See procedure High-risk youth panels and schedules for tasks that must be undertaken.
High-risk youth schedules and panels support case planning and monitoring of practice with children or young people known to Child Protection assessed at elevated risk of adverse outcomes and interventions have not effectively addressed the risk factors.
The high-risk schedule provides a framework and mechanism to support early identification of a relatively small cohort of the highest risk and most highly vulnerable young people. The high-risk schedule also supports organisational risk management and early advice to the area operations manager/director, Child Protection and area Child Protection executives.
The primary role of high-risk panels is to support rigorous multi-disciplinary case review, planning and decision-making, service integration and collaborative problem-solving and to provide support and direction to case management and other direct service staff, in respect of the young people on the high-risk schedule.
Each area will:
- identify and maintain current schedule of high-risk youth within the Child Protection program for whom sufficient protection has not yet been achieved or is no longer effective
- closely monitor young people on the schedule to ensure that each has an effective and adequate multi-service case plan and, where the child or young person is in care, a functioning care team
- arrange for children and young people on the schedule to be reviewed by the high-risk youth panel no less than monthly, and for this review to be documented.
Where a young person is involved with Child Protection and Youth Justice, separate advice is available on participation in Youth Justice panels, refer to Children and young people involved with Child Protection and Youth Justice
Entry to and exit from a high-risk schedule
A high-risk child or young person should be included in the area’s high-risk schedule when sufficient protection has not yet been achieved or is no longer effective. Typically, usual practice in relation to high-risk children and young people will have been followed but is not proving effective in sufficiently reducing risk.
Children and young people registered on the high-risk schedule will ordinarily be subject to at least protective intervention and more often a court order. However, flexibility of approach is necessary where a child or young person at an earlier phase of involvement is at particularly high-risk that is not being effectively managed and may benefit from inclusion on the schedule and consideration by the high-risk youth panel.
The high-risk schedule aims to provide a meaningful impact for individual children or young people and thus registration on a high-risk schedule is reserved for a relatively small proportion of young people assessed as acute risk or with high complexity where the usual practice with high-risk children and young people is not sufficiently effective.
Access to the schedule
Children or young people may be recommended for registration on the area’s high-risk schedule by the responsible child protection case planner (usually the team manager). Where the child or young person is in care, advice from the care team should be considered. Representatives from any involved service, including a Community Service Organisation (CSO), may request that a young person is considered for registration on the high-risk schedule.
Multi-sector high-risk youth panels review, monitor and plan for each child or young person registered on the HRY schedule in each area since the panel last met. Panels will usually be convened at a sub-divisional level and be chaired by an area operations manager/director, Child Protection. They meet at least monthly and are expected to include representatives at an appropriately authorised level of seniority.
Membership
The composition of panels is determined at a sub-divisional or area level as relevant to the client group and local service arrangements, factoring in consideration of service delivery catchments, including case management service providers and practical issues including limiting the numbers of meetings members may be expected to attend.
High-risk youth panels should generally include, where appropriate:
- child protection practitioner and supervisor or team manager responsible for the child or young person being considered
- deputy area operations manager and practice leader responsible for the schedule on which the child or young person is registered
- Aboriginal Child Specialist Advice and Support Service (ACSASS)
- care services and case management services
- disability services
- mental health services (as appropriate to the child or young people)
- drug and alcohol treatment services (adult or child or young person)
- youth justice
- therapeutic treatment services (for example Take Two
- Department of Education and Training (school)
The divisional principal practitioner may attend. Other programs or professionals should be included in high-risk youth panels on an ongoing or intermittent basis as and when appropriate. Such services may include Victoria Police, local government, Secure Care Service (SCS), After Hours Child Protection Service (AHCPS), Young People’s Outreach Team (YPOT), medical professionals – nurse, GP, adolescent or paediatric specialist. Where a service has a relationship with a specific client or family, it may be appropriate for them to attend a care team meeting or other case planning forum. Themes, issues and service needs identified by high-risk panels can inform area based high-risk meetings where appropriate. .
Functions
High-risk youth panels are to promote and optimise:
- local area-based approaches within the context of how service delivery occurs to support robust engagement of placed based services
- a developmentally aligned approach such that younger children (under 12 years) are not inappropriately included in a high-risk youth cohort
- a process that is attuned to other local planning mechanisms and panels.
- direction setting rather than consulting
- opportunities to address the child or young person’s need within the context of their individual, family and care team context (for young people in care, the context of their care environment and peers-in-care group is to be considered)
- a client centred and outcomes-based approach
decisions that are client centred and assessment based - inclusive and collaborative practice which holds services accountable for service delivery
- identification and management of organisational risks and barriers when required.
A client centred approach also means the views and preferences of the young person and their family are actively sought, listened to and brought into the panel's review and planning, so that the young person's own experience of their situation and the supports they identify inform the panel's decisions.
Information sharing and privacy
A meeting of a high-risk youth panel is a case management process. As such, consent is not required for information to be exchanged within the context of a meeting of the panel for the purpose of reaching decisions in the best interests of the child or young person.
See Privacy statement for high-risk panels and Information sharing in child protection practice.
Relationship of the care team and the high-risk youth panel
Where a child or young person is in care, the care team supports and oversees implementation of the case plan and actions table; to support the case manager and others in the day to day administration of the case plan and actions table; to provide avenues for regular and open feedback; and to support review and decision-making for all professionals involved in the protection and care of the child or young person (across all life domains). The care team provides a key forum for the consolidation of the multi-service view of the child or young person.
Where a child or young person in care is registered on a high-risk schedule, the care team will provide the platform for reporting to the high-risk youth panel. It may be helpful for the minutes of care team meetings which have occurred in the period between panel meetings to be provided to the chairperson prior to a panel meeting.
It is expected that a functioning care team is established for all high-risk children and young people in care.