October updates for statutory out-of-home care and adoption agencies.
Carers Register reminders
Adding respite carers to an existing household
If a carer has been authorised to provide respite care to a child or young person in the same household as their permanent placement, this authorised carer should be added to the same Carers Register Household on the Carers Register. A separate household (CRH) only needs to be created if the carer has been authorised to provide respite in a separate household with a different address.
Please email carers-register@ocg.nsw.gov.au for support with any remediation required.
Recording decisions on the Carers Register
Agencies are required to record a decision against carer applications and authorisations on the Carers Register within 14 days of the determination being made. The decision and associated records are reviewed as part of the OCG Carers Register and Systems review, including agency processes and record keeping.
The Carers Register guidance notes provide a clear summary of the traffic lights available on the Carers Register to accurately record decisions for applicants and carers.
Agencies are encouraged to review their understanding of the available decisions on the Carers Register.
Refused and Withdrawn carer applicants
Where an agency decides to refuse a carer application the applicant should be recorded as ‘Refused’ if there are concerns about their suitability or ‘Refused agency specific policies’ on the Carers Register.
Where the applicant decides to withdraw their application, the applicant should be recorded as ‘Withdrawn’ on the Carers Register and the agency determines whether there are concerns or not and this is recorded on the Carers Register.
The decision recorded on the Carers Register should match the rationale and associated records on the agency file.
Cancelled and Surrendered carer authorisations
‘Surrendered’ should be used when the carer chooses to surrender their authorisation and discontinue in their role as an authorised carer.
‘Cancelled’ is an agency decision to cancel a carer’s authorisation under Subdivision 5 of the Children and Young Person (Care and Protection) Regulation 2022. The legislation outlines when a carer’s authorisation is automatically cancelled including where a carer’s WWCC requirements are no longer met.
The agency determines whether there are concerns or not and this is recorded on the Carers Register based on the rationale and information recorded on the agency file.
Suspending a carer’s authorisation
Subdivision 5 of the Children and Young Person (Care and Protection) Regulation 2022 outlines when a carer’s authorisation is automatically suspended including where a household member’s WWCC requirements are no longer met.
Recording a carer as ‘suspended’ on the Carers Register should reflect a decision made by the agency in line with the legislation. It should not be used for carers who are ‘on hold’ or taking a break from caring.
Fact Sheet 6: Suspension and Cancellation of carer authorisations (PDF, 98.15KB) is available on the Carers Register guidance page for further information.
To support agencies to review all carer records entered onto the Carers Register, the CRWM team can run an application and authorisation report, please email carers-register@ocg.nsw.gov.au to request a report.
Recording reportable allegations on the Carers Register
Guidance for designated agencies to record reportable allegations on the Carers Register has recently been updated. This includes updated information on required timeframes and the use of the ‘no record’ or ‘contact agency flag’.
To support agencies to review all reportable allegations entered onto the Carers Register, the CRWM can run a reportable allegations report listing all current and finalised reportable allegations, please contact carers-register@ocg.nsw.gov.au to request a report. If an allegation is added to the Carers Register in error or does not meet the threshold (is not reportable), agencies can contact the CRWM team for support with remediation.
New fact sheet – carer ID requirements
A new fact sheet has been added to the Carers Register guidance page. Fact Sheet 7: Approved proof of identify documents – assessment residents (PDF, 129.25KB) outlines the requirements of designated agencies to obtain proof of identity for assessable persons, including a list of approved identity documents. Approved identification for authorised carers and adult household members should be recorded on agency files.
Carers Register BI reports
The Carers Register team regularly send out BI reports to designated agencies’ Carers Register Primary Administrators (PA) as part of ongoing Carers Register compliance.
These reports are sent to the PA who can then circulate them to the appropriate person at the agency if required. Please send any PA contact changes to the Carers Register team as soon as possible. Changes to the PA must also be reflected on the Carers Register by creating the new PA role and end dating the old role.
The reports are staggered throughout the year and agencies’ responses to these reports are monitored and inform Carers Register and Systems reviews.
Sharing good practice to better support carers
Foster and relative and kinship carers are critical to the out-of-home care system. Designated agencies have an important role in providing carers with the support they need to care for children and young people.
The OCG Out of Home Care Regulation directorate invited representatives from designated agencies to join a carer supervision and support working group. With overwhelming interest in the project, 14 agencies joined the group to consider how authorised carers can be better supported in their complex role.
The purpose of the working group was to discuss challenges, showcase existing practice and share or develop tools to guide the sector’s carer support and supervision practices.
The group came together for 4 sessions from March-June 2024. After establishing and endorsing the Terms of Reference in the first session, the following three sessions focused on workshopping:
- solutions to record and capture carer household profiles to document the carer journey
- supervision and support tools that would be useful to guide sector practice
- how agencies can support and gather information from carers exiting the carer role.
The process involved brainstorming the challenges of supporting the carer role, showcasing existing practices, and drafting templates/processes with a solution focus.
The sessions resulted in the development of 4 templates that have been published on the OCG website to guide sector practice:
- Carer household profile
- Carer supervision and support
- End of placement
- Exiting carer(s) review
There was support from the working group to maintain a Carer Support check-in with the sector, as an extension of the initial group. The OCG is happy to facilitate this check-in with the sector and will send an invite out to all Carers Register Primary Administrators.
The first session will be on 30 October 2024 10-12pm. The agenda will be:
- Showcase the carer support templates
- Discuss current issues and trends
- Seek agency interest in showcasing carer support practice or feedback from a carer
- Brainstorm the next agenda.
If you have any questions, please contact us at carers-register@ocg.nsw.gov.au
Residential Care Worker Register (RCWR) reminders
Every agency must have an active Primary Administrator and Head of Relevant Entity User
At minimum, every agency registered to access the RCWR must have a Primary Administrator (PA) and Head of Relevant Entity (HRE) user.
The PA user:
- Is the key contact for the OCG for everything related to the RCWR
- Has the highest level of access within the RCWR for their agency
- Is responsible for updating the agency’s 4 nominated Alert emails if the agency makes a decision to change these
- Ensuring agency process for training staff needing to use to RCWR is implemented, including accessing OCG training modules and user guides
- Working with agency General Administrators to ensure those who no longer require access to the RCWR have their user accounts disabled.
What if the PA is leaving or the role is going to change to another person within the agency?
- The current PA must create a new PA role for the incoming user
- A handover should occur, so responsibilities are transferred
- The new PA must end date the outgoing PA’s user account or change their role if they will still have access to the RCWR.
RCWR monitoring
As at end of August 2024, we have commenced or finalised an initial review of RCWR practices with 29 designated agencies. This has involved discussions between the OCG’s Residential Register team and key agency staff as well as a review of agency records relating to how the RCWR is managed and monitored. Some preliminary observations:
- Agencies are working hard to prepare for situations where workers will be required to provide overnight care to children. This includes as part of everyday provision of residential care, ACAs, or overnight care that be required as part of supporting family time for example. This has meant assessing the suitability of workers and recording them on the RCWR so they can be called upon to support the care of a child as needed. The application of the emergency exemption has significantly decreased since the RCWR was introduced which is a positive move by the sector.
- Sourcing workers from external labour hire agencies remains at a consistent figure of around one third of the current residential care workforce. We have heard about the benefits and challenges that this practice brings from the sector. Agencies have also talked about the need to change their approach when sourcing workers from labour hire agencies and are slowly demonstrating a stronger understanding of the obligations it holds as the designated agency, as the agency which must make the decision about a worker’s suitability to be engaged as a residential care worker.
- Systems to monitor those workers who have been assessed and approved as residential care workers are critical to ensuring only those deemed suitable by the designated agency are rostered on to supervise a child in residential care. This is of particular importance when the agency is recording its internal, non-front-line staff to support overnight care of a child in an emergency or at short notice, but also where an agency is sourcing workers from external labour hire agencies. These systems are not always consistent across the sector.
- We have worked with individual agencies to identify discrepancies in record keeping and discuss how the agency manages these. It is important for every agency to have systems to identify, on any given day, the number of workers (including those sourced from labour hire agencies) it has approved and recorded as engaged on the RCWR who can be rostered to supervise the overnight care of a child in residential care. This information should be maintained for currency and updated as workers are end dated on the RCWR, either because they have left the role, or have been deemed as no longer suitable. This will help show evidence of being prepared and will support the agency to monitor the numbers of staff available so it can identify where numbers are low and additional workers may need to be added to the RCWR to increase the pools of available workers. This also works towards avoiding use of the emergency exemption.
- Agencies are strengthening processes to consistently provide the PDF summary generated as part of initial engagement on the RCWR. We have reminded agencies that they can easily provide workers their information by sharing this PDF summary. Agencies have noted that this transparency between employer and employee has been beneficial.
- Agencies are strengthening their understanding of the purpose of the RCWR in supporting the exchange of relevant information about a residential care worker, not only during initial recruitment, but during a person’s employment. Agencies have had the opportunity to discuss scenarios and concerns and this links with the exchange of information under Chapter 16A of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.
Working with Children Check (WWCC) verification via the RCWR
All workers recorded on the RCWR must hold a current WWCC clearance or application in progress.
When a worker’s WWCC is due to expire in the next 6 weeks, it will appear in the agency Dashboard under ‘WWCC Expiring in 6 weeks’.
All workers recorded on the RCWR must have their WWCC re-verified via the RCWR so that the current WWCC status and expiry date is populated. If a worker’s WWCC expires without having been re-verified or the worker having been end-dated, it will then appear in the Dashboard under ‘WWCC Expired’.
The Dashboard should be used to support an agency’s existing internal processes which monitor the WWCC expiries for all staff engaged as a residential care worker.
If a worker is listed as engaged by an agency without holding a valid WWCC, we will follow up directly with the agency to discuss their noncompliance.
Team contact details
If there are any questions or concerns with how to manage the RCWR or its functionality, please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss by email at residential-register@ocg.nsw.gov.au
Notifications – placement of a child under 12 in residential care
Designated agencies accredited to provide statutory out-of-home care residential care services, are required to notify the Children’s Guardian when a child under 12 years is placed in residential care and again when the placement ceases. All notifications are made via the accreditation portal. Instructions about how to make a notification via the portal are available in the accreditation portal agency user guide – general information, in Resources on our website.
Case management
Regardless of which agency holds case management for the child, the agency that is responsible for making the notification is the agency that is providing the placement. Only agencies accredited to provide residential care services, are required to make a notification when a child under 12 years is placed in residential care.
Respite placements of less than 30 days
Where the reason for the placement of a child under 12 years in residential care is for respite from the child’s usual home-based care arrangement and the placement is expected to be for less than 30 days, a notification is not required. However, if the respite placement in residential care exceeds 30 days or if the child’s usual home-based care arrangement ends, the agency must make a notification via the accreditation portal. In this case the notification of the placement should show the actual commencement date, 30 days prior.
