Sue Diggles Memorial Practice Paper funded by Brisbane Catholic Education Office

Each inquiry, each tragic child death leads to calls for better information sharing between professionals working with children, young people and families experiencing abuse, neglect and violence. Effective information sharing should ensure that all professionals making risk assessments have the information they need to make robust, accountable and evidence based decisions. Information sharing is critical for all professionals involved in child protection decision making. For reasons of safety, the wellbeing of children and young people and to support understanding and participation in the decisions that are being made. What challenges make this difficult? What strategies can we as professionals use to do it better? The QFCC’s [When a child is missing report][24] highlights what is at stake and the subsequent [Information Sharing-Myth busting guide][25] is an attempt to explain to professionals that sometimes what they perceive as a barrier to sharing information is actually a myth.

This Practice Paper chaired by Principal Commissioner Cheryl Vardon QFCC hears from:

• Graham Kraak (A/Director Strategic Policy and Legislation Practice Queensland Health) about the issues impacting on a large government agency like Queensland Health,
• Catherine Moynihan (Official Solicitor and Director of Legal Services/Investigations) about the importance of sharing information with children, young people, their parents and their family,
• Judge Kevin Lapthorn (Federal Circuit Court of Australia) about how information sharing impacts on juridical decision making.

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