Deciding if your child needs care and protection

Assessing your child’s situation: the appraisal

If Child and Youth Protection Services believes your child may need care and protection, we will upgrade a Child Concern Report to a Child Protection Report and gather more information about your child’s situation. This is called an appraisal.

An appraisal is when we investigate whether your child has:

• experienced abuse or neglect
• is experiencing abuse or neglect
• is at risk of abuse or neglect
• needs care and protection.

During an appraisal, we will

• visit the child’s home (or school if the interview needs to be private)
• look at the child’s home and family environment
• interview the child, their siblings, parents and other important people in the child’s life
• share relevant information with agencies where appropriate.

Agreeing to the appraisal

When we ask you to agree to the appraisal, we are asking you to be involved in the appraisal process. This lets you tell your side of the story.

If you do not agree to the appraisal, the process may still go ahead.

If the allegations are about one or both parents (or a person with parental responsibility), the law lets us:

• speak with your child without you knowing beforehand or agreeing to it
• visit and talk to your child at their school or in a health facility.

The law says we must take reasonable steps to let at least one parent know after we meet your child.

If the allegation is not about what a parent or person with parental responsibility did, we will ask at least one parent to agree to the appraisal. We will either tell the other parent or ask them to agree to the appraisal.

The rights of parents during an appraisal

If we contact you about an appraisal you have the right:

• to be told what the allegations in the Child Protection Report are
• to respond to these allegations
• to know that an appraisal process will take place
• to ask to see what has been recorded during the appraisal
• to be told about the types of assessment that might happen, such as developmental or medical assessments
• to refuse to participate in the appraisal process
• to support and advocacy throughout the process, including the right to seek legal advice
• to a competent and objective assessment and decision-making process by us
• to make a complaint about the process if we have not done something correctly
• to access to certain information we hold through a Freedom of Information application
• to contact the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Services Team if you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
• to have a translator or an interpreter if English is your second language.

The rights of children during an appraisal

Children have the same rights to information as their parents or carers.

Next steps after the appraisal

If an appraisal shows there is no risk of abuse or neglect to your child, we will close the case.

If the appraisal shows your child or family needs support, we may connect you and your family to support services.

If we need more information or your child may need care and protection, the next steps may be one or more of the following:

• a Family Preservation response
• a Family Assessment
• a meeting with CYPS, called a Case Conference
• a Voluntary Care Agreement
• a Family Preservation response
• Emergency Action
• court action to get a care and protection order.

A Family Preservation response

After an appraisal, we may ask you to work with us to reduce the risks to your child and keep them safe at home. We may use a Family Preservation response when:

• we are worried about the risks to your child or your parenting skills, and we want to work with you to address these concerns
• things have happened in the home that impacted your child’s safety, stability and wellbeing
• there is family violence in the home, and we have made a Safety Plan.

For us to use a Family Preservation response, you must show us that you are voluntarily willing to work with us to reduce the risks to your child and meet their needs.

The case manager will work with you to find out:

• the safety needs of your child
• what needs to change
• how you would like your family to function.

During the Family Preservation response

We will:

• meet with you and your family often
• ask you to help make decisions about your child and what needs to happen to keep them safe
• develop goals with you and check if you achieve them
• help you access support services and improve your parenting skills
• provide you with a culturally appropriate service
• hold meetings like Case Conferences and Care Team meetings
• make Safety Plans and Case Plans
• check if the risk to your child changes.

If you achieve the goals we agreed to and address the risks to your child, we may decide that we don’t need to be involved with your family anymore.

If you don’t make progress on your goals or the risk to your child increases, we may do a Family Assessment or apply to the ACT Childrens Court for a care and protection order.

Family assessments

Your participation in a Family Assessment is voluntary. If you choose not to participate, we can take court action that will make you take part.

In a Family Assessment we look at your family’s situation and your child’s needs. We use it to understand what is happening and what the risks are for your child. We can also use it to give evidence to the ACT Childrens Court.

At the start of the assessment, we make sure all family members know:

• we will record information you give us
• we may use this information in the ACT Childrens Court as evidence.

The goals of the Family Assessment are to:

• find out your child’s needs
• find out how risks in your family can be reduced
• find out if you, or anyone else who cares for your child, needs any help with parenting skills
• consider where your child should live
• consider who your child should have contact with
• find out what supports might help you, your child and any other children in your family.

The assessment can takes weeks, and we will meet with your family many times.

Other people we talk to

To do the assessment, we will interview professionals working with your family, and people such as your child’s teacher. We do not need your permission to speak with these people.

After the Family Assessment

We will write a professional opinion (in a Family Assessment Report) about:

• the strengths and risks in your child’s home environment
• the quality of your child’s relationships
• your child’s developmental needs and progress
• your ability as a parent to provide suitable care for your child.

You will get a copy of the report. We will meet with you to talk about the Family Assessment Report.

If we have concerns about your family and the care you're providing to your child (or children), we may meet with you and other family members.

This is to make sure family members know why we are worried about your child’s safety. We will also talk about what needs to happen to improve the situation.

If you don't agree with the report

You have a right to respond to the Family Assessment Report. If you believe there are mistakes in the report, you should:

• write this down and send it to the staff member who wrote the report
• talk about these concerns at the meeting.

If you think we did not do something properly during the Family Assessment, you can make a complaint. For example, if you think we used information that is not accurate or not complete.

If we decide to apply for a care and protection order for your child, we will use the Family Assessment Report as evidence in court.

If this happens and you are not happy with the content of the Family Assessment report, you should get legal advice.

Case Conference

We may ask you to come to a Case Conference to help make a plan to support your child and family.

Other people can also come to the conference, such as people from support services. You can also bring a support person with you. You should let us know before the conference who is coming with you. This is so we can make plans about sharing information.

At the conference we will work together to make a short-term plan to make sure your child will be safe and happy.

The plan may include things like:

• setting positive goals
• working with support services
• strengthening the support you already have.

We might ask you to come to a follow-up meeting. This is a chance for you to talk about how you are going and if you would like any more support.

Voluntary Care Agreement

Sometimes it may be best for your child to have a Voluntary Care Agreement. This means another person will care for your child for a little while.

You can suggest a person in your family or friend network to care for your child. This is called kinship care. We will assess this person before your child goes to stay with them.

If kinship care is not suitable, we will place your child in out of home care. This could be with a approved foster carer or may be a residential facility or hospital.

How long a care agreement lasts

An initial Voluntary Care Agreement should be no longer than 6 to 10 days.

During this time we will have a Case Conference with you. At the conference we will make a plan so it is safe for your child to return to your care at the end of the agreed time. The plan will tell everyone about what they need to do to make this happen.

A Voluntary Care Agreement is a legal agreement. One or both parents (or people with parental responsibility) must sign it. This kind of agreement doesn’t involve going to court.

If your child is 15 years or older and agrees with the Voluntary Care Agreement, they can sign it.

A Voluntary Care Agreement can be extended for up to 6 months. We will only consider an extension if it is clearly in your child’s best interests.

The law says Voluntary Care Agreements need:

• consent to the agreement to be voluntary and must be made on the principles of informed consent
• consent from your child if they are 15 or older and have the mental capacity to understand what the agreement means
• to be in the best interests of your child
• your child not to be in immediate need of care and protection if they returned to your care.

Emergency Action

We only use Emergency Action if we believe your child is at immediate risk of abuse or neglect.

An Emergency Action lets us temporarily remove your child from your care. The Director-General of the Community Services Directorate will become responsible for your child.

An Emergency Action will last for no more than 2 working days at first.

During this time, we must apply to the ACT Childrens Court for a care and protection order.

To do this we will try to show the court that your child is ‘in need of care and protection’. If we can’t show this, the ACT Childrens Court will say your child must be immediately returned to your care.

After Emergency Action

When we take Emergency Action, we must tell you and any other person who has parental responsibility for your child that we have done this.

We will find someone to care for your child for the 2 working days until the ACT Childrens Court makes a decision.

You can usually suggest someone from your family or extended family to care for your child.

If there is no one suitable within your family who can provide a temporary home for your child, we will find someone else to care for them. This is likely to be a pre-approved foster carer but could also be staff at a residential home.

Before we go to court, we will keep learning about your child and their situation. This information may be used as evidence in court. It may include:

• a medical examination of your child
• interviews with your child
• interviews with family members or other people who are significant in your child’s life.

You can read more about emergency action in:

• Emergency action: advice for parents [PDF 80 kB]
• Emergency action: advice for parents (Easy English) [PDF 890 kB].

Feedback or concerns

You can talk to  your case manager if you have questions or concerns.

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