Automatic language translation
Our website uses an automatic service to translate our content into different languages. These translations should be used as a guide only. See our Accessibility page for further information.
The POCLS is a prospective longitudinal study of children and young people aged 0–17 years in out-of-home care (OOHC) for the first time in NSW on final Children’s Court orders.
The study follows the trajectories of each study child or young person over the life of the study. If the child or young person changes placement or returns to their birth family, lives with guardians or is adopted during the study, the child’s parent or guardian is invited to participate in the interview.
A POCLS sub-study commenced in 2025 to understand the experience and support needs of young people aged 18–25 years as they transition to independence.
A POCLS sub-study commenced in 2025 to understand the experience of young people 18–25 years old who are involved with the justice system.
Participation in the POCLS is voluntary.
For more information visit the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study data user guides page.
The POCLS population cohort is a census of all children and young people who entered OOHC for the first time in NSW between May 2010 and October 2011 (18 months) (n=4,126). A subset of those children and young people who went on to receive final Children’s Court care and protection orders by 30 April 2013 (n=2,828) were eligible to participate in the study (final orders cohort). See the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study 'At a Glance' (PDF, 919.1 KB).
DCJ attempted to contact the caregiver of every child in the final orders cohort to inform them of the study and seek their permission to securely transfer their contact details to the independent data collection agency – who in turn invite them to participate in an interview at each wave. Caregivers of 1,789 children agreed to be in the interview cohort. This is referred to as an 'opt-in' recruitment process (PDF, 221.1 KB).
If a child’s caregiver changes during the course of the study, DCJ researchers will contact the new caregiver to provide information about the study and seek consent to securely transfer their contact details to the independent data collection agency for the purpose of inviting them to participate in an interview.
DCJ does not know the names of caregivers and children who complete an interview and all the interview data is de-identified by the data collection agency.
Participation in the POCLS is voluntary.
The data diagram (PDF, 149.7 KB) shows the multiple data sources.
DCJ child protection and out-of-home care administrative data is linked to five external data sources:
New administrative data being requested:
Face-to-face interviews collect information from children and young people from children aged 3–17 years, carers and parents.
A wide range of information is collected in the questionnaires, including establishment of the placement, caregiver and household characteristics, child well-being and development, school and child care experiences, children’s relationships with the caregiving family and friends, parenting practices, services and support, birth family contact and neighbourhood.
The study uses standardised measures of child development asked of children and their caregiver (PDF, 1.5 MB), and validated questions from other studies when possible such as the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Some qualitative data is collected to add richness to the quantitative data.
The study has an activity in Waves 1–4 with children 7 years and older adapted from the Kvebaek Family Sculpture Technique (PDF, 2.5 MB) to measure who is special and important to them including people they live with and people they do not live with.
NSW Health Blue Book (PDF, 360.9 KB) was electronically scanned for children aged up to 5 years old at the first interview.
The interview is repeated approximately every 18–24 months.
The following figure shows how the wellbeing measures can be used for longitudinal analysis Longitudinal measures of a child development (PDF, 336.5 KB).
Also see the POCLS technical report on measuring child developmental outcomes (PDF, 1.1 MB) to cover a life span from 9 months to 17 years, approaches and methods.
The POCLS Wave 1–7 child and caregiver questionnaires and data dictionaries are available at POCLS data user resources page.
Teachers (childcare and school) and caseworkers complete on-line surveys. These surveys are conducted once per child (also available at the link above).
Comparisons of the study population to the general population can be drawn using the standardised measures, record linkage data and general population studies including the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), Towards New Indicators of Disadvantage, the Temperament Study and the NSW High School Health Survey.
Ethics approval for the study was obtained from:
If you are part of this Study, please let the researchers know if you change your address or phone number so we can keep in contact with you:
Last updated: