Information and Instructions

• Completion of the CASC funding plan
• Access to reports or information relating to a child or young person
• Application of CASC
• Review of the CASC Funding Plan
• Exceptional circumstances
• CASC dispute resolution process

Completion of the CASC funding plan

Once the NAT level is determined, you should develop the CASC Funding Plan to identify the resources needed to support the child or young person. This should be done in consultation with the Care Team, inclusive of, but not limited to the OOHC provider, the child or young person's family, Aboriginal Practice Leader (APL) and the child or young person (if possible).

The CASC Funding Plan should briefly outline, without financial costings:

• the recommendations about the type of services
• intervention or support required to meet the child or young person's identified needs

The case worker should record the CASC funding plan in the allocated free-type box in the child or young person's NAT on Assist. Use the nine dimensions of care to guide your assessment about the support required for the child or young person.  Use a simple format to document the plan, such as a dot point plan of the services or activities required to support the child or young person in the care arrangement.


Also document the CASC funding plan in the child or young person's Care Plan and align it with the decisions made in the care planning process for the child or young person. 


The implementation of any activities or services funded by CASC are subject to Communities current approval process.  For example, referrals for psychological or educational support must follow the current referral process using approved Communities' psychological or other approved counselling or educational, mentoring and tutoring services. 


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Access to reports or information relating to a child or young person

​Access to reports pertaining to a child or young person in the care of the CEO is identified in s.128 of the Children and Community Services Act 2004 - Records of children in CEO's care to be kept:


(1) The CEO must ensure that records are kept in respect of every child who is or has been in the CEO's care.

(2) The records are to contain prescribed information.

Therefore, any assessments and reports, such as psychological, allied health, NDIS, and educational reports, that are requested for a child in the CEO's care and purchased through CASC or any other funding provided by Communities to an OOHC Provider, is owned by the CEO as legal guardian for, and on behalf of the child.  


These records contain prescribed information, which includes:

• information about the child or young person's health, including a copy of any medical records relating to the period in which the child or young person is in the CEO's care or otherwise provided to the CEO.
  

• any other information considered by the CEO to be relevant to the child or young person.
  

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Application of CASC

​The aim of CASC is to provide stability and maintain the care arrangement through the provision of additional resources to the carer as well as meeting the child or young person's support needs as detailed in the NAT.  Examples of CASC funding are identified in Table 1 below.


Type of support	Examples may include ​
Carer support	Additional supervision and support provided to the carer Excessive transport required to support child's additional needs	Specialist carer training  Additional resource (financial or other) to carers Additional carers Additional short break support Excessive transport support​
Specialised supports and interventions	Additional therapeutic support Additional allied health and medical support Additional social and cultural support Additional educational support	​Allied health or psychological assessment Allied health or psychological intervention (ongoing) Cultural supports – healing, mentoring, events Drug and alcohol rehabilitation/treatment Drug and alcohol rehabilitation/treatment Education support/tutoring Medical assessment Medical intervention (ongoing) Mentoring
Physical resources	Specialised support items, equipment, and aids Excessive medication required	​Education aids Disability or medical aids
Expenditure to be agreed by the Care Team and approved in the NAT and Care Plan * Referrals for psychological support must follow the current referral process using approved Communities' psychological or other counselling services.​  Ownership and permission to share any psychological reports is the responsibility of Communities in its capacity as the legal guardian of the child.




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Review of the CASC Funding Plan

​When the CASC is implemented, the case worker should meet regularly with the care team to discuss and review the child or young person's individualised needs. The CASC Funding Plan is flexible and can be amended by reviewing the NAT to update the changes to the child or young person's current needs.  Caseworkers should also: 

• document the changes to the CASC Funding Plan in the child or young person's case plan, and
  

• complete a Care Plan review or a Care Plan modification if there is a significant change to the child or young person's circumstances or changes are made to care planning decisions (refer to chapter 3.4 Care Planning).

The case worker must advise the Care Arrangement Hub (the Hub) when a child or young person's NAT level changes.  The Hub will record the NAT level against the care arrangement with the OOHC Provider for funding purposes.


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Exceptional circumstances

​In exceptional circumstances the reasons a proportion of CASC can be utilised are:

1.  To fund visits to Country for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people whose care arrangements are away from their Country and connections, or other cultural activities such as cultural mentoring or specialised culturally appropriate services or ceremonies.

A Cultural Support Plan must be incorporated into the child or young person's Care Plan and included in any proposals to the Children's Court along with care planning proposals, to demonstrate how the Department plans on meeting the child's cultural needs (refer to Chapter 3.4 Cultural Planning).  All planned Return to Country visits must be documented in the child or young person's Care Plan and Cultural Plan following agreement from the family, APL and other care team members, and approved by the team leader. 

In the event that there is a request to consider cultural activities in addition to those documented in the CASC Funding or Care Plan, the case worker should:


• consult with and obtain agreement from the family, the child or young person (if age appropriate), the Care Team, APL and the OOHC Provider
• document the amended CASC funding plan in the NAT, and in the Care and Cultural Plans, and 
• seek team leader approval prior to organising any proposed activities.

2.  To stabilise care arrangements for a negotiated period with the district, when an OOHC Provider requests additional staff, such as a 2:1 staff ratio care model.  


Staffing ratios of 2:1 to care for a child or young person must support individual responses to the needs of the child or young person and have the capacity to keep the child or young person safe while minimising occupational violence and aggression.  Examples of potential 2:1 staffing scenarios are:

• When a child or young person has been discharged from Secure Care, detention or a hospital facility and additional support is required to stabilise their care arrangement.

• When a child or young person expresses situational suicidal ideation (and is not admitted to hospital or other mental health facility) and requires additional supervision.

• When a child or young person's dysregulated behaviour places them at extreme risk of harm to themselves or others, which requires additional supervision and therapeutic intervention.

• The care team recommends that a child or young person requires additional therapeutic staff to settle them into their care arrangement to establish nurturing relationships.

When CASC funds have been exhausted, the care team should meet to discuss strategies to stabilise a child or young person, and approval for funding to resource additional care staff should be sought from the Executive Director Statewide Services.


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CASC dispute resolution process




There may be times when a NAT score does not adequately reflect the support costs for a child. For example, a child with a NAT 4 who has a significant disability or multiple health needs may incur costs that exceed the funding allocated to a NAT 4. In these instances the District Director can review the NAT and make recommendation to the Executive Director, State-wide Services to approve allocation of a higher level NAT score.




It is expected that the need for a dispute resolution process will be limited, and any disputes should be resolved cooperatively and quickly where possible.

• Where an OOHC Provider does not agree with the NAT level or feels a review of the NAT level is warranted, the OOHC Provider should, in the first instance discuss this with the team leader and APL to request a review.

• If a resolution is not reached after five working days, the OOHC Provider may put their concerns in writing with supporting documentation to the district director for a review.  

• If this remains unresolved, the matter will be referred to Executive Director – State Wide Services for review. Final decision making delegation sits with the Executive Director Statewide Services. 
  

The Act makes provision for an application for a review of a care planning decision by the CEO from: 


(a) the child

(b) a parent of the child 

(c) any carer of the child, or 

(d) any other person considered by the CEO to have a direct and significant interest in the wellbeing of the child. 


For more information refer chapter 3.4 Care Plan Decisions and the Care Plan Review Panel.


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