Living arrangements for children under care (LA) file cluster

Identifying and definitional attributes
Metadata item type:	Data Set Specification
METEOR identifier:	773803
Registration status:	Children and Families, Standard 11/05/2023
DSS type:	Data Element Cluster
Scope:	The Living arrangements for children under care (LA) file cluster contains information about the living arrangements recorded during the reference period for children under the care of a Department responsible for child protection (i.e. children on orders who were not in funded out-of-home care and children in funded out-of-home care placements regardless of whether they were on an order).

Collection and usage attributes
Guide for use:	For this file a person is a child or young person aged less than 18 years. Children who turn 18 during the reference period may also be included. Funded out-of-home care placements are defined as out-of-home overnight care for children aged less than 18 years, where the state makes a financial payment or where a financial payment has been offered but has been declined by the carer. This includes placements with relatives (other than parents) where there is ongoing case management and financial payment has been made or offered but has been declined by the carer. It should be noted that children in funded ‘out-of-home care’ include children in both legal and voluntary placements and placements made for the purpose of providing respite for parents/carers. The following are excluded from out-of-home care: children who enter and exit a funded out-of-home care placement on the same day; placements solely funded by disability services, psychiatric services, specialist homelessness services, juvenile justice facilities, or overnight child care services; children on third party parental responsibility or immigration orders; supported placements for children aged 18 years or older; pre-adoptive placements and placements for children whose adoptive parents receive ongoing funding due to the support needs of the child; or children who are self-placed without the approval of the Department.
Collection methods:	Note that a client may appear more than once in this file. Each change in living arrangement a child has will be a new line in the file, delineated by a start and end date. Changes in living arrangement include: a change in the type of living arrangement (e.g. from home-based to a facility-based placement); or within living arrangement types, a change in the venue (e.g. a change from one home-based placement to a different home-based placement). However, short breaks in out-of-home care placements (not for the purpose of respite) whereby the child is not at their usual place of residence but the intention is for the child to return to their prior living arrangement (i.e. their room and most of their substantial possessions remain in the original home environment) should not be recorded as a new living arrangement in the file. These breaks include: hospital admissions, periods of time spent in juvenile detention centres, holidays, school camps and excursions. However, any break of 60 days or more is deemed to be an exit from out-of-home care. For family group homes, if the carers leave the home for more than 14 days at a time (e.g. annual leave), this should be recorded as a new living arrangement in the file.
Source and reference attributes
Submitting organisation:	Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Steward:	Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Origin:	AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2022. Child protection national minimum data set, data collection manual 2021-22. Canberra: AIHW.
Relational attributes
Related metadata references:	Supersedes Living arrangements for children under care (LA) file cluster Children and Families, Superseded 11/05/2023
Implementation in Data Set Specifications: All attributes +	Child protection NMDS 2021–22 Children and Families, Standard 11/05/2023 DSS specific attributes + Implementation start date: 01/07/2020 Implementation end date: 30/06/2022

Metadata items in this Data Set Specification

Seq No.	Metadata item	Obligation	Max occurs
1	Person—person identifier, child protection NX[X(11)] *DSS specific information:* The person identifier (ID) is the identifier for the child (the child protection client). Each ID is used by only one client and each client has only one ID. The person ID in the Living arrangements file must appear in the Client file.	Mandatory	1
2	Service event—living arrangement start date, DDMMYYYY *DSS specific information:* This collection requires a non-standard format for this data item: DD/MM/YYYY.	Mandatory	1
3	Address—suburb/town/locality name, text X[X(45)] *DSS specific information:* The suburb/town/locality name of the child's living arrangement. For children residing outside Australia record ‘Overseas’.	Mandatory	1
4	Address—Australian postcode, code (Postcode datafile) NNNN *DSS specific information:* The postcode of the child's living arrangement. Record code 9999 for 'Not stated/inadequately described'. For children residing outside Australia record 9999 ‘Not stated/inadequately described’.	Mandatory	1
5	Address—statistical area, level 2 (SA2) code (ASGS Edition 3) N(9) *DSS specific information:* The Statistical area level 2 (SA2) of the child's living arrangement. Record 99 for 'not stated/inadequately described'.	Mandatory	1
6	Service event—financial payment indicator, living arrangement code N[N]	Mandatory	1
7	Service event—living arrangement type, child under care code N[N]	Mandatory	1
8	Service event—respite placement indicator, yes/no/not applicable/not stated/inadequately described code N *Conditional obligation:* Conditional on the child living in a funded out-of-home care placement provided by a funded agency. *DSS specific information:* This data collection uses an alternate code set. Code 97 ('Not applicable') should be mapped to Code 7 ('Not applicable') in the data element. Code 99 ('Not stated/inadequately described') should be mapped to Code 9 ('Not stated/inadequately described') in the data element.	Conditional	1
9	Person—relationship of carer to child, code N[N]	Mandatory	1
10	Service event—Indigenous agency placement indicator, yes/no/not applicable/not stated/inadequately described code N *Conditional obligation:* Conditional on the child being Indigenous and living in a funded out-of-home care placement provided by a funded agency. *DSS specific information:* This data collection uses an alternate code set. Code 97 ('Not applicable') should be mapped to Code 7 ('Not applicable') in the data element. Code 99 ('Not stated/inadequately described') should be mapped to Code 9 ('Not stated/inadequately described') in the data element.	Conditional	1
11	Carer household—caregiver type, Indigenous child caregiver code N[N] *Conditional obligation:* Conditional on the child being Indigenous and living in a funded out-of-home care placement provided by a funded agency. *DSS specific information:* For the purpose of this data element cluster, the object class of this data element is understood to include residential care and family group homes, which are not private households.	Conditional	1
12	Carer household—household identifier, child protection identifier NX[X(11)] *DSS specific information:* Each carer household has only one ID. Each ID is only used by one carer household. Each carer household may include one or more authorised carers (i.e. one or more Carer (person) IDs may be recorded under each carer household ID). Code 97 'Not applicable' should be recorded if it is not applicable to record carer household ID (i.e. if the child is not living with a carer in a funded out-of-home care placement (e.g. living with parents, independent living, other living arrangements)). For the purpose of this data element cluster, the object class of this data element is understood to include residential care and family group homes, which are not private households. This means that the carer household ID in the Carer household authorisation file will be a subset of the carer household ID in the Living arrangements file as residential care and family group homes are not included in the scope of carers in the carer household authorisation file.	Mandatory	1
13	Service event—living arrangement end date, DDMMYYYY *DSS specific information:* This collection requires a non-standard format for this data item: DD/MM/YYYY.	Mandatory	1
14	Service episode—episode start date, DDMMYYYY *Conditional obligation:* Conditional on the child being in a funded out-of-home care placement. *DSS specific information:* This collection requires a non-standard format for this data item: DD/MM/YYYY. Where the funded out-of-home care placement was part of a preceding continuous episode of care, this is the start date of the first placement in the episode. Episode of care is the period of time in which a child remains in out-of-home care. During this period, a child may have one or more different out-of-home care placements, including placements lasting less than 7 days. If a child has a return home or break of less than 60 days before returning to the same or different placement they are considered to be continuously in care during this period. However, any break of 60 days or more is deemed to be an exit from out-of-home care and will break the continuity of care. Valid date, if applicable, occurs on or before 31 August following the reference period. The date must be preceding 'Living arrangement start date'. Note: All funded out-of-home care placements lasting less than 7 days should be included when determining the start date of a continuous episode of care. When an estimate is required, all known fields should be entered (e.g. if year and month are known use 01/MM/YYYY; if the exact date is unknown but the reporting period to which it relates can be determined, use 01/07/YYYY). If the date is not known and can’t be estimated, record 01/01/1900. If it is not applicable to record a date (i.e. the living arrangement is not a funded out-of-home care placement or was not part of a preceding continuous episode of care e.g. this is the first placement in an episode of care), please record 01/01/9999.	Conditional	1
15	Service episode—funded out-of-home care placement, number N[NN] *Conditional obligation:* Conditional on the child being in funded out-of-home care placements. *DSS specific information:* This item should reflect an iterative count of the number of unique placements as at each record in the episode. If this cannot be provided, the total unique placements for the episode can be recorded.	Conditional	1
16	Child—reunification type, code N[N]	Mandatory	1