The Victorian Child Information Sharing (VCIS) Reform – including the Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) – is a broad and ambitious reform affecting the entire ecosystem of services that relate to children and families in Victoria. In policy, planning, implementation and practice it should be understood as extending beyond government and encompassing the whole community.
Implementation has been effective and collaborative
- CISS implementation is an example of a number of Victorian Government departments and agencies working collaboratively and effectively to introduce a significant reform.
- Implementation has generally been effective to this point in the scheduled rollout of Phase One (September 2018) and Phase Two (April 2021).
There are positive signs towards achieving medium-term outcomes relating to cultural change towards information sharing
- There is high awareness of CISS. Understanding of CISS is higher among Phase One Information Sharing Entities (ISEs) as would be expected.
- There has been significant progress in willingness to share information and in realising cultural change of attitudes towards information sharing. This is especially pronounced in Phase One workforces and in the education (Phase Two) sector.
Although awareness of CISS has grown, there is not a complete picture of ISE familiarity
- A large amount of training, support services and communication effort has occurred, reaching thousands of individuals and ISEs. However, there is no register of who has completed CISS training across ISEs and/or whether an ISE has an appropriately trained individual member(s) on staff at any given time.
There is an opportunity to improve understanding of Scheme activity
- Recording of information sharing is designed to only occur at an ISE level. Consequently, there is no comprehensive single source of truth regarding overall Scheme use by different ISEs and workforces, making it difficult to assess growth in information sharing over time.
More needs to be done to enable assessment of CISS’ impact
- The Department is progressively implementing an outcome measurement framework for CISS. While there is an opportunity to track CISS’ impact on child wellbeing and safety, the current data collection approach does not enable this to meaningfully occur.
- While this Review considered implementation and understanding of CISS among ISEs and government stakeholders, including feedback about CISS’ operation, there are information gaps regarding CISS’ overall effectiveness.
There are potential risks inherent in aspects of CISS currently
- Reporting of misuse of information is the responsibility of ISEs. While this Review did not uncover specific incidents of information being misused, it received qualitative reports of instances of ISEs inadvertently sharing an unnecessary amount of information. Some stakeholders were concerned about the level of understanding regarding what may and may not be shared in different circumstances.
- While the Department and partner agencies have sought to ensure safeguards within CISS for Aboriginal cultural safety through the legislative framework and guidelines, CISS’ decentralised oversight model incurs a risk that could lead to unintended consequences for some vulnerable groups if these guidelines are not followed.
- Some workforces that hold information relating to the wellbeing and safety of children were not included in Phase One or Phase Two, including disability services that are not delivered within registered community health services, and private mental health services or those that are not Commonwealth-funded. Adjacent jurisdictions are also not included. These exclusions can reduce the comprehensiveness of information available in certain circumstances.
Opportunities
This Review recommends that these aspects of CISS’ oversight and community engagement be refined:
- Scheme oversight can be improved through expanding the Outcome Measurement Framework to include ongoing monitoring of the Scheme’s utilisation. This will allow better understanding of Scheme outcomes, a clearer process for complaints and ensuring ISEs understand their obligations.
- Communities can be empowered to make decisions within the CISS guidelines by expanding the place-based approach to Scheme education and communication and recognising non-government organisations in advising on CISS. A specific program of work partnering with Aboriginal leaders, communities, organisations and stakeholders is needed, recognising Victoria’s commitment to self-determination and building confidence in the use of CISS. More work is required to understand the impact of CISS on diverse communities and Victorians experiencing vulnerability.
- A further phase of rollout would be strengthened through implementation of these improvements, along with continuation of the enquiry line and inclusion of other jurisdictions subject to required agreement(s) being reached.
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