Introduction and overview

The Collaborative Practice in Child Wellbeing and Protection: NSW Interagency Guidelines for Practitioners 2021 (the Guidelines) is a resource for all government and non-government agencies working in the child and family services sector. The Guidelines provide key information and guidance to assist interagency partners to work collaboratively to meet the safety, welfare and wellbeing needs of children and young people.

If you work with, or provide a service to children, young people or families, you have a role to play in identifying needs, strengths and opportunities to support them. This is best achieved through building strong working relationships with children and their families, including extended family and kin, and working collaboratively with other practitioners who know them.

The Guidelines contain a range of topics including:

• Child wellbeing and protection laws in NSW
• Prevention and early intervention
• Working with children and families
• Information sharing for service coordination
• Understanding key roles and responsibilities in the sector
• Reporting and responding to child wellbeing and safety concerns
• Assessing wellbeing, safety and risk
• Courts involving children and young people.

These Guidelines have been developed in partnership with government and non-government organisations with input from a cross-sector working group. They replace the Child Wellbeing and Child Protection NSW Interagency Guidelines 2012.

References to ‘children’ in these Guidelines includes a reference to young people. Section 4 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 provides that a ‘child’ is a person who is under the age of 16 and a ‘young person’ is a person aged 16 and above but who is under the age of 18.