Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes

Chapter 5 — Requirements before sharing information under the Information Sharing Schemes

Both of the Information Sharing Schemes have 3 requirements that must be met before relevant information can be shared between prescribed Information Sharing Entities. All information that meets the requirements:

• must be shared on request
• can be proactively shared with another Information Sharing Entity.

Requirements before sharing information under the Child Information Sharing Scheme

Child Information Sharing Scheme three-part threshold test

Schools and other prescribed Information Sharing Entities must ensure the following three-part threshold test for sharing is met before using the Child Information Sharing Scheme to share information with each other.

1. The purpose of sharing is to promote the wellbeing or safety of a child or group of children

Schools are expected to use their expertise and professional judgement to decide whether information sharing meets the threshold for promoting the wellbeing or safety of a child or group of children and what and how much information to share. In doing so, schools should seek and take into account the views of the child and relevant family members, if safe, appropriate and reasonable to do so. The term wellbeing is not defined in the legislation so that professionals can exercise their professional judgement.

Wellbeing can include:

• protecting children from risk or incidents of harm and other safety concerns
• promoting positive wellbeing such as:
  • good health
  • positive relationships with adults, other children and development
  • age-appropriate learning and development
• prevention and early intervention measures which may avoid the escalation of wellbeing issues into safety concerns.

The Child Information Sharing Scheme allows sharing information to support collaborative service provision to children and respond to identified needs and risks, regardless of whether a professional considers the issue to relate to either wellbeing or safety. For example, a child and family service may understand a young person’s intermittent drug use to be a safety risk, where a school may understand it to be both a wellbeing and safety issue.

There may be instances where information needs to be shared to promote the wellbeing and safety of more than one child, including where one student poses a risk to another. In such cases, schools should exercise their judgement to consider and balance each student’s wellbeing and safety to achieve the best possible outcomes for each child. This may require a particular focus on the needs of more vulnerable students.

Schools may refer to existing best practice developmental and wellbeing frameworks to guide decision making under the scheme.

These include the:

• Best Interests Framework for Vulnerable Children and Youth
• Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO)
• Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) for children from birth to eight
• Child Safe Standards

2. Sharing information to assist another Information Sharing Entity to undertake their activities

To meet the second part of the threshold test, the disclosing Information Sharing Entity must form a reasonable belief that sharing the confidential information may assist the receiving Information Sharing Entity to carry out one or more of the following professional activities:

• making a decision, an assessment or a plan relating to a child/children, such as an individualised learning plan or behavioural support plan for schools or a case management plan for tertiary services
• initiating or conducting an investigation relating to a child/children
• providing a service relating to a child/children
• managing any risk to a child/children.

Threshold parts 1 and 2 can be used together. That is, a school can consider the activities the receiving Information Sharing Entity may use the information for (threshold part 2) in determining whether the information to be shared is for the purpose of promoting child wellbeing or safety (threshold part 1).

In line with the legislative principles, the school should work with the receiving Information Sharing Entity, as required, to determine whether the information to be shared may assist them to promote the wellbeing or safety of a child or group of children.

In any instance, information must not be used by the receiving Information Sharing Entity (including other schools) to unlawfully limit, remove or prevent a child’s or a relevant family member’s access to services (for example, to screen a child before they are accepted for enrolment by a school). This would not promote the wellbeing or safety of the child.

3. The information is not excluded information

Excluded information is information that, if shared, could reasonably be expected to do the following:

• endanger a person’s life or result in physical injury
• prejudice a police investigation or interfere with the enforcement or administration of the law
• prejudice a coronial inquest or inquiry
• prejudice a fair trial of a person or the impartial adjudication of a particular case
• disclose information that would be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional privilege or client legal privilege
• disclose or enable a person to ascertain the identity of a confidential source of information in relation to the enforcement or administration of the law, such as revealing a confidential police source
• contravene a court order
• be contrary to the public interest
• contravene another law.

Schools are not required to conduct investigations to determine that information is not ‘excluded information’ before sharing it. Rather, if schools are aware that information falls within an excluded category then they are not permitted to share that information.

Once the threshold for sharing has been met, identified school staff must still exercise their professional judgement in only sharing information to the extent necessary to promote the wellbeing or safety of a child or group or children. For example, while a case file may contain information that meets the threshold for sharing, the school must still consider what specific information from the file to share to achieve the particular objective.

Seeking consent

If the above three-part threshold has been met, schools do not require consent from any person to share relevant information with other Information Sharing Entities under the Child Information Sharing Scheme.

However, students and their families are often well-placed to understand their needs and risks. Before requesting and sharing information, schools should:

• inform students and families (who do not pose a risk) of their obligation to share information and inform them each time their information is shared — whenever it is safe, appropriate, and reasonable to do so
• seek and take into account the views of the student or the relevant family members about sharing their confidential information — whenever it is appropriate, safe and reasonable to do so.

Wherever possible a person from the school with an ongoing positive relationship with the student should be included in the conversation. This may not always be a person who the principal has identified to share on behalf of the school. For example, where a student wellbeing coordinator has been identified by the school as the person responsible for sharing under the scheme, the appropriate person to have a conversation about information sharing with a child might be their home room teacher, sport teacher or school counsellor.

Schools should plan in advance how they will conduct the conversation. If the person who will have the conversation is not the person who will be directly involved in decision-making and sharing the information, decide who will be present for the conversation. For example, the person who has the relationship with the student and/or relevant family members may:

• conduct the conversation on their own and report back to the staff member responsible for sharing
• lead the conversation with the responsible sharer present, or
• introduce the responsible sharer and be present while the responsible sharer leads the conversation.

If schools are including relevant family members in the conversation, determine in advance how to approach this. It may be appropriate to seek the views of relevant family members before the conversation with the student, to gauge their support and plan the engagement with the student, for example if a strong negative reaction is anticipated from the student and the relevant family member’s views are not known. Alternatively, it may be appropriate to first engage the student and then consider together whether or how to seek the views of relevant family members. This may be the case where a student is older and is independently making sound decisions about an issue, and the family’s views are likely to be in conflict with those of the student.

Schools should take views into account when deciding whether, what, when and how much to share, and who to share with, wherever possible. Factors to consider when taking into account a student’s views include their:

• age
• maturity
• vulnerability
• ability to clearly express their views
• competence to understand the nature and consequences of particular decisions.

For example, a school may give significant weight to the views of a mature young person aged 17 who expresses a clear wish not to include their family members in a conversation about information sharing.

Note: Once a student turns 18, schools may not use the Child Information Sharing Scheme to share information to promote that student’s wellbeing or safety. The school would need consent from the student to share their information unless it can be shared under other legislation. However, the school would be able to share information using the Child Information Sharing Scheme if it would promote the wellbeing or safety of a child, for example, to the promote the wellbeing or safety of another student or a sibling of the student who is under the age of 18.

For further guidance about the circumstances in which information can be shared between Information Sharing Entities using the Child Information Sharing Scheme refer to: Child Information Sharing Scheme Ministerial Guidelines.

Sharing information with a child or family member

The Child Information Sharing Scheme permits Information Sharing Entities to share information with a child, a person with parental responsibility for the child or a person with whom the child is living, for the more limited purpose of managing a risk to the child’s safety.

Schools should consider the following when determining whether to share information with a student or relevant family member to manage a risk to the safety of a student:

• the nature and significance of the risk to the safety of the student
• whether the information will enable the recipient to manage the risk to the safety of the student and, if so, what information will assist that person to manage the risk most effectively
• whether any of the information proposed to be shared is known to be ‘excluded information’ or restricted from sharing under other legislation.

Information shared with a student or their relevant family members cannot be further used or disclosed by that person unless it is for the purpose of managing a risk to the child’s safety or as permitted by any other law.

Information sharing with family members and students in a family violence context presents particular and complex risks. Consistent with the purpose of managing risks to children’s safety, information must not be shared with a perpetrator or alleged perpetrator of family violence, or other offence against a child, if it could put the student or another person at further risk.

Requirements for sharing information under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme

Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme: three requirements for information sharing

Under the Family Violence Information Scheme, schools and other prescribed Information Sharing Entities may request or share with other Information Sharing Entities information about a person that is relevant to assessing or managing a family violence risk.

Before sharing under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme, schools and other Information Sharing Entities must ensure the following three requirements are met.

1. The purpose of sharing is to assess family violence risk or protect victim survivors from family violence risk

The two purposes for which information can be shared between information sharing entities are:

• Family violence assessment purpose:
  • establishing whether a risk of family violence is present
  • assessing the level of risk to the victim survivor
  • correctly identifying the perpetrator or victim survivor.
    Note: Only Information Sharing Entities that are also prescribed as Risk Assessment Entities under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme may request and receive information from other Information Sharing Entities for the purpose of undertaking a family violence assessment. While schools are Information Sharing Entities, they are not Risk Assessment Entities. This means that schools may share (either proactively or on request) information with a Risk Assessment Entity for the purpose of that entity conducting a family violence assessment, but they may not request or receive information for the purpose of the school conducting a family violence risk assessment. Refer to the section below on family violence risk assessments.
• Family violence protection purpose: once family violence risk is established, to manage the risk to the victim survivor. This includes information sharing to support ongoing risk assessment.
  Note: All Information Sharing Entities, including schools, can proactively share, request and receive information from other Information Sharing Entities for the purpose of family violence protection once family violence risk has been established (provided the following 2 requirements are also met) — refer to the section below on establishing family violence risk.

2. The applicable consent requirements are met

Under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme, consent is not required from any person to share confidential information that is relevant to assessing or managing family violence risk to a child. In a majority of cases schools will be sharing information when a student under the age of 18 years is at risk. However, there may be occasions where schools should seek consent before using the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme to share information as outlined below.

Where a student is under the age of 18, including adolescents, and is a victim survivor:

• Consent is not required from any person to share information relevant to assessing or managing family violence risk to a child. However, you should seek and take into account the views of the child and family member that is not a perpetrator where it is safe, reasonable and appropriate to do so.
• Consent is never required from a perpetrator or alleged perpetrator.

Where a student is under the age of 18, including adolescents, and they are using or at risk of using family violence:

• their consent is not required to share their information under the Information Sharing Schemes
• when no child is at risk, consent is required from adult victim survivors and any third parties to share their information, unless schools can legally share under existing privacy laws
• consent is not required when sharing information is necessary to assess or manage family violence risk to a child.

Where a student is 18 years of age or older and is an adult victim survivor:

• when no child is at risk, consent is required from adult victim survivors and any third parties to share their information, unless schools can legally share under existing privacy laws
• consent is not required when sharing information is necessary to assess or manage family violence risk to a child.

Where a student is 18 years of age or older and they are using family violence:

• their consent is not required to share their information under the Information Sharing Schemes
• when no child is at risk, consent is required from adult victim survivors and any third parties to share their information, unless schools can legally share under existing privacy laws
• consent is not required when sharing information is necessary to assess or manage family violence risk to a child.

Where a student is 18 years of age or older and they are at risk of using family violence:

• their consent is not required to share their information under the Information Sharing Schemes
• when no child is at risk, consent is required from adult victim survivors and any third parties to share their information, unless schools can legally share under existing privacy laws
• consent is not required when sharing information is necessary to assess or manage family violence risk to a child.

3. The information is not known to be excluded information

Excluded information is information that could reasonably be expected to:

• endanger a person’s life or result in physical injury
• prejudice a police investigation or interfere with the enforcement or administration of the law
• prejudice a coronial inquest or inquiry
• prejudice a fair trial of a person or the impartial adjudication of a particular case
• disclose information that would be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional privilege or client legal privilege
• disclose or enable a person to ascertain the identity of a confidential source of information in relation to the enforcement or administration of the law, such as revealing a confidential police source
• contravene a court order
• be contrary to the public interest
• contravene another law.

Information Sharing Entities are not required to conduct investigations to determine that information is not 'excluded information' before sharing it. Rather, if they are aware that information falls within an excluded category then they are not permitted to share that information. For example, a school does not have to investigate whether there are any open or planned legal proceedings that might be prejudiced by sharing requested information that meets parts one and two of the threshold for sharing, but if the school is aware of open proceedings that they reasonably expect could be prejudiced by the disclosure of the information, then identified school staff must not disclose that particular information.

Information that is shared with Information Sharing Entities should be as accurate and current as possible to best promote the wellbeing and safety of children. When sharing information that has been obtained from another source, schools should advise that the information came from another source and when the information was obtained, if appropriate, safe and reasonable to do so. For example, it may be appropriate to advise that information is law enforcement data obtained from Victoria Police, if known.

Sharing for family violence risk assessment

Some Information Sharing Entities are also prescribed under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme as Risk Assessment Entities.

Schools and other information sharing entities can share relevant information proactively or on request with Risk Assessment Entities for risk assessment purposes. Schools must share information with a Risk Assessment Entity if they need to:

• confirm whether family violence is occurring
• enable the Risk Assessment Entity to assess the level of risk the perpetrator poses to the victim survivor
• correctly identify the perpetrator who is using family violence or the victim survivor.

Schools can only share information with other Information Sharing Entities that are not Risk assessment Entities and request information from Risk Assessment Entities once family violence risk has been established and the identity of the perpetrator and victim survivors are known.

This is to prevent sharing that might escalate risk to a child or family member.

Establishing family violence risk

In the absence of a family violence risk assessment by a Risk Assessment Entity, schools may establish family violence risk if they form a reasonable belief that family violence is occurring through one or more of the following:

• receiving a disclosure from a child or family member that family violence is occurring
• noticing observable signs/indicators of family violence — refer to: Observable signs of trauma that may indicate family violence
• receiving information from another Information Sharing Entity or another person that family violence is occurring. For example, being notified of the existence of a Family Violence Intervention Order, a risk assessment or safety plan completed by a specialist family violence service or another Information Sharing Entity.

If a school has formed reasonable belief that family violence risk is present and the identity of the perpetrator or victim survivor/s is clear (for example the victim survivor has identified the perpetrator), this would enable the school to share information under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme for a family violence protection purpose.

Sharing for family violence risk management (protection)

Once family violence risk is established, Information Sharing Entities can share information with other Information Sharing Entities (including from Risk Assessment Entities) if all information sharing requirements are met and they reasonably believe sharing is necessary to:

• remove, reduce or prevent family violence risk
• understand how risk is changing over time
• inform ongoing risk assessment.

For further information about sharing information under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme refer to: Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme Ministerial Guidelines.

Sharing information under both Information Sharing Schemes

The Information Sharing Schemes are designed to complement each other, to enable services to share information to respond to the range of needs and risks facing students and families.

Often schools may be sharing for both information sharing purposes:

• to promote a student’s wellbeing or safety under the Child Information Sharing Scheme and
• to assess or manage family violence risk to a child or adult under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme.

In that case schools must meet the requirements for each scheme separately when sharing information. If the requirements for one of the Information Sharing Schemes is not met, then schools cannot share under that scheme but may still share under the other scheme.

When sharing under both Information Sharing Schemes, the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme consent requirements are not applicable as there is a child/children at risk.

Schools should be mindful that sharing information in the context of family violence may pose particular and complex risks for students and other family members. When considering sharing to promote child wellbeing or safety, schools be alert to whether family violence risk may be present. When sharing information in a family violence context, schools should take all reasonable steps to plan for and maximise the immediate and ongoing safety of the student and all family members at risk of family violence. Information sharing should occur in accordance with a relevant safety plan.

When sharing under one scheme, school should consider whether sharing under the other scheme may also be beneficial. For example, when sharing to assess or manage family violence risk, schools should consider whether additional information should be shared with other Information Sharing entities to promote the student’s wellbeing or safety beyond the assessment and management of family violence risk, such as to develop an individualised learning plan for the student.

For an example of when a school might share information for both information sharing purposes, refer to: Which Information Sharing Scheme do I use?