Using data to inform child protection

Using data to better understand child protection issues.

In this seminar, Professor John Lynch and Dr Rhiannon Pilkington from the University of Adelaide discuss recent large-scale data projects in South Australia and Victoria that have informed child protection policy and practice.

Professor Lynch explains how big data and epidemiology can be used to inform government, non-government and community organisations to answer important policy questions.

In South Australia, their data platform includes linked administrative data on every birth cohort in South Australia from 1991 and now, involving 500,000 children and over 30 million records. This data has been used to better understand the extent of child protection issues, identify preventive opportunities and inform program evaluation and the testing of future innovation.

The seminar was presented by the department's Centre for Evaluation and Research in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.

Professor John Lynch presentation

Using data to inform child protection - video transcript (Word)