Mandatory Reporting in the ACT: What Foster Carers Are Legally Required to Do

One of the first things foster carers in the ACT discover is that their legal obligations extend well beyond the child in their care. As an authorized carer, you are a mandatory reporter under the Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT). That means if you believe a child — any child, not just the one placed with you — is at risk of significant harm, you are legally required to report it.

This is not optional. It is not a matter of professional judgment about whether it is "serious enough." The obligation is statutory, and failing to comply can have legal consequences. Understanding exactly what the law requires, and how to fulfill that obligation, is a core competency for anyone fostering in the ACT.

Who Is a Mandatory Reporter in the ACT?

The ACT takes a targeted approach to mandatory reporting. Not every adult in the Territory is a mandatory reporter — the obligation applies to people in specific professional roles who have regular contact with children.

Under the Children and Young People Act 2008, mandatory reporters include:

• Health practitioners (doctors, nurses, midwives, psychologists)
• Teachers and school staff
• Childcare workers and early childhood educators
• Police officers
• Persons in religious ministry
• Authorized carers — which includes all registered foster carers

Your status as an authorized carer automatically makes you a mandatory reporter from the moment you are registered. You do not need to be employed in a "professional" capacity. The act of being authorized to care for a child in the ACT system places you within the mandatory reporting framework.

What Triggers a Report: "Significant Harm"

The threshold for mandatory reporting in the ACT is a reasonable belief that a child or young person has experienced or is at risk of significant harm.

"Significant harm" is defined broadly and includes:

• Physical abuse — including non-accidental injury, excessive physical punishment, or patterns of physical harm
• Sexual abuse — any form of sexual contact or exploitation involving a child
• Emotional or psychological abuse — sustained patterns of cruelty, humiliation, or behavior that damages a child's emotional development
• Neglect — failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision, to the point where the child's health or development is endangered
• Exposure to family violence — witnessing domestic violence in the home is recognized as a form of significant harm in its own right in the ACT

The standard is "reasonable belief," not certainty. You do not need evidence. You do not need to confirm that abuse is occurring. If, based on what you have observed or been told, you have reasonable grounds to believe a child is at risk, the obligation to report is triggered.

For foster carers, this becomes relevant in situations beyond the child placed in your home. If a child at school discloses something, if you observe something concerning at a contact visit involving a sibling, or if a child in your neighborhood has signs of neglect — the obligation applies in each of those situations.

What to Report and to Whom

Reports in the ACT are made to Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS), which operates under the Community Services Directorate (CSD).

For urgent matters — where a child is in immediate danger — call 000 first, then notify CYPS.

For non-urgent reports, contact CYPS directly:

• Phone: 1300 556 729 (Child Protection Helpline, available 24 hours)
• In person at a CYPS office (Quamby Place, Nicholls)

When you make a report, you will be asked to provide:

• Your name and contact details (mandatory reporters cannot make anonymous reports)
• The child's name, age, and location if known
• The nature of your concern and what you have observed or been told
• The child's current location and whether they are safe right now
• Information about the child's parents or guardians if relevant

You are not required to investigate. You are not required to gather evidence or confront the alleged perpetrator. Your role is to report what you know or believe, and CYPS takes it from there.

Confidentiality and Who Else Gets Told

Mandatory reporters are protected from civil and criminal liability for making a report in good faith, even if the report is ultimately found to be unsubstantiated. This protection is explicit in the Children and Young People Act 2008.

The identity of a mandatory reporter is kept confidential by CYPS. Parents or caregivers of the child you report about will not be told who made the report. This confidentiality exists to protect reporters from retaliation and to encourage reporting without fear.

For foster carers, there is an additional layer of complexity. If the concern relates to the child placed in your home, your foster care agency (Barnardos, OzChild, or Key Assets) must also be notified, either before or immediately after making the CYPS report. Your agency's caseworker needs to be aware, because the concern may affect placement decisions, contact arrangements, or the child's Care Plan.

If the concern relates to another child — a neighbor's child, a school peer — you still report to CYPS, but there is generally no agency notification required unless the matter intersects with your placement.

Record Keeping Obligations for Foster Carers

As an authorized carer in the ACT, you are required to maintain detailed records of the child's life in your care. This includes medical appointments, school progress, behavioral observations, and significant incidents.

This record-keeping is not merely administrative housekeeping — it feeds directly into mandatory reporting. If you observe a pattern of concerning behavior over time, your records may provide the documented basis for a report. CYPS investigators may request access to your notes as part of their assessment.

The ACT system requires carers to maintain a Child's Life Story record alongside the day-to-day care records. This is both a developmental document for the child and a contemporaneous account of their time in your care. In the event of a mandatory reporting situation, having detailed, dated records significantly strengthens the quality of the information you can provide to CYPS.

What Happens After You Report

Once a report is received, CYPS has a statutory obligation to assess it. The response time and type of investigation depend on the assessed urgency:

• Immediate response: Where a child is believed to be in danger right now, CYPS will respond within hours, typically in coordination with ACT Policing.
• Priority response: Where there is a risk of harm but not immediate danger, an assessment begins within 24 to 72 hours.
• Consultation: For reports that are ambiguous or low-risk, CYPS may seek additional information from the reporter before deciding whether to investigate.

CYPS is not obligated to tell you the outcome of the investigation. In most cases, reporters receive limited feedback. If the matter involves a child placed in your care, your agency caseworker and the child's CYPS case manager will keep you informed of decisions that affect the placement, but the specific investigative findings are typically not shared with reporters.

The Emotional Weight of Mandatory Reporting

Foster carers — particularly those caring for children who have already been removed from their birth families — often experience significant emotional difficulty around mandatory reporting. There is a tension between wanting to support a birth family and fulfilling a legal obligation when concerns arise during contact visits or family interactions.

The ACT's foster care framework is built around restorative practice, which emphasizes supporting birth families rather than surveilling them. But restorative practice does not override mandatory reporting. If you observe something that meets the threshold, the obligation applies regardless of your therapeutic goals for the family.

Your agency provides 24/7 on-call support for exactly these situations. If you are uncertain whether what you have observed meets the reporting threshold, call your caseworker before deciding not to report. The legal liability for failing to report rests with you personally — not the agency.

Preparing for This Role

The mandatory reporting obligation is covered in the Shared Stories, Shared Lives pre-service training, and your agency will walk through the CYPS reporting process during the authorization stage. But many carers find that the abstract training does not fully prepare them for the real-world situations where reporting decisions have to be made quickly.

The Australian Capital Territory Foster Care Guide includes a detailed section on mandatory reporting — what the ACT legislation requires, how to document observations that may support a report, and how to navigate the dual role of carer-advocate and statutory reporter in the ACT's integrated system.

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