Child protection

Child Protection provides child-centred, family-focused services to protect children and young people from significant harm caused by abuse or neglect within the family. It also aims to make sure that children and young people receive services to deal with the affect of abuse and neglect on their wellbeing and development.

The role of the Child Protection Service is to:

Receive reports from people who believe a child needs protection from abuse or neglect.
Provide advice to people who report cases of abuse or neglect.
Investigate when a child is believed to have been abused or is at risk of abuse or neglect.
Refer children and families to services in the community for ongoing support and harm prevention.
Take matters to the Children's Court if the child's safety within the family cannot be guaranteed.
Supervise children on legal orders granted by the Children’s Court.

Mandatory reporting of child abuse

Some professionals such as doctors, nurses, police and school teachers are legally obliged to report suspected child abuse. In addition, any person who believes on reasonable grounds that a child needs protection can make a report to the Victorian Child Protection Service. It is the Child Protection worker’s job to assess and, where necessary, further investigate if a child or young person is at risk of significant harm.

A referral to Child FIRST

This may be the best way of connecting children, young people and their families to the services they need, where families show any of the following factors that may affect a child’s safety, stability or development:

serious parenting problems that may be affecting the child's development
family conflict, including family breakdown
families under pressure due to a family member’s physical or mental illness, substance abuse, disability or bereavement
young, isolated and/or unsupported families
serious social or economic disadvantage that may have a bad effect on a child’s care or development

There may be many factors, or combinations of factors, within family life that have a bad affect on children's safety, stability and development.

A report to Child Protection

A report to Child Protection should be made in any of the following circumstances:

Physical abuse of, or non-accidental or unexplained injury to, a child (mandatory reporters must report).
A disclosure of sexual abuse by a child or witness, or a combination of factors suggesting the likelihood of sexual abuse - the child showing concerning behaviours, for example after the child's mother takes on a new partner or where a known or suspected perpetrator has had unsupervised contact with the child (mandatory reporters must notify).
Emotional abuse and ill treatment of a child affecting the child's stability and healthy development.
Persistent neglect, poor care or lack of appropriate supervision, where there is a likelihood of harm to the child, or the child's stability and development.
Persistent family violence or parental substance misuse, psychiatric illness or intellectual disability - where there is a likelihood of harm to the child or the child's stability and development.
Where a child's actions or behaviour may place them at risk of significant harm and the parents are unwilling or unable to protect the child.
Where a child appears to have been abandoned, or where the child's parents are dead or incapacitated, and no other person is caring properly for the child.

Many cases will not fit neatly into these categories, and it may be harder to find out whether the level and the nature of any risk are such that the child is in need of protection.

Victorian Legal Aid - multilingual publications
Illustrates the objectives of Victoria Legal Aid and a link to its multi language website.
Child protection authorities and related community organisations
The Office of the Child Safety Commissioner makes children a priority. The Commissioner provides advice to both the Minister for Community Services and the Minister for Children on issues impacting on the lives of children, in particular vulnerable children.