Child Protection Services

The purpose of the Child Protection Services is to provide high quality assessment and treatment services to children from birth to 18 years and their families where there is a suspicion of child abuse, psychological treatment and/or neglect. 

CPS offers a range of services including:

• telephone consultation to professionals within Women’s and Children’s health network (WCHN) and outside, and to members of the public to discuss child protection matters, provide information and advice and where appropriate facilitate  referrals to other services
• forensic medical assessments in relation to suspicious and/or unexplained injury and/or presentations of severe neglect of children/young people under the age of 18; forensic medical assessments in relation to allegations of sexual abuse of children/young people under 16.
• forensic psychosocial assessments of children under the age of 7 to assess situations where there have been allegations of physical/sexual abuse.
• parenting capacity assessments to assess the potential safety and well being of children and young in the care of their parents/cares where Families SA are extremely concerned about abuse/neglect and/or psychological maltreatment.

As part of the assessments described above, CPS will gather and analyse information from a variety of sources and provide opinions and recommendations to Families SA/SAPOL

• therapy for children and young people under the age of 18 and family members where abuse/neglect and/or psychological maltreatment  has been established and there is evidence of  resulting harm which needs to be resolved to restore and enhance health.

In addition to general therapy CPS has two specialised therapy programs:  

• Sexualised Behaviour Treatment service which provides therapy to children 2-12 years of age and their families or carers where the major concern is problematic sexual behaviour and where recent sexual abuse has not been confirmed.
• Keeping Them Safe therapy service, which provides long term therapy for children aged between 0-12 years who are under the Guardianship of the Minister and/or of Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander decent.

How to access the service

CPS provides telephone consultation service, which can be accessed by Women’s and Children’s Health Network (WCHN) staff by telephoning the CPS Intake Worker on 8161 7346 during business hours.

CPS provides an after hours emergency telephone consultation service, which can be accessed by WCHN staff by telephoning 8161 7000.

A telephone consultation service is available during business hours to other health professionals and the community by telephoning 8161 7346.

Referrals in relation to:  forensic medical and psychosocial assessments -are accepted from Families SA and/or SAPOL; referrals for parenting capacity assessments are accepted from Families SA; referrals to the KTS program referrals are accepted from Families SA; referrals for CPS therapy are accepted from parents, carers, Families SA, SAPOL and other professionals where confirmation of the abuse, psychological maltreatment and/or or neglect has been made ;referrals to the Sexualized Behaviour Program are accepted by parents, carers, Families SA, SAPOL, other professionals where the child/young person meets the criteria.

Information for families

Parents/caregivers and children have a right to an open and honest approach from CPS staff, who will provide a clear explanation of the nature and process of their assessments, concerns, recommendations and interventions.

Staff will strive to maintain a constructive relationship with parents, colleagues, CYFS and the police, recognising their strengths and capabilities and their role in the life of the child.

Resources/training program

CPS conducts training courses for medical practitioners

• The Medical Evaluation of Suspected Sexual Abuse in Children and Adolescents (3 day course)
• The Forensic Medical Evaluation of Injury in Relation to Suspected Child Abuse (3 day course)

For course information phone (08) 8161 7245 or (08) 8161 6247.

Hours

General Business and Intake hours - Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm

CPS provides an after hours emergency telephone consultation service, which can be accessed by WCHN staff by telephoning 8161 7000.

Contact details

Management Team

Phone / Email / Location