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Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) System

The purpose of the SCAN team system is to enable a co-ordinated, multi-agency response to children where statutory intervention is required to assess and meet their protection needs. This is achieved by:

timely information sharing between SCAN team core members
planning and co-ordination of actions to assess and respond to the protection needs of children who have experienced harm or risk of harm
holistic and culturally responsive assessment of children s protection needs.

The Department of Communities (Child Safety Services) is recognised within legislation as the lead agency for the SCAN team system. The other core member agencies are:

Department of Communities (Child Safety Services)
Queensland Police Service
Queensland Health
Department of Education and Training
Recognised Entity (for matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children or young people)

Currently there are 21 SCAN team coordination points across the State, which are aligned with the designated SCAN team coordinators. There are 30 operational SCAN teams across the State.

Senior guidance officers are core SCAN team system representatives for the Department of Education and Training. Their role is to assist state and non-state school principals with the referral of cases to SCAN team meetings. Senior guidance officers attend SCAN meetings and provide information collected from school personnel for case reviews. In addition, they will ensure that relevant information is provided to principals and guidance officers in a timely way and in accordance with confidentiality and privacy requirements.

The SCAN team system includes provision for Information Coordination meetings (ICM). These provide a forum for discussion of matters where a SCAN team core member representative seeks further information regarding the rationale for a Child Safety intake decision and requires the opportunity for multi-agency discussion. An ICM referral must meet all the following criteria:

the matter has been assessed by Child Safety Services as a child concern report (CCR)
the SCAN team core member representative has contacted the Child Safety Services regional intake team leader for further discussion regarding the decision and rationale
the matter remains a CCR and the SCAN team core member representative requires the opportunity for multi-agency discussion.

The role and responsibilities for SCAN team system members and the relevant information sharing protocols are outlined in sections 159I " 159L of the Child Protection Act 1999. Personal information collected by employees of the department for provision to SCAN team meetings is managed in accordance with the Child Protection Act 1999, and where relevant the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006, and the IP Act.

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