Family characteristics

Working with families in contact with Child Safety

Child Safety focusses on engaging with families earlier and where appropriate, keeping children and young people safely at home.

Family characteristics

Substantiated households are over-represented in areas experiencing greater socio-economic disadvantage, characterised by factors such as lower income, lower educational attainment, greater unemployment, and more housing stress.

Understanding the characteristics of families and households involved in the Queensland child protection system informs the development of policy and programs, from prevention and early intervention through to permanency planning. Parental age and accessibility to services can impact on a family's ability to provide a safe environment for children to grow and thrive.

The Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) is an index measuring the accessibility of locations to service centres or their remoteness. Geographical areas receive a score and classification based on the road distance to service towns of different sizes. Classifications include:

  • Major city: relatively unrestricted accessibility to a wide range of goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  • Inner regional: some restrictions to accessibility to some goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  • Outer regional: significantly restricted accessibility to goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  • Remote: very restricted accessibility to goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  • Very remote: very little accessibility to goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.

Children substantiated by Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia - Rate per 1,000

Source: Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services.

  1. Child safety data is for the year ending the reference date (12 months of data), population data is as at the reference period end date.
  2. Children subject to a substantiation: Counts the number of individual children subject to a notification during the reference period, where an investigation and assessment has been finalised and the outcome was recorded as substantiated. If a child is subject to more than one substantiation in the period, the child is counted only once.
  3. Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia: If a child is subject to more than one substantiation in the period, the child is counted against the ARIA once for their first substantiation.
  4. Rate per thousand: Refers to the number of children for each of the above categories, divided by the population of children and young people aged 0-17 years of age. Population data is sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and is based on estimated resident population for Queenslanders aged 0-17 years, as at 30 June of the previous year.
  1. Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA): an index of the accessibility of locations to service centres of different size towns. The Geographic areas are given a score and classification based on the road distance to service towns of different sizes.
  2. Major city: relatively unrestricted accessibility to a wide range of goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  3. Inner regional: some restrictions to accessibility to some goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  4. Outer regional: significantly restricted accessibility to goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  5. Remote: very restricted accessibility to goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.
  6. Very remote: very little accessibility to goods, services and opportunities for social interaction.