinate responses to reduce the risk of further offending and promote community safety.
For children subject to a Children’s Court application or order, Child Protection may participate in MAPs as a panel member.
Youth Justice High Risk Panels
Youth Justice High-Risk Panels are overseen by Youth Justice and focus on the individual treatment, intervention and case management needs of very high-risk children and young people. Children and young people involved with Child Protection may be overseen by the Youth Justice High-Risk Panel. Child Protection does not routinely attend, however, Child Protection executives may be invited as required. The panel supports coordinated case planning, parole planning and oversees the delivery of services and interventions, including therapeutic and intensive interventions or disengagement programs where there is a risk of violent extremism. (Note. These are different to the Child Protection-led high-risk youth schedules and panels).
Information sharing and privacy for MAPs and High-Risk Panels
Information sharing powers in the YJ Act apply to MAPs and High-Risk Panels in the exercise of their functions under the YJ Act. This means that practitioners may be requested to share information to facilitate case management via a MAP or High-Risk Panel.
Special considerations for case closure
A child or young person may cease to be invoved with either program at different times. It is crucial that case closure is proactively and effectively managed.
Prior to a protection order expiring or revocation, the Child Protection practitioner must arrange a care team meeting involving the child or young person and their family, Youth Justice and other relevant services involved with the child or young person. This meeting should ensure that all connections have been made with the services the child or young person and their family will continue to work with.
Dispute resolution
In the first instance, disputes between Child Protection and Youth Justice should aim to be resolved at the practitioner level. Where timely dispute resolution is not achieved the issue is to be referred to the respective supervisors or managers.
The YJ Act establishes legislative authority for sharing confidential information between Youth Justice, Child Protection and other relevant information holders under the Act. See the Youth Justice Website
Youth Justice may request, receive and disclose information to Child Protection under the YJ Act where the request or disclosure is reasonably necessary for performance of functions, duties or powers under the YJ Act (chapter 15). The YJ Act permits information sharing for young people aged 18 years and older.
For detailed advice on general information sharing under the YJ Act, operational arrangements for responding to Youth Justice requests, including requests relating to open and closed Child Protection involvement, pre-sentence reporting and court orders, are outlined in Information sharing in child protection practice.
See Access to court reports for restrictions that apply, and Information sharing in child protection practice.
Providing information for a pre-sentence report
If a child or young person is found guilty of an offence, the court may require that Youth Justice prepare a pre-sentence report to inform sentencing and consideration of the young person's circumstances and/or suitability for an order. [Insert link to YJ website re: pre-sentence report provisions]
Youth Justice will complete a pre-sentence report for the Court. In preparing the report, Youth Justice may request relevant Child Protection information to assist with completing the sections of the report that require information about the child or young person's circumstances, history, needs and supports. Youth Justice can also directly request and receive information from authorised ACCOs.
For advice on responding to requests for information for pre-sentence reports, see Information sharing in child protection practice.
Providing information to the court or attending court
If a child or young person is the subject of a protection application or protection order, the court may order Child Protection or an authorised ACCO under s.401 of the YJ Act:
- to provide information that the court requires to Youth Justice, (via CRIS) for inclusion in a court report or provision to court by Youth Justice
- to provide a report to the court, via the CMS Portal and to other parties to the proceedings, with any information the court requires, and/or
- to attend any criminal proceedings in relation to the child or young person and give information and assistance required.
Responding to a s.401 order
Section 401 orders will be sent to the Information Sharing Team (IST) from the Children’s Court via email and recorded on CRIS. The allocated worker and Team Manager will be notified by email when the order has been added.
The email will contain information on how to respond to the order, including how to engage with the Child Protection Litigation Office (CPLO). CPLO should be engaged for all s.401 requests.
Where the s.401 order requires attendance at Court, the Children’s Court will email CPLO and IST or After Hours, as appropriate.
For guidance about responding to requests for information and attendance is here: [Insert/link CPLO fact sheet or guidance here]
If a child or young person is found guilty and sentenced
Participation in Youth Justice group conferences and planning meetings
Group Conferencing is based on restorative justice principles and is a process that may involve the child meeting with the victim or a victim representative and others. The purpose is to discuss the impact of their offending and develop an outcome plan to help them take responsibility and make amends for their actions. The group conferencing process attempts to strengthen the child or young person’s family, and community supports and identifies ways of restoring the harm associated with the offending behaviour.
The Youth Justice Act establishes legislated group conferences:
- Early Diversion Group Conferences (EDGCs) and Aboriginal-led EDGCs – a pre charge diversionary mechanism intended to provide a ‘third tier’ diversionary pathways for children whose alleged offending is not considered suitable for a warning or a caution. EDGCs are designed for children who need help to understand the impact of their offending and address underlying drivers of their behaviours.
- Pre-sentence group conferences – a court ordered process which is convened during a deferral or adjournment period for a child or young person, who is found guilty of an offence.
- Parole stage group conferences – a Youth Parole Board referred process which is convened for a child or young person who is serving a custodial sentence. Conferencing at the parole stage has the potential to further support a young person’s reintegration into the community and successful completion of their sentence on parole.
Child Protection or an authorised ACCO may be required or invited to attend group conferences or planning meetings to provide relevant information to support planning and decision making. Practitioners should attend where invited, noting unless there is consent from all attendees (refer to YJ Act (s.292)), these conferences are strictly confidential and cannot be used to gather information about a child’s case management. Accordingly, information learned during a group conference must not be recorded in CRIS (except with the consent of all participants or the leave of the Children’s Court).
Information for case planning can be obtained through existing information sharing processes or consent should be sought from all conference attendees.
Where there is a pre-authorised ACCO working with the children and young people, child protection should liaise with Youth Justice on whether the pre-authorised ACCO can attend, where appropriate.
Youth Justice Planning Meetings
Youth Justice Planning Meetings are a court ordered process to develop, review or vary a Youth Justice plan for a child or young person who is being considered or subject to a youth supervision and support order or a youth control order. The meeting brings together relevant participants to support coordinated planning ensuring that the Youth Justice plan reflects the young person’s circumstances, needs and proposed intervention.
The Court can direct Child Protection or an authorised ACCO attend Youth Justice planning meetings, or the convener can invite Child Protection or an authorised ACCO to attend.
Ongoing consideration for case planning and best interests
Where a child or young person has been found guilty and sentenced, Child Protection should review the child or young person’s case plan and consider how the Youth Justice order may affect ongoing case planning, including living arrangements.
Practitioners should be aware of any conditions attached to the order and ensure these are considered when making decisions. This may include supporting the child or young person to comply with court conditions relating to living arrangements, education, participation in programs and contact with other people. Child Protection and Youth Justice should continue to work collaboratively to ensure the case planning supports the child or young person’s safety, wellbeing and development.
Where a child or young person is in custody, Child Protection should continue to provide support throughout the child or young person’s involvement with Youth