POCLS timeline

Progress on interviews with children, young people and their parent or carer

Interviews with children, young people and their parent or carer in the interview cohort (n=1,789) commenced approximately 18 months after the children and young people entered care. Repeat interviews occur every 18–24 months.

POCLS has good sample retention over the six waves of completed data collection from children and young people under 18 years old and their caregiver:

• Wave 1 (June 2011–August 2013):1,285 children and their parent or carer completed an interview*
• Wave 2 (April 2013–March 2015): 1,200 children and their parent or carer completed an interview
• Wave 3 (October 2014–July 2016): 1,033 children and their parent or carer completed an interview
• Wave 4 (May 2017–November 2018): 962 interviews with children and their parent or carer completed an interview
• Wave 5 (April 2019–December 2020): 862 interviews with children and their parent or carer
• Wave 6 (May 2023–August 2024): 543 interviews with children and their parent or carer
• Wave 7 commenced in September 2026 and is the final wave with the infant cohort aged 15–17 years
• All waves: 394 children and their caregiver completed interviews in all waves
• At least one wave: 1,528 children and their caregiver completed interviews in at least one wave

*Children restored during Wave 1 (n=192) were not invited to an interview for practical reasons (recruitment) and ethical reasons (sensitivity) during that wave but were invited to join the study in Wave 2.

Wave 6 also included an Aftercare sub-study (July–Dec 2025) with 124 interviews completed with young adults aged 18–25 years. This survey will be repeated with young people 18–25 years old during Wave 7.

Progress on surveys of caseworkers and teachers

The caseworker survey was administered to the final orders cohort during Wave 3. Caseworkers completed the survey for 1,625 children and young people between May 2015 and April 2016.

The childcare and school teacher survey was administered to the interview cohort where the child’s caregiver consented. Surveys were completed for 771 (of 1,789) children during Wave 2 to Wave 4. The cross-sectional survey commenced in November 2013 and ended in November 2018.

Progress on linkage data

Administrative data has been linked for all children and young people in the study population (n = 4,126). This includes DCJ data on child protection and OOHC, as well as data from the Commonwealth Department of Education, NSW Department of Education, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), NSW Department of Education, NSW Ministry of Health and NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

Study timeline

The following document has a diagram depicting the timeline.

• POCLS data collection timelines (PDF, 119.3 KB)