Evaluation of the Child Protection Joint Response Team Trial
The Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs (Child Safety) is committed to ensuring timely and effective coordination of multi-agency decision-making and the delivery of services to meet the protection and care needs of children and support their families.
In July 2017, Child Safety and the Queensland Police Service (QPS) committed to undertake a trial of Child Protection Joint Response Teams (CPJRT) in three sites for matters where Child Safety has a reasonable suspicion that a child is in need of protection and the QPS considers a related criminal offence may have occurred. The aim of the trail was to:
- Create a consistent process between agencies for referring and responding to matters that may require a joint investigation.
- Improve communication and collaboration between agencies.
- Improve response times to matters that require joint investigation.
- Reduce the potential for child traumatisation when involved in joint investigations.
- Improve agency effectiveness of joint investigations.
After 12 months of the CPJRT trial being operational, Griffith University undertook an independent evaluation. An Executive summary is available, which summarises the findings of the evaluation.
The recommendations and evaluation report content have informed the decision by DCSYW and QPS to implement CPJRT statewide.
The statewide rollout of CPJRT is a joint action with QPS in Supporting Families Changing Futures 2019-2023 – The Queensland Government's plan for helping Queensland children, young people, parents and families experiencing vulnerability, a five-year whole-of-government strategy for the final stage of the 10-year child and family reform program.
Due to the success of the trial, on 2 April 2019, the Director-General of Child Safety, approved the state-wide implementation of CPJRT.
Resource: Child Protection Joint Response Team Policy Guidelines