Disability recording in ChildStory

Directorate: ChildStory

Division: Child Protection and Permanency, District and Youth Justice Services

Project summary

Enhancements are being made to the ChildStory information technology system to make it easier for caseworkers to identify clients with disability, record information about a client’s disability and access relevant NDIS information.

Focus Area:

• Creating liveable communities.

Project objective

To align disability recording in ChildStory with data points for the NDIS.

Adding a validation in ChildStory to make identifying disability a mandatory requirement.

The challenge

This project will address the challenge of ensuring child protection matters consider disability issues for each and every child or young person and their family / carers.

Why is this important?

Identifying disability issues is an essential step in appropriately addressing the issues. Recording essential information is critical to facilitating access to support and services which are appropriate for the child or young person.

A validation is being added to ChildStory to ensure that identifying disability information is a mandatory requirement

ChildStory is working on aligning its disability recording with the data points for the NDIS. These enhancements will allow for more detailed information about the child/young person’s disability, NDIS plan details and the services and supports in place for them, as well as assisting in identifying additional services and/or supports required.

What will success look like?

Users of the ChildStory system will routinely consider disability issues as part of their work, and children/young people with disability will have their information appropriately and accurately identified and recorded

This work is due for completion in 2021.

How will you measure success?

That disability information is appropriately recorded in ChildStory for each and every person.

Status report

Current Status: Progressing

Date: September 2023

Status Notes:

Activities to May 2021

1. Upload NDIS identifier for all known children / young people - complete
2. Make disability a mandatory data point in ChildStory - in progress
3. Enhance disability data recording within ChildStory to align with NDIS data and give more accurate information - in progress

The work to make disability a mandatory field in ChildStory is underway.

Enhancing disability recording is work that sits within the continuous improvemnet space within ChildStory as well as current work in progress. The current work in progress is to align disabilty data points with the NDIS, the ongoing work with be to continue to check alignment with NDIS and current proactice.

This work to enhance disability recording also aligns with work to enhance recording for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island information, culturally and linguistically diverse communities and LGBTQI+ communities. ChildStory is working to enhance information recording for all individuals and communities to ensure inclusivity. This work is in progress and it is acknowledged that appropriate information gathering / data points in a critical information system will be an item for continuous improvement in the work of ChildStory.

Activities to July 2022

1. Upload NDIS identifier for all known children / young people - complete and ongoing as up to date data is shared it will be uploaded to ChildStory
2. Make disability a mandatory data point in ChildStory - in progress and due for completion in early 2023. In addition Child Protection E reporting has been updated to guide reporters to advise on disability information (and NDIS participation) about children and their carers when making a Child Protection report.
3. Enhance disability data recording within ChildStory to align with NDIS data and give more accurate information - this is work that sits within the continuous improvement space within ChildStory as well as current work in progress. The current work in progress is to align disabilty data points with the NDIS, the ongoing work with be to continue to check alignment with NDIS and current proactice.

This work to enhance disability recording also aligns with work to enhance recording for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island information, culturally and linguistically diverse communities and LGBTQI+ communities. ChildStory is working to enhance information recording for all individuals and communities to ensure inclusivity. This work is in progress and it is acknowledged that appropriate information gathering / data points in a critical information system will be an item for continuous improvement in the work of ChildStory.

Activities to September 2023

ChildStory are continuing to enable more accurate recording of disability of children and families in the source system that better aligns with the NDIS data. This will include the ability to capture the child/young person with a disability, NDIS plan details, services and supports.