1. Overview of Child Link

Currently, children and families in Victoria engage with a range of services to support development, health, and learning outcomes from a child’s birth through to when they leave school. These services include Maternal and Child Health services, supported playgroups, early childhood education and care services, funded kindergartens, registered schools and home schooling, child protection services, and out of home care services. When a child and the child’s family engage with these services, the service creates a record of the engagement in a ‘source system’ of that relevant service, with the information that the child or their family has provided.

Prior to Child Link, professionals working with children reported the challenge of needing to exercise professional judgment while often having insufficient information, background, or history about a child. Professionals working with children need readily available, accurate information on children in their care to support early identification of risks and vulnerabilities to reduce the chances that another child will fall through the cracks.

Part 7A of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act and regulations made under that Act allow Child Link to draw information from Victorian Government source systems. Child Link then matches and merges the information to ensure accuracy in identifying the child and combines this information to create a single entry of aggregated information for each child. Child Link is updated daily to ensure the information on Child Link is based on the most recent information received from the various source systems.

The information provided from the source systems to Child Link includes only information which is permitted by the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act and regulations to be displayed on Child Link and specific information that is required to accurately identify individuals.

Child Link may display the following information in relation to a child:

• the child’s name, date and place of birth, and sex
• the names of the child’s siblings
• the names and the relationship of persons who have parental responsibility and/or day-to-day care of the child
• whether the child identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• the child’s participation and engagement in government childhood services and the contact details of those services
• if the child or their sibling has a past or current child protection order and if the order placed the child or their sibling in out of home care.

Child Link does not display a child’s address information or contact details for the child or the child’s family. Child Link is not a case management system and does not contain any case notes, professional opinions, or detailed health records. The information on Child Link cannot be directly edited or amended by professionals who use Child Link.

Access to Child Link by professionals is limited by a person’s role and purpose of use of Child Link to ensure that only appropriately skilled and trained people within a permitted service will have access. Prior to access being granted, authorised professionals must be trained on how to use Child Link in their work, including completing Child Link training in cultural sensitivity and information security. Some of the authorised professionals permitted to become Child Link Users include Maternal and Child Health nurses, school principals, key staff at schools, early childhood teachers and Child Protection practitioners.

Child Link has been built with information security and privacy as core principles. Access, transmission and storage of information aligns with strict security protocols built into the system, which adhere to relevant privacy and data security law in Victoria. Child Link has the power to block access to part or all of a child’s entry and block a particular Child Link User’s access to Child Link or a child’s entry on Child Link. The blocking of access will only take place if the access poses an unacceptable risk of harm to a person or in all the circumstances is otherwise inappropriate. In addition, offences and penalties exist to discourage unauthorised access, use and disclosure of information from Child Link.

When information will be on Child Link

An entry must be created in Child Link for every child, from birth to 18 years of age, born in Victoria or who moves to Victoria after birth, when the earliest of the following occurs:

• when the child is born in Victoria
• when the child has first contact with a relevant service, including a:
  • Maternal and Child Health service or provider
  • supported playgroup
  • funded kindergarten (at enrolment)
  • registered school (at enrolment)
  • school nurse program
  • student support service provided by the Department of Education (DE)
• when the child is registered for home schooling
• when a child protection order (CPO) is made in respect of the child.

A child entry must be created when the above events occur. A child entry must be created from the source system information of the relevant service(s), including the information the child or family has provided the service. Child Link does not require consent from the child or the child’s family to collect, use or disclose the information about the child or a person with parental responsibility for, or day-to-day care of, the child, to establish and maintain Child Link and data management.

Information on a child's entry

The information that may be displayed on a child’s entry is limited by legislation, as specified in section 46D(1) of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act.

What information about a whether a child is Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander will be displayed?

An Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is someone who is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person; and is accepted as such by the community in which they live, or formerly lived.

The information on whether a child is Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander will be displayed as ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘not disclosed’ (‘not disclosed’ is recorded if the person has declined to provide this information or if it has not been captured in the source system). The most up-to-date information received as to whether the child identifies, or has been identified, as being Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or both, will be displayed.

What information about a child’s sex will be displayed?

Child Link will include the child's sex or, if it has not been disclosed, a record to that effect. Under the legislation a child’s identified gender may not be displayed. Some source systems include the child’s sex and/or the child’s gender. Child Link will display sex, or if sex is not disclosed or cannot be confirmed through the data (including an instance where the child’s sex and the child’s identified gender do not match in source systems) a record stating ‘not disclosed’.

Sex refers to a person’s biological sex characteristics. This has historically been understood as either female or male. However, we now know that some people are born with natural variations to sex characteristics.

Gender is part of how you understand who you are and how you interact with other people. Many people understand their gender as being female or male. Some people understand their gender as a combination of these or neither. Gender can be expressed in different ways, such as through behaviour or physical appearance.

What information about parental responsibility or day-to-day care of the child will be displayed?

For persons with parental responsibility and/or day-to-day care of a child the following information may be displayed:

• the full names of each of those persons and any other names by which they are or have been known
• whether they have parental responsibility and/or day-to-day care of the child
• at which time the person(s) have or have had parental responsibility and/or day-to-day care of the child
• the relationship of the person with parental responsibility for, or day-to-day care of, the child.

Parental responsibility in relation to a child, means all the duties, powers, responsibilities, and authority which, by law or custom, parents have in relation to children.

Day-to-day care in relation to a child, means the daily care and control of the child, whether or not involving parental responsibility for the child.

Parents noted in Child Link will come from parent information included in source systems. A parent in Child Link incorporates roles that may have parental responsibility for a child and/or day-to-day care for the child.

What CPOs will be included in Child Link?

The types of CPOs which can be shown on Child Link are determined by legislation. The CPOs in Child Link include the following orders in the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005:

• an order made under Part 4.8 (protective invention orders)
• a protection order
• a permanent care order

Orders that will not be included in Child Link include Intervention Orders (such as a family violence intervention order or personal safety intervention order) and Adoption Orders.

Enrolment and participation

Enrolment and participation information in each of the following services that the child has engaged with, or any other prescribed service or program².

The service engagement information in Child Link includes:

• the name and contact details of the service
• the dates of the child’s participation in the service, such as the date of an appointment, or the date range of participation
• the age the child first attended the service
• any other relevant service type or program details.

Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services

Universal MCH program and the Enhanced MCH programs are included in Child Link. For these MCH programs, referral dates and consultation information, including key ages and stages appointment dates and drop-in session appointments dates.

Supported playgroups

Supported playgroups include the government-funded targeted service which provides free sessions for children aged 0-5 years. Supported playgroups do not include community-based playgroups that a child may attend.

Funded kindergartens

Child Link will display information in relation to a child’s engagement and participation in a funded kindergarten. Types of funded kindergarten includes four-year old kindergarten, three-year old kindergarten, and early start kindergarten. Funded kindergartens can be in children’s centres, long day care centres, community kindergartens, independent schools, and some government schools. There will also be instances where some children attend two different kindergarten services and only enrolment in the funded kindergarten service will be displayed on Child Link.

Registered schools or home schooling

Education in Victoria is compulsory for children aged from 6 to 17 years. Child Link will display information in relation to the following registered school types:

• Government schools, primary or secondary schools funded by and the responsibility of the government.
• Non-government schools, is the broad term for independent schools and Catholic schools in Victoria. These schools are not part of the government school system and have their own enrolment process and costs. Independent schools are represented by the membership-based organisation, Independent Schools Victoria. The Lutheran, Ecumenical and Seventh-Day Adventist school systems are considered to be independent schools.
• Home-schooling, where a parent or both parents assume the overall responsibility for their child’s educational program. Any child of compulsory school age who is being educated at home must be registered with the Victorian Regulations and Qualifications Authority. There is also the option to combine school and home education under an arrangement called partial enrolment.

The following schools sub-type descriptions will also be displayed on Child Link:

• primary school, which is Prep Year to Year 6.
• secondary school, which is Years 7 to 10. Most secondary schools also include Years 11 and 12 to prepare for tertiary study.
• primary/secondary school, which combines primary and secondary at the same location.
• specialist school, which specialise in subject, or specialise in teaching students with disability.

School nurse programs

Primary School Nurses visit government and non-government schools throughout each year. Primary School Nurse information will be displayed on Child Link for children in government and non-government schools. The Secondary School Nurse Program information will only be displayed on Child Link for children in government schools.

Child Link will display engagement with school nursing in relation to dates of Health assessments and the School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and Occasions of Service for assessment, consultation, treatment, or other service provided by a school nurse to a student. No personal health information in relation to a child and their engagement with the school nursing program will be displayed.

Student support services provided by DE

Student Support Services are allied health services delivered by DE to children in government schools who require additional support. The purpose of Student Support Services is to assist children and young people facing a range of barriers to learning to achieve their educational and developmental potential through the provision of a range of strategies and specialised support. Child Link will only display the dates of engagement with Student Support Services. Child Link and will not display the type of Student Support Service or any other personal health information in relation to the child’s engagement with this service.

Sensitivity flags

Sensitivity flags may be attached to information on the child’s entry relating to a child’s relationships or engagements, where the information has been flagged as sensitive in nature and additional discretion must be applied. See Section 3 for more information on sensitivity flags and Child Link Users.

Accuracy of information

If a professional working with a child or the child’s family identifies information on Child Link which is not correct, the professional can amend the information in their source system. The amended information in the source system will be extracted by Child Link and, as a result, corrected on Child Link. The professional can also contact Child Link to advise of the issue identified.

When is a child’s entry no longer accessible?

A child’s entry on Child Link will no longer be accessible to Child Link Users:

• if the child has died, or
• once the child turns 18 and is no longer enrolled in a registered school or registered for home schooling (whichever is later).

When a child’s entry has been removed from access, the child’s information may still be used for the purpose of de-identified information. For further details on de-identified information, see Section 5 on Information Management.

[1] Sibling includes a brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, adoptive brother, adoptive sister, step-brother, step-sister.

[2] Services or programs prescribed by Regulations made under the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act.