Victorian Government Releases Draft Child Information Sharing Scheme Regulations

1. improve early identification of risk and support for the child and their family
2. shift a risk averse culture in relation to information sharing
3. increase collaboration and integration between services involved in supporting children and families
4. support children's and their families’ participation in services.

“Keeping children safe from harm and promoting their wellbeing is a priority for the Victorian Government. Over the last decade, many independent inquiries and reviews have recommended reform to Victoria’s child information sharing laws. A recurring theme is that improved information sharing and service collaboration around children and families is key to identifying vulnerability and risk early, to enable early support and prevention of harm to children.

As part of the Government’s response to these challenges, and in line with the Victorian Government’s Roadmap for Reform, the Children Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Act 2018 (the Amending Act) will amend the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (CWSA) in the second half of 2018 to create the Child Information Sharing (CIS) Scheme, enabling information sharing between prescribed entities to promote the wellbeing and safety of children. It will also amend the CWSA to authorise the development of a platform for systematic sharing of information about children’s participation in services (Child Link). The Amending Act was passed by the Victorian Parliament in March 2018 and received Royal Assent on 10 April 2018.”

“Under the CIS Scheme prescribed entities, known as information sharing entities (ISEs), will be authorised to:

• request confidential information from another ISE for the purpose of promoting the wellbeing or safety of a child or a group of children; and
• disclose confidential information (either voluntarily or in response to a request) to another ISE for the purpose of promoting the wellbeing or safety of a child or group of children and to assist the recipient to deliver services in relation to the child or group of children.

To ensure that the privacy of individuals is not arbitrarily displaced, the CIS Scheme will provide for a range of protections for individuals. For example, it recognises that the disclosure of confidential information will not be appropriate in all cases and, therefore, excludes certain information from the operation of the CIS Scheme. The legislative principles include a requirement that information is shared only to the extent necessary to promote the wellbeing or safety of a child or a group of children, consistent with their best interests.”

The Regulations will enable Phase One of the CIS Scheme by prescribing:

• ISEs that will be authorised to voluntarily share relevant information for the purposes of promoting child wellbeing and safety (and will be obliged to share that information in response to requests from other ISEs).
• Record keeping requirements that ISEs must comply with.

The proposed Regulations also prescribe:

• the secrecy and confidentiality provisions in other laws that are proposed to be overridden/displaced under the new information sharing scheme.

1. to prescribe persons and bodies as information sharing entities for the purposes of Part 6A of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005; and
2. to provide for record keeping by information sharing entities for the purposes of section 41ZC of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005; and
3. to prescribe provisions for the purposes of section 41ZH of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005.