Monitoring
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Monitoring
Systemic Monitoring and Review Program
The Commission’s Systemic Monitoring and Review Program is responsible for several key Child Guardian functions. The Child Guardian functions aim to strengthen Queensland’s child safety and juvenile justice systems by externally monitoring and reporting on the effectiveness of services provided to children in those systems.
The Systemic Monitoring and Review Program conducts the following activities:
Monitoring Activities
The Systemic Monitoring and Review Program monitors and reviews systems, policies and practices of the Department of Child Safety and other service providers who provide services to children and young people in the child safety system.
Monitoring activities are carried out under Part 2A of the Commission for Children and Young People Act 2000, which provides powers to:
- require information or documents from a service provider;
- require periodic reporting from a service provider;
- require service providers to review their systems, policies or practices;
- make recommendations to a relevant service provider; and
- monitor the implementation of recommendations made to a service provider.
A monitoring activity is commenced in one of two ways:
- An area of service delivery identified in monitoring plans; or
- An ‘ad hoc’ activity, that is, a pertinent issue which has only recently revealed itself to the Commission via internal and/or external sources.
Monitoring activities initiated under Part 2A of the Act often result in a detailed report to the service provider that may include recommendations to improve service delivery to children and young people. The Commissioner may decide to release these reports publicly, by asking the Premier to table the report in Parliament.
Monitoring Plans
Monitoring Plans set the direction and focus of future monitoring activities and are established with relevant service providers (as outlined in Part 2A of the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian Act 2000), including the Department of Child Safety, Queensland Health, Department of Housing, Department of Communities, Queensland Police Service, Disability Services Queensland, Department of Justice and Attorney-General, Department of Education and the Arts and Queensland Corrective Services. The current Monitoring Plans (Phase Two, 2007-2010) facilitate access to data from relevant service providers that will inform the Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators.
Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators
A significant element in the Child Guardian’s external oversight of the child safety system is the establishment of the Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators. The Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators represent an innovative approach to measuring, reporting and prioritising systemic child protection issues. The Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators will use internal data generated by the Child Guardian’s community visitors, complaints and child death review and external data provided by the Department of Child Safety and other service providers, to:
- establish a baseline of the performance of the child safety system, and
- the outcomes it produces for the children and young people in that system.
The Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators will also enable early alerts of system failure to be identified and effective service delivery to be recognised. Reporting about the Child Guardian Key Outcome Indicators will occur annually in the Child Guardian Report.
Click here for access to the Child Guardian Reports
Strategic Reporting and Performance Measurement Functions
The Systemic Monitoring and Review Program identifies systemic trends and issues for children in the child safety and juvenile justice systems through its data management and reporting functions. This work involves complex data management and quality assurance activities, managing information systems and reporting tools, supporting information management development, and the analysis and application of complex data sets.
Child Death Review Functions
The Systemic Monitoring and Review Program is responsible for a number of functions relating to child deaths in Queensland, including:
- maintaining a register of all child deaths in Queensland based on notifications from the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and details of all child deaths reported to the Office of the State Coroner;
- researching the risk factors associated with child deaths and making recommendations to prevent such deaths occurring, and
- preparing an Annual Report on child deaths.
The Annual Report on child deaths is published on or before 31 October each year.
Click here for access to the Child Death Review Teams reports
