What this means for PSP providers

 Narelle Love 0:03 Today's highlights webinar on recording foster care or authorised care conditions in Partner Community. Today's session will be recorded. Please be aware of this when choosing to display your camera or participate via the chat or in the Q&A. We understand that some of you may experience connectivity issues during this webinar. If you do, please watch the webinar recording, which will be emailed to agencies at a later date.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are all meeting on today. I am currently working from the land of the Dharawal people from the Dharawal nations and I would like to pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging and sincerely welcome all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues here with us today.

The aim of this briefing is to give you more information about the Better Placements, Better Outcomes Project and advise of some important changes to recording authorisation information for foster carers in Partner Community. Today's webinar will consist of a pre-recorded presentation showing the key changes followed by a Q&A session. Feel free to post your questions in the chat function or ask them during the Q&A at the end of the demonstration.

This project is an important part of the broader out-of-home care reforms. It will record better carer information by updating how carer details are recorded and managed in ChildStory and ChildStory Partner Community, giving staff more reliable and up-to-date information. Introduce Carer Connect NSW, a new secure online portal where carers can update their availability and household information, helping

us better understand their capacity and preferences. Introduce a new digital foster carer search tool to support caseworkers to identify potential foster carers more quickly and accurately.

These enhancements will allow DCJ to search for potential foster carers across all agencies and allow NGOs and ACCOs to search for potential foster carers across their entire agency. Improve the quality and sustainability of placements for children and young people. Reduce the time it takes to identify suitable carers. Reduce reliance on high cost or emergency arrangements. It is important to understand that these changes don't replace existing authorisation processes or the important professional judgment that guides every placement decision.

Until now, DCJ hasn't had a clear picture of all carers authorised by NGOs and ACCOs. For the Better Placements, Better Outcomes Project to be a success, each carer household needs accurate household information in the OCG Carers Register. specific authorisation care conditions recorded for foster carers in Partner Community. This important information needs to be available before Carer Connect NSW and the Digital Foster Care Research Tool are available.

From early April this year using OCG carers registered data, we are creating authorised agency carers in Partner Community. You can access them via organisation and households, all active households list view. It is important to understand that initially you may see some carer information is not accurate. This may include names, dates of birth, addresses and household members. Carer and household member data will be progressively updated and maintained over the next three months by ChildStory using information from the OCG Carers Register.

Using information from the OCG Carers Register, we are also ensuring authorisation information is aligned and visible in Partner Community. This is found via an authorisation record in partner. These records hold information about a carer household's authorisation type. for example, foster care and relative kinship care, their authorisation status, either fully authorised or authorisation under review, the authorisation dates and carer register information recorded on ChildStory. These records are created in ChildStory from OCG data extracts.

with the OCG Carers Register remaining the source system for the information. As we create and update carer households, all that is required of you is to ensure all carer information in the OCG Carers Register is up to date and accurate. If it's correct in the OCG, it will be correct with child's story.

Now we get into what you need to update in Partner Community. From today, you must start creating authorised care conditions for all NGO and ACCO authorised foster carers. The new authorisation care conditions record captures the household's Indigenous status and cultural background, number of children a carer is authorised to care for, minimum and maximum age and gender of children, suitability to care for an Aboriginal child, sibling capacity, placement duration types and any specific conditions or limitations. Creating these records for all agency foster carers will prepare for Carer Connect NSW and the digital foster carer search tool as previously mentioned. We are requesting this is completed before 30th of June.

We'll now view a pre-recorded video that demonstrates how to locate a carer household and create authorisation care conditions in Partner Community. To understand which foster carer households require authorisation care conditions to be added to Partner Community, we've created a dashboard to help you track your organisation's progress. You can find it via the Analytics tab. From the dashboard, you can access 3 reports: Authorisations without ACCs, Authorisations with Draft ACCs, and Authorisations with Active ACCs. You can access the report on each display card. This dashboard allows you to effectively track how many carers need care conditions created or submitted, as well as showing how many carers have care conditions recorded, requiring monitor and review. You can also manually search for carer households in Global Search. Type in the carer household name, surname first, then the first names in alphabetical order. This is how all carer households are named in ChildStory. We called it a naming convention, so it keeps things consistent. Consistency makes things easier to find. From the search results, select the carer household. Alternatively, you can go via the predefined list of all active carer households. From the Organisation & Households tab, select All Active Households from the dropdown. In Search, enter the carer household name using the naming convention and press Enter to search. From the search results, select the organisation name to open the carer household record.

Before you can create an authorisation care conditions record in Partner Community, it's important you understand the system requirements, what you need in Partner to be able to do so. To create an authorisation care conditions record, you must have 1. A carer household organisation 2. A non-end dated authorisation record that has an authorisation type of foster care and an authorisation status of pending full authorisation, fully authorised, or authorisation under review. Unless you have these, you will not be able to create this important record.

Let's create this record now, checking we have these requirements as we go. From the carer household, select the related tab and scroll to the authorisations household list. Review the authorisation type and status, as you can only create an authorisation care conditions record for provisionally or fully authorised foster carers or foster carers under review. Once confirmed, select the ID. Select the create authorisation care conditions button, found at the top of the page. Use the calendar to enter the start date. This needs to be the date the authorised care conditions started. It cannot be before the date the carer was authorised as a foster carer. To help you complete this section, you can hover over the information icons, but let's have a look at it together.

Care conditions are recorded in 10 separate questions. Number of children carers authorised for, the total number of children the carer is authorised to care for, authorised carer cultural backgrounds, the relevant cultures of the carers. You can add multiple using the arrow to move from available to chosen. Min age of children authorised to care for the youngest age of children they can care for, Aboriginality of authorised carers, you can select all that apply. Max age of children authorised to care for the oldest age of children they can care for. Suitable to care for an Aboriginal child, indicating if the carer is currently authorised to care for Aboriginal children, authorised sibling capacity. The maximum number of siblings the carers are authorised to care for. This should not exceed the total number of children the carer is authorised to care for. Genders carers authorised to care for, all the genders of children carers can care for. Note, any gender other than male or female is categorized as other gender identity. Authorised placement duration types, you can select multiple. Carer authorisation conditions or limits. This is where you can record any specific limits or conditions of the carer's authorisation. This can include those

that will be reviewed after further carer training or development. This field is not mandatory to complete. Once all care conditions have been entered, select Save.

Review the information is correct before submitting the record. The status automatically updates to active. It is important to understand that submitting does not forward a request to DCJ. It simply updates the status to active. From the carer household organisation, select the related tab and scroll to the authorisation care conditions list. It displays the newly created ACC record. If we look at our dashboard, we will see that now our carer household is displaying in the active ACC report.

That's the end of the pre-recorded video on how to create authorisation care conditions in Partner Community. Let's now unpack why recording this information correctly is so important. Remember, stages 2 and 3 of the Better Placement Project is Carer Connect NSW and a digital carer search tool. When Carer Connect NSW is enabled, foster carers will be able to see the authorisation care conditions we have recorded. They will be able to report directly in the app their availability and caring capacity. What they can choose will be determined by their authorisation care conditions. So to build confidence in the app and ensure it is used in the way it is intended, we must all take care to ensure data is entered correctly. Using the information in Partner Community and Carer Connect NSW, the digital foster carer search tool will display foster carers that are available and potentially suitable for a placement that meets the needs of the child. Without accurate data entry, the foster carer search tool won't work how it's supposed to. Another reason to always ensure data is entered accurately.

The care that foster carers provide changes over time. So how is this managed in Partner Community? Let's demonstrate how you can review authorisation care conditions in Partner Community by watching our second and final pre-recording.

If there are any changes to the authorisation care conditions, you need to review the active authorisation care conditions record. Locate via the dashboard or carer household organisation and open via the record ID. Select the Review Care Conditions button at the top of the page. Use the calendar to update the start date if required. The start date must be the date these authorised care conditions started,

and cannot be before the start date of the previous authorisation care conditions record.

Reviewing an ACC is the same as creating one with the same information being entered, including the number of children the carer is authorised for, Aboriginal status and cultural backgrounds of the carers, minimum and maximum ages of the children and their genders. If the carers are suitable to provide care for an Aboriginal child, authorised sibling capacity, placement duration types, and any specific conditions or limits. Once the new care conditions information has been added, save the record. Once confirmed correct, submit. The status automatically updates to active and the previous ACC status updates to completed. Remember, submitting doesn't send it to DCJ for approval, it just updates the status. From the carer household organisation, select the related tab and scroll to authorisation care conditions. Both the active and completed ACC records display.

Let's revisit some of the key points of today's presentation. We've created carer households for you using the OCG Carers Register as the source system. From the dashboard in analytics, you can access, track and progress recording of the authorised care conditions across your organisation.

Authorisation care conditions are only required for foster carers. To create an authorisation care conditions record, you need a carer household organisation with a non-end dated authorisation that has the authorisation type of foster care, the authorisation status of pending, full authorisation, fully authorised, or authorisation under review.

An authorisation care condition record is created from a carer household organisation. Authorisation household and involves 10 questions. When created and submitted, the authorised care conditions record becomes active automatically. An authorisation care conditions record is reviewed when there is a change to the carer's authorisation. You can locate the record on the Authorisation Care Conditions Household Related List with the Carer Household Organisation.

Why is this so important? Remember stages 2 and 3 of the Better Placements Project, Carer Connect NSW and a digital foster carer search tool. When Carer Connect NSW

is enabled, carers will see this information. They will be able to record their availability and caring capacity directly in the app. What they can choose is determined by their authorisation care conditions. So to build confidence in the app and ensure it is used in the way it is intended, we must all take care to ensure data is entered accurately. Using the information in Partner Community and Carer Connect NSW, our digital foster care research tool will reveal foster carers that are available and potentially suitable placements. Without accurate data entry, foster care research tool won't work how it is supposed to. Another reason to always ensure data is entered accurately. You can commence completing the authorised care conditions now for the carer households you currently see in Partner Community. To support the Better Placements, Better Outcome project, this work must be completed by 30th of June 2026 and maintained ongoingly.

I'll now open it up to any questions people may have in the chat or in person. Shindu, are there any questions in the chat that have not been answered?

Shindhu Raju 18:33 Yep, a couple have just come through now so I can read them out and we can as a team answer any that we can. The first one is from Rebecca. Thank you, Rebecca. The first question is, how do you define if a carer household is authorised to provide respite for an Aboriginal child or young person but not for long-term care?

Lauren Hall 18:53 So, Shindu, I've just replied to Rebecca's question in the chat, but just for transparency, that's a really good question, Rebecca. We think that this will come up for all kinds of different scenarios of how agencies, because everyone's authorising their carers slightly differently and each carer's circumstance is different.

Lauren Hall 19:11 What we need you to do is to make sure that you choose the widest scope possible for your carer so that they will show up in Foster Carer Search and then tell us through the care conditions, the free text field, if there's anything specific that we need to understand. So for that particular example, we would like it if you selected both that the carer is authorised for a placement duration of both respite and long-

term care. And then on the question around are they all suitable to care for an Aboriginal child, select yes. And then in your comments, make some comments to say this carer is authorised for respite for Aboriginal children, but not for long-term care so that then this carer will show up. We will be able to see and then review further details about that, about that carer. Also noting, of course, this is to help produce a short list of carers for DCJ to be able to review. It is not the only way that we will be verifying whether this carer is the right carer for our children that we might be looking for or that you might be looking for within your agency, we will still, of course, be discussing any carer with you prior to any decisions being made about placements to make sure that as an agency, you're ensuring that this is the right carer for this particular child. All of those same arrangements that are in place now are not being replaced by this. I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 20:37 Thanks, Lauren. The second question is from Christy. Will DCJ be directly contacting agency carers or will DCJ be identifying which carer they would like to be contacted about a placement and contact the agency? Which is a great question. So, Narelle, would you like to answer that? That's fine, I can do that.

Narelle Love 20:57 Yes, yeah, we will be like we DCJ won't contact the carer directly. We'll still continue to go through, you know, in contacting the NGO 1st and discussing the carer. And that process is to be defined later as to whether we'll still be using the broadcast process to just target those specific agencies where we've highlighted those carers. Does that answer your question, Christy?

Shindhu Raju 21:36 Jamie, who will hold responsibility to provide ongoing support supervision of carers as per OCG requests?

Lauren Hall 21:47 So there will be no change at all in terms of the ongoing support or supervision of carers. That is still an NGO's remit. There's nothing here that's changing in relation to the actual authorisation of carers. It's just allowing us to understand what you've

actually authorised carers for so that we can try to find placements that are more suitable in a faster time frame.

Shindhu Raju 22:10 Awesome, thanks Lauren. Michelle's got a question. Once A newly authorised carer is added to the carer register, approximately how long before the household appears in ChildStory and is it able to be updated there? And on a related point, how often is data shared between the carer register and ChildStory?

Lauren Hall 22:30 I can answer that, Shindu, as well. So thanks, Michelle, for that. Nice to see you here. So at this stage, we are updating ChildStory and Partner Community with carers as they are authorised in the OCG currently. And we are doing that on a regular basis at the moment. It's around about once a month for the next few months so that we are sort of, because quite a large piece of work, so we're doing it in a kind of progressive fashion over the next few months. You should, your carers list from today should be fairly accurate and it will get even more accurate as the months go on. And then our aim is to have a daily integration by the end of August. There will be on occasion some carers who need a manual review being completed by DCJ prior to their details being updated directly in partner, which might mean that there's a slight delay to allow that manual review to occur where thinking. you know, it shouldn't be more than 48 hours. So it won't be live, the integration exactly. If there are changes you make in the OCG, it might be 24 to 48 hours until those start to come in. But for the moment, our advice to you, and it will be ongoing, just do what you're doing now. Keep the OCG carer register as up to date as you can. We will be pulling their data and putting that into partner. So as long as you update your carriers in the OCG carer register, that information will come through into partner for you. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 24:07 Lisa, your question is, what is the reason for this? I'm presuming you're asking for the changes. Not sure exactly. Can just clarify. We can come back to you if that's okay. Rachel asked, we have carers in ChildStory or in CS sorry that do not belong to our agency, more household listed than we have in the carers register. How do we have this reviewed and corrected?

Lauren Hall 24:41 Hi, Rachelle. May I ask whether that is a, that is something as at today or is that at in general you notice that this is the case in partner?

Rachael Eason 24:53 Sorry, that's as of today, I went in and had a look at it, and we've got carers that don't belong to us.

Lauren Hall 24:53 Only because... Yep. Okay, great. All right, that's good for us to know. Sorry, I'm just going to take a note of which agency you're with, Rachel. Anglicare.

Rachael Eason 25:06 Anglicare, New South Wales, Anglicare, New South Wales, South Western ACT.

Lauren Hall 25:10 Yeah, okay, great. Great. Thank you. We're going to take that one on and have a little look at that. Thank you so much.

Shindhu Raju 25:15 Some.

Lauren Hall 25:16 As I said, guys, it is a large piece of work. So progressively, it will get better. Even tomorrow, it should look better than it does today as our data team is still deploying some of these changes even today. So please check back in again tomorrow, but we will keep an eye on this as well. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 25:38 Kate's asking, how do you record varying age ranges and numbers of children and young people authorised for various care types? For example, respite care for one child is age 4 to 18, long term can be 0 to 18 and maximum of three children at any given time.

Lauren Hall 25:56 Hi, Kate. So I think that's similar to the question that was first asked in the chat. So yeah, as I said, my advice there is still the same. Make sure you include the widest variety, so the widest scope for your carers. So in that situation you've provided there, you would enter that the carer is authorised for respite and long term care for children aged 0 to actually 17. We will you will hit an issue if you try to enter 18 because with DCJ we only are searching for placements for children up to the age of 17. And then you would enter maximum number of children 3 and then put some comments in the or specific authorisation care conditions there. That would be great. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 26:41 Thomas is asking about the time frame. So Carer Connect NSW, that's happening in the beginning of August and then the digital foster care search tool is looking at the end of August, Thomas. Shirley, presumably this is for general foster care. Yep, that's correct. It is. It's not for a kingship or relative in terms of entering those conditions. Ruth, if a carer indicates openness to a placement via the app or the platform, but the agency is not supportive of the placement, I would assume the agency's views would be accepted, given the carer is authorised with the agency and not with DCJ. Lauren, I'll let you answer that one.

Lauren Hall 27:21 Yes, Ruth, that's the case. Of course, we will still be communicating with agencies around the suitability once we've kind of found a short list of carers that are looking like they're available and are authorised for the type of care that we're seeking. And so then we would have those deeper conversations with you and of course, take your guidance. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 27:42 Laura, what specifically can carers update for themselves? How does this look like for households and the agency has concerns they're being worked through, but the carer doesn't agree with the concerns and can update their availability in the app?

Lauren Hall 28:00

So Laura, on that particular one, that's a good question. So for what was just demonstrated today in this session was around entering the specific authorisation care conditions that are sitting around the carers authorisation, the foster care authorisation currently. When we get to Foster Care Research and Care Connect New South Wales, we will brief you again on the specifics around those particular functionalities. There will be room in the Carer Connect NSW functionality to allow NGOs to add some additional commentary or considerations around particular carers where that's needed or perhaps to put a carer on hold if that is required as well. So let's get to that when we get there. But just to assure you that, yes, while we definitely want to take the advice of carers around their willingness to care, their availability to care, we need to balance that equally with what's happening in terms of NGOs and your views as well around their ability for placements. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 29:12 Okay, there's a few more questions. I'm just conscious of time. It is 10.29. So we're happy to answer those questions for those who want to hang back and listen to them. But obviously, we'll also be able to provide a recording of this as well. I'll just go to the next one. When a carer household is authorised for one child and sometimes carers request to add conditions, that is two children, like for example siblings, how do you record this in the number of siblings cannot exceed a total amount, the number.

Narelle Love 29:48 So you can record the total number of children that the carer is actually authorised for, and then the sibling capacity shouldn't be above that total number. But again, you can, record those numbers, you know, the total number of children that the carer is authorised for, and then you could put a comment in there so that, you know, when that carer is surfaced, yeah, DCJ can view those comments and that would be part of the discussion that DCJ would have with you as an agency.

Shindhu Raju 30:31 Jessica is asking, we have carers in our list that have been cancelled on carers register on the list requiring ACC. So obviously this one this morning. Is this just the incorrect

data that you're referred to or is there a separate issue that needs to be resolved? So, this cancelled on the cares register, but applying in the list.

Lauren Hall 30:51 Yes, thank you, Jessica. Also, can I just take a note of which agency you are with as well, Wandiyali? Okay, great. Thank you. So let us have a little look at that as well. And again, if we could go in and double check your carers from tomorrow onwards as well to see whether that has resolved some of the issues.

Jessica Williams 31:00 Wandiyali, yeah.

Lauren Hall 31:15 Well, the advice we're providing now, we wanted to kind of come and give you guys as much notice as possible to start entering these records. The list of carers sitting on partner for you may not be perfect, it may not be accurate. Please do the records that you can. So at least this way we can get started. You know which carers you have that are authorised now. Just start on those would be my advice. And then we, and as we start to get this data more up to date for you over the next couple of months, we'll hopefully we'll get into a place where we've got a proper list for who it is that's still requiring an ACC being created. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 31:54 Okay, the next couple of questions about carers. So will DCJ be providing a fact sheet or information to carers that the information will be uploaded and shared with DCJ and the reasons why? And similarly, how do carers be informed of the process and do they need to give consent, which is a few questions about the similar process.

Lauren Hall 32:16 Sure, yes, definitely carers will be informed of this piece of work. We have a carer connect, sorry, a carer working group underway at the moment with representatives from a variety of different organisations across the state. And so they have been contributing as well to this. So and have been largely supportive of what's happening and what we're doing here. But as we get to a point where we're ready to start communicating more formally through the different channels that are appropriate to

reach carers across the state, absolutely, we need to be very clear with them. They will also be able to see a privacy collection notice as well when they look into the app around how that information is being used. And they will have options as well around what they're able to what they enter, what they choose to enter, and not enter in terms of information in the app as well. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 33:13 Will agencies be required to provide a rationale to DCJ if an identified carer is not deemed suitable by the agency? I think you've already answered that before, Lauren, previously. Yeah. Is there a cheat sheet or user manual for us to use similar to when there was a carer registers came out?

Narelle Love 33:38 We actually have a new knowledge article for you that will guide you step by step on how to create the authorisation care conditions record.

Jenna Stoltenberg 33:48 Yes, that was distributed. So I might just add a ChildStory broadcast communication was issued this morning at 9am. You'll find a link to that resource within that email. Thank you

Shindhu Raju 34:03 Where a carer already has children in their care but capacity for more, how will matching processes be undertaken?

Lauren Hall 34:14 So again, here, as I said, this is a way for us to be able to determine where there might be some capacity and where there might be carers who have the ability to take on additional children. But obviously, if they already have children in their care, there will need to be, you know, the same kind of matching process that would occur right now, that none of this is replacing that communication and that our professional judgement and communication between CFDUISSNSW and NGOs around the suitability of particular children to particular carers.

Shindhu Raju 34:48

Thank you. The next question is about the sibling capacity again, so we've already answered that one. What circumstances would result in a manual review by DCJ and does that impact NGOs and ACCOs, carers?

Lauren Hall 35:01 Sure. Yeah, good question, Patricia. So where ChildStory is pulling information from the OCG carer register and we find that we either can't match a person who's in that register with someone who's in ChildStory, we want to make a double check. And so those people will go for a manual review to be sure that we don't already have them created and we just, maybe there was a spelling error or something or a change of address that meant that we weren't really confident about who it was or whether that person needs to be created as kind of a brand new person in ChildStory and Partner. So those are the situations that would need a manual review. It's just an identity check. That's all. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 35:46 Okay, Laura is asking about contacting agencies, which we kind of discussed before as well. Yep, we will not be contacting the carers. It will be through you guys as an agency. That's correct. Rebecca, what is the process if a carer logs different information to what the agency has logged? Will DCJ contact the agency about the discrepancies and who will be responsible for contacting the carer?

Narelle Love 36:10 The system will only allow the carer to add information within their authorisation. So they wouldn't be able to go outside of that. They would get, they would see an error message on the screen. So the carers would only be able to enter like their caring preferences and their availability in the Carer Connect app, because you would have already entered, you know, what they're authorised for and their limits, and they can't go outside of that. I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 36:45 Thanks, Narelle. Courtney's asking, in relation to the naming convention, how do we record and search for carer households where the carers have different surnames?

Jenna Stoltenberg 36:56 I can take that one. So it's always alphabetical. So in an example where you have, say, Smith is one carer's surname and then say Wallace is the second, it would be Smith, Jane, for example, Wallace, Eric. So always maintain that alphabet, alphabetical order with surnames and first names.

Shindhu Raju 37:21 Thanks, Jenna. Melanie's just asking if the recordings of the videos will be available and yes, they will be. We'll definitely have those videos available for you guys to utilise. Alex, is it mandatory for carers to update the availability? What about for carers that are not tech savvy?

Narelle Love 37:41. I was just, I was just going to say, if, if carers, you know, choose not to use the app or not tech savvy, then their caseworker can assist them to, you know, upload that information on their behalf.

Shindhu Raju 38:00 Yep, that's similar to what Kathleen's saying. Will we be able to update carers availability on Carer Connect? Will only carers be able to update their availability? So in terms of using Carer Connect, it will be the carers, but you'll have an opportunity to update through our system partner support, our Partner Community.

Courtney, how are reportable conduct matters recorded within CS in circumstances where carers have indicated they have a placement availability, however an investigation is ongoing and no children or young people are able to be placed with them?

Lauren Hall 38:36 Yeah, a great question. This has come up quite a lot through our work, NGO working group also. What we are working through at the moment is some guidance for agencies around when you may have a reportable conduct matter, you may have a carer under review, you might have a household compliance issue that means that a placement is not suitable at this current time with those with that those carers,

they're still authorised, but we just wouldn't be wise to place any children there currently. Then what we would be asking agencies to do is to, and again, this will come with the Carer Connect next phase, is the ability to create an on hold record that just indicates this carer is on hold. We don't need a heap of details around that. It's just to sort of let us know that they're on hold and for a duration of time so that the carers might still be able to kind of, you know, in certain circumstances, go into the app and update their information, but they're just not going to show up as available in the foster carer search until you take them off hold again. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 39:43 If a child young person is matched for a short term or long term, will DCJ retain case management or will a BC case management transfer?

Lauren Hall 40:01 So again, nothing here is changing at all in terms of case management or supervision of carers or the roles of NGOs in terms of authorising carers. This is purely just for us to have visibility over the specifics of what the NGOs have authorised these carers for so that we can try to create a short list of carers in a faster way. Thank you. No changes there.

Shindhu Raju 40:27 Michelle just had a quick call out. Thank you for that, Michelle. Ruth, this is an extra administrative load for agencies in managing authorised care conditions via the OCG and internal agency databases. And in addition to Charles Story, what acknowledgement is there from DCJ of these additional tasks for NGOs?

Lauren Hall 40:47 Yes, I do understand that, Ruth, that this is an additional record that is being asked of the agencies. Where we have the information we're pulling from the OCG is what obviously NGOs are already providing to the OCG. That enables us to see that a carer is authorised and where they live and who's in that household. But it doesn't allow us to actually see what are the specifics around, what is that carer authorised to provide care for, what ages of the children, we can't see and there's no sort of extra details. So this is a way of us being able to target our search for carers. So hopefully we can you know, contact less agencies around whether you're available, you have carers

available to care. So I'm hoping that while there's an additional, you know, one time kind of piece that needs to be done on each of your carers, it will save time at the other end in terms of the administrative load around managing all of the broadcast requests and contact from CFDU currently for you. There's also been an update to the, is that you Georgina about to step in there? Yeah, thank you.

Georgina Burnett 41:49 Yeah, I was just going to add to that, just to say, just in terms of the tool, the foster care search tool, which will come in stage 3, that will not just be available to DCJ, that will also be available to DCJ, to NGO staff. So in that sense, the gains that will come with that stage will be across the board and not just for DCJ. I just wanted to clarify that.

Jenna Stoltenberg 42:18 Let's never forget the impact for children too. We want the best placements for children that we can possibly have. So whilst of course these tools do not replace professional judgement, nothing can replace professional judgement, but it can certainly yield results that we can inquire into, which is what we're all here for today. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 42:40 When a placement has been made, are the agencies responsible for updating the record? I presume you're saying the placement record, but no, they're not responsible for it. I guess that process is still kind of getting figured out, but Lauren, so you can say something.

Lauren Hall 42:55 Yes, I wondered whether, Julie, did you mean updating this authorisation care condition record to indicate, you know, that they're not authorised for any further children? That's okay because there will be a calculation completed in the background. So if a carer, for example, is authorised for three children and they have three children placed with them now, then we will see that from the placement record and we will, those carers will not show up as available for any further placements in foster care research. So there's no need for you to maintain anything in addition to this once you have that authorisation care condition record on.

Shindhu Raju 43:31 Ruth is just talking about adoptive parents, so is there a capacity with the system to record dual authorised carers and prospective adoptive parents?She's just saying, did you notice that care types as an accredited adoptive service provider, we do have a large number of carers who have a dual authorisation under the Act.

Lauren Hall 43:52 Okay, Ruth, thank you. I'm just going to take a particular note of this question and make sure that we do have this answered. Ruth, could you just tell us what agency you're from? Is it Barnados? I can't see in the chat, I'm so sorry. That's okay. I'll make a comment to her later. In for this particular question, adoption, the carers who are only authorised for adoption are not in the scope of this piece of work. It's only those who are also duly authorised for long-term foster care. And I'm happy to take that on with you Ruth separately. Thank you.

Jenna Stoltenberg 44:33 And yes, Lauren, Ruth is confirmed in the chat. She's from Barnados. Thank you, Ruth.

Lauren Hall 44:36 Beautiful, thank you.

Shindhu Raju 44:38 Thank you.Melanie, is there a reason that all carers have an authorisation for foster care and relative kingship?

Lauren Hall 44:47 Yes, that might look a little strange to people. We do understand that. So one of the challenges we had with marrying the OCG carer register information with ChildStory is that the way that the carers, as you would know when you are updating the carer's register, you will update a household as being authorised to provide either statutory foster care or other. And we weren't know whether on and it's never both. So we wouldn't know whether an agency has actually authorised this care for relative kinship and foster care or it's assumed by the OCG that such foster care kind of in essence trumps the kind of the requirements around relative kins. So it's they would

take that as kind of the top. So we had a challenge here around how to manage this. And so for that reason, there has been an order created of if you are authorised as statutory foster care in the OCG, you will have both an order foster care and relative kin created in partner.

Shindhu Raju 45:53 Margie's just noting down that she's got some errors as well showing up. So I'm just for you to note down Lauren from Trading as Anglicare. See in the chat. Yep. Julie, does this not, is this not for all kinship cares at all? No, it's currently the project or the rollout is just for foster carers at the moment. Thomas, it appears that managing CSC/CFDU is not the current one attached to the children in placement. Will this data be refreshed to match? I imagine a placement record was entered at point X by a CSC and or CFDU and the child record transferred, but not the carer organisation. Not sure this is, yeah.

Lauren Hall 46:42 Thank you, that's good feedback for us, Thomas. I will take that one on also for us to have a look at what's happened there. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 46:52 Laura, will agencies need to be connecting carers to children already in placements in ChildStory?

Jenna Stoltenberg 47:01 So Laura, that should already be happening with an approved placement record. I'm not sure if we're understanding your question correctly, but there is no, other than recording care conditions for your foster carers, there is no additional work required for children's records.

Lauren Hall 47:21 However, if you have, if you do have circumstances where you have children in placements with carers, where they are, that is not recorded on partner, yes, then we do need, we need all children to be reflected as at where they're at right now and always, not just for this project and which carers there with, that is important. It's important for children and their records and their history and also their safety so that

we understand where they are. But it is also important for this particular project because it will, otherwise we will not know whether that carer has a placement with them currently. So if they're authorised for three children and they have three children with them, but those that is not recorded in partner, they will show up is still being available to provide care for three children. So for a variety of reasons, yes, please make sure your placements are accurate on partner at all times.

Shindhu Raju 48:19 Rebecca is asking, can you search a household through only one carer name?

Jenna Stoltenberg 48:24 Yes, you absolutely can, Rebecca. You do not have to search for... Yes, it's a sophisticated search in the ChildStory Partner.

Shindhu Raju 48:33 So you can search to the multiple names.

Jenna Stoltenberg 48:35 One single name or multiple, correct?

Shindhu Raju 48:37 Yep, that's correct. Thank you. Krystal, just asking about when today's training will be recorded, will be available so they can access it and share it.

Jenna Stoltenberg 48:46 Yeah, we'll make sure this is available from Monday, Krystal. So we will email it to you, as Narelle mentioned in the presentation. We'll also upload a copy of today's recording into Knowledge in Partner itself. So there's just a few technical things we have to do, which is why it'll be next week but we'll make sure it is available to you as soon as absolutely possible. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 49:10 Jenny is asking, will agencies be able to pull a report to show the authorisation data entered for their carers, for example through the quality information reports?

Lauren Hall 49:24 I'm not sure if either of you are able to answer this now, but I believe through the dashboards that you have access to now, you should be able to pull an extract that is then something that you can pull out and work from in an Excel spreadsheet if that was needed. Obviously it wouldn't be live once you put it in Excel, but hopefully if that's

Narelle Love 49:38 Thank you.

Lauren Hall 49:42 Helping, helping you guys? Yes, it's possible.

Jenna Stoltenberg 49:46 That's correct. Yes, yeah.

Narelle Love 49:46 Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jenny, you can access those reports from the analytics tab and it has your three display cards there. So you can see the carer households that are missing, an act record, ones that have a draft act record and those that are active. So you'll be able to track all of those.

Lauren Hall 49:48 Thank you.

Narelle Love 50:06 Yeah, through your analytics dashboard. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 50:12 And is asking, will this replace the OCG carers register?

Narelle Love 50:18 No.

Georgina Burnett 50:19 So I answered, so I answered that in the chat, but just to say that for everyone's benefit, this will not replace the OCG carers register. So the idea is that NGOs will continue to advise the OCG of any updates to the register as per the current practice. This is really focused on those authorisation care conditions and getting those into to partner for your authorised foster carers.

Shindhu Raju 50:45 Thank you. Rebecca's asking, are new carer notifications to CFDU still notified via the carer creation form or will agencies be required to record new carers on ChildStory themselves?

Lauren Hall 50:59 Hey, Rebecca. So look, what we're hoping here is that as a result of this project, there wouldn't be a need to create new carer notification decisions. If once you have authorised your carer with the OCG carer register and we get to that point where we're doing those daily kind of syncages with the with the OCG, we will be able to then we will create those carers automatically on ChildStory for you and expose them over to you into partner. So there shouldn't be any need for those forms going forward. At the moment, yes, there might be a slight delay. As I said, we're updating partner with new carers around about once a month at the moment for the next. couple of months. So if you create a new carer tomorrow and you need them to be, you want to put a child in a placement with them straight away, yes, you might need to manage that for the interim. But after the Carer Connect goes live and the foster carer search goes live, this should be sort of all automated. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 52:03 Ruth's asking, will there be ChildStory training for NGO staff in addition to the knowledge sheet as the staff who are likely to enter this information for some agencies may be different to those who are currently responding to ChildStory broadcasts or undertaking case management?

Jenna Stoltenberg 52:20 So for this one, I would say the knowledge article is comprehensive, so it will help

new staff. This recording will be available, but if you find that your organisation does have additional needs and that you would like some potentially one-off support, please contact our ChildStory Partner Support team and we will take those requests and wherever we can, we will absolutely provide additional training if required. But we would ask that the knowledge article and a copy of this recording be used because of course we have finite staff as well. Thank you for your question, Ruth.

Just sorry, Shindu, the one before that, Melanie. So Melanie was just asking, with the two authorisation records, one for foster care and one for real kin, do both need to be updated? Just to clarify, Melanie, no. These records only apply to foster care authorisations. So no authorised care conditions are required. In fact, you won't be able to create them for any other authorisation than foster care. Back to you, Shindu, sorry. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 53:35 Thanks, Jenna. Thank you. No worries. I missed that one. Another question for Melanie. Are there differences for THBC carers where they have additional SBO for their THBC placements?

Lauren Hall 53:50 So those that particular placement type is out of scope here for this particular project. What we are doing here is searching is creating a foster care research. So if there was a need for a child to have a different level of care provided that was greater than sort of generalist foster care, then there the usual processes would apply here and there would be specific contact with agencies able to provide that type of care. Thank you. So it's not for the project.

Shindhu Raju 54:22 Last couple of questions. Thomas, can you add to the details tab, person responsible or similar to what is the client case record, then allow us to add this column to the organisation and household list and filter accordingly. For large organisations, this could be a very cumbersome task.

Jenna Stoltenberg 54:40 That's an excellent idea, Thomas. We'll absolutely take that away. Can I just confirm

your organisation, please, Thomas, just so in case we need further clarification from you? But that would be an enhancement to Partner Community, but it is an excellent idea. Oh, Wesley. Thank you, Thomas. We'll take that away. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 54:56 Wesley Mission has just noted down. Ruth, just rechecking the information provided to carers and consent question, would DCJ expectation be the agencies inform and seek consent from the authorised carers prior to entering data on ChildStory similar to the carers register?

Lauren Hall 55:22 Might take that one on notice, Ruth, and come back to you. Is that okay? Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 55:29 Rebecca, will you notify when the carer creation form is no longer required? Is this in response to I think on your previous one? Yes, we would. Yeah.

Lauren Hall 55:44 Yes, yes, we will.

Shindhu Raju 55:48 Couple of questions, Patricia: Will this be the same foreclosure surrender form? I think this is a question around the CFDU.

Lauren Hall 55:59 Yes, that's right. So once a carer is no longer showing as authorised in the OCG carer register, ChildStory will be able to pick that up and identify that they're no longer and we'll also be able to close them off in ChildStory and partner for you. We will obviously make sure that there's no placements still looking like they're open if there looks like there's something that needs to be tidied up that will need to be dealt with but yes. No need for those closure forms later. Thank you.

Shindhu Raju 56:28

Is there, I'm sorry, is there will, will there be, oh sorry, is there API access for the new system to help NGOs sync the data to avoid manual data entry?

Lauren Hall 56:44 At the moment, that's not something that would be able to be put in place currently. At the moment, there are no NGOs who are using the API between their agency system and ChildStory. So that would need to be sort of implemented first before then these particular care conditions could be kind of, you know, part of that work. So at the moment it needs to be something that is done manually by staff.

Shindhu Raju 57:20 And Shirley's just saying, sorry if this has been asked before, but what about suspended carers? This is sensitive information.

Lauren Hall 57:30 Thanks, Shirley. So if your carer is showing as suspended in the OCG carer register, then we will see that and there will be no need to kind of put this particular record on for them because we understand that that's not appropriate. If we don't, if we can't see that that carer is suspended, then they're not actually reporting the OCG carer register as such, yeah, it will look like there's a little bit of a gap, but that is something that can be kind of managed manually between, you know, ask your contract manager, etc. if you've got some carers that are falling into that cohort.

Shindhu Raju 58:08 Okay, just conscious of time. It is almost 11 o'clock. So I have to take this last question and then we can let Narelle wrap it up. From Rachel, we have to mark care authorisations as cancelled or suspended for working with children's check non-compliance. Will this mean that the carer will be removed from ChildStory and when we reverse the decision in CR will it be, will we have to re-enter all the conditions or will it be included when carers are re-added to ChildStory?

Lauren Hall 58:40 OK, so. It looks like we need to communicate probably sooner than when we were intending to around the mapping of when you update in the OCG carer register, what that then

means, you would then see in partner. So we need to make that clear for you. So when you understand what the behaviour will be. So if you update the OCG carer register and you mark a carer as cancelled, that will close them off with partner. Those carers will be removed from your list because it looks like they are no longer authorised. If they're suspended, that's different because you could reactivate their authorisation again. So we probably need to maybe provide you guys a bit of a table or something that kind of helps you understand what's going to happen. Yeah, thank you.

Shindhu Raju 59:31 Thanks, Lauren. I'll hand it back to you, Narelle, just to be able to finalise today. But if there are any questions, please put in the chat. We're happy to keep answering them and we will get back to all of them.

Narelle Love 59:36 Okay, thank you. Thanks, Shindu. Thanks, Lauren and Jenna. Okay, so we have a new knowledge article that I spoke about before. It has step-by-step instructions and you can contact partner support team via the number and email listed for assistance. And as Jenna has previously said, you know, please use the knowledge article and these videos in the first instance and then, if you still require further support, then reach out to the partner support team.

And thank you for your time and participation in today's webinar. And as Jenna has previously said, the recording will be made available early next week. And it'll also be uploaded to partner along with the knowledge article thank you. Thank you for your time.