Introduction to the Report of the Evaluation of the NSW Interagency Guidelines for Child Protection Intervention 2006

During 2008 the Child Protection Senior Officers Group (CPSOG), comprised of all NSW Government agencies with a role in child protection, oversaw the evaluation of the NSW Interagency Guidelines for Child Protection Intervention 2006. The evaluation sought to examine the take up and overall effectiveness of the Guidelines.

Together with staff from over 500 non government agencies, government staff across all NSW human services and justice agencies participated in the comprehensive evaluation process. The Final Report of the evaluation was endorsed by the Justice and Human Services CEOs Forum in September 2008 and provided to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW to inform their deliberations.

The evaluation report is now on both DoCS web site (www.community.nsw.gov.au) and NSW Healths web site (www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs) and is provided in two parts:

• Evaluation of the NSW Interagency Guidelines report - final report
• Evaluation of the NSW Interagency Guidelines report - methods and evidence sources

Given the interface between the focus of the evaluation and aspects of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW, the implementation plan of the Governments response to the Inquiry, Keep Them Safe, includes consideration of the recommendations of the Final Report of the Evaluation of the NSW Interagency Guidelines for Child Protection Intervention 2006.

DoCS Inside Out quarterly newsletter is widely distributed across the sector to non-government agencies providing services to children and families and is available online on DoCS website. The most recent edition (April/May/June 2009) includes an article on the evaluation and a link to the report.