Safety in care (SC) file cluster

Identifying and definitional attributes
Metadata item type:	Data Set Specification
METEOR identifier:	773822
Registration status:	Children and Families, Standard 11/05/2023
DSS type:	Data Element Cluster
Scope:	The Safety in care (SC) file cluster is used to collect information about substantiations of abuse in care, during the reference period. This includes substantiations of incidents of abuse in care where the incident occurred before the reference period in which it was substantiated. This is a standalone file and contains replication of some demographic items from elsewhere in the Child Protection National Minimum Data Set. Only substantiations for children and young people who were aged less than 18 years at the time of the abuse are included (note, the client's age at the time of the substantiation is not used to determine if they are in scope). This includes unborn children in jurisdictions where they are covered under the child protection legislation. The file contains information on children who were the subject of a substantiated incident of abuse, where the substantiated abuse happened while the child was in out-of-home care, on a third party parental order, or in a non-out-of-home care placement, but on an order that transfers full or partial parental responsibility to an agent of the State. To be included, the person held responsible for the abuse must have been either: a) the approved carer b) another person living in the household or care facility, including other children c) an employee of the responsible care service/agency or government department, or d) a person not living in the household, where a person in (a) or (c) above failed to protect the child, or the action or inaction of a person in (a) or (c) contributed to the abuse. Note that a client may appear more than once in this file. Each distinct substantiation recorded by the department will be a new line in the file, delineated by the substantiation date.

Collection and usage attributes
Guide for use:	For this file a person is a child or young person aged less than 18 years. This includes unborn children in jurisdictions where they are covered under the child protection legislation.
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) 2021. Child protection national minimum data set, data collection manual 2020-21. Canberra: AIHW.
Relational attributes
Related metadata references:	Supersedes Safety in care (SC) 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.	Mandatory	1
2	Person—letters of family name, text XXX *DSS specific information:* 'Letters of name' is collected as one item in cell number 2 in the Safety in care file of the CP National minimum data set (NMDS). The 2nd, 3rd and 5th letters of the client's family name are combined with the 2nd and 3rd letters of the client's given name to obtain the 5 digit letters of the client's name. For children who were unborn at the time of the notification and who were subsequently born by 31 August, letters of name should reflect the name given to the child following birth.	Mandatory	1
3	Person—letters of given name, text XX *DSS specific information:* 'Letters of name' is collected as one item in cell number 2 in the Safety in care file of the CP NMDS. The 2nd and 3rd letters of the client's given name are combined with the 2nd, 3rd and 5th letters of the client's family name to obtain the 5 digit letters of the client's name. For children who were unborn at the time of the notification and who were subsequently born by 31 August, letters of name should reflect the name given to the child following birth.	Mandatory	1
4	Person—date of birth, DDMMYYYY *DSS specific information:* This collection requires a non-standard format for this data item: DD/MM/YYYY. For children who were unborn at the time of the notification, estimated age can be calculated (e.g. – 1 month if due to be born in one month) from which an estimated date of birth (DOB) can be determined. For children who were unborn at the time of the notification and who were subsequently born by 31 August, date of birth should be updated where possible. When an estimate is required, all known fields should be entered (e.g. if only year is known use 01/01/YYYY, if year and month are known use 01/MM/YYYY. If the date is not known and cannot be estimated, record as 01/01/1900. If it is not applicable to record a date (i.e. the child has not been born by 31 August), record as 01/01/9999.	Mandatory	1
5	Date—estimate indicator, code N *DSS specific information:* In the Safety in care (SC) file cluster this data element is recorded twice: to show whether an estimated date of birth was recorded (cell number 4); to show whether an estimated date of substantiation was recorded (cell number 9) Code 9 'Not stated/inadequately described' in the data element is equivalent to code 99 in the Child protection NMDS collection manual.	Mandatory	2
6	Person—sex, code N *DSS specific information:* For unborn children whose sex is unknown, 97 'Not applicable' should be recorded. Code 9 'Not stated/inadequately described' in the data element is equivalent to code 99 in the Child protection NMDS collection manual.	Mandatory	1
7	Person—Indigenous status, code N *DSS specific information:* Record 5 'Indigenous - not further specified' where no differentiation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is made. This code is used in the CP NMDS and is not mappable to the Indigenous status standard. Code 9 'Not stated/inadequately described' in the data element is equivalent to code 99 in the Child protection NMDS collection manual.	Mandatory	1
8	Service event—living arrangement type, care arrangement code N[N]	Mandatory	1
9	Child protection substantiation—date of substantiation, DDMMYYYY *DSS specific information:* This collection requires a non-standard format for this data item: DD/MM/YYYY.	Mandatory	1
10	Child—primary type of abuse or neglect, code N[N]	Mandatory	1
11	Child—other type of abuse or neglect, code N[N] *Conditional obligation:* Only to be used when more than one type of abuse has been identified. *DSS specific information:* Four separate data items are used to collect the other types of abuse identified as part of the substantiation: physical abuse (cell number 11); sexual abuse (cell number 12); emotional abuse (cell number 13); and neglect (cell number 14).	Conditional	3
12	Child protection substantiation—sexual exploitation indicator, yes/no/not applicable/not stated/inadequately described code N *DSS specific information:* Sexual exploitation is only relevant where sexual abuse has been substantiated as the primary or other type of abuse in care. Codes 1 ‘Yes’, 2 ‘No’ and 99 ‘Not stated’ should be used if ‘Substantiated primary type of abuse in care’ is code 2 ‘Sexual’, or ‘Substantiated other type of abuse in care: sexual’ is code 1 ‘Yes’. Code 97 ‘Not applicable’ should be used in all other cases. Code 7 'Not applicable' in the data element is equivalent to code 97 in the Child protection NMDS collection manual. Code 9 'Not stated/inadequately described' in the data element is equivalent to code 99 in the Child protection NMDS collection manual.	Mandatory	1