Development of methods for continuous child maltreatment surveillance - Lessons from the Canadian pan northern administrative data project

Objective: Administrative data are a fundamental source for researchers and policy makers concerned with child maltreatment and its correlates. The Canadian northern territories have been engaged in a collaborative effort to... [ view full abstract ]

Objective: Administrative data are a fundamental source for researchers and policy makers concerned with child maltreatment and its correlates. The Canadian northern territories have been engaged in a collaborative effort to consider whether it is possible to improve territorial administrative data capacity, data utilization, and the potential to develop a consistent maltreatment data collection framework. The objective of this presentation is to highlight key lessons learned from this feasibility assessment process.
Methods: A review of current child protection systems in Canada was undertaken in order to assess the current status of the systems and their successes and challenges. In addition, a series of meetings were held with key stakeholders in the pan-northern territories to assess their child welfare information system capacity development, needs for data, and jointly formulate a potential minimum data set.
Results: The presentation will address the status of the project and the results of the feasibility process. In particular, it will highlight the review of the status of information system development in Canada generally, and the status of data collection systems development across the Pan-northern territories. The presentation will describe the ongoing data development work in the Territories, the lessons learned, and planned next steps.
Conclusion: Like other countries Canada has a social services infrastructure based on local authorities administered and funded by territories and provinces, creating challenges in developing a national system for data collection. The pan-northern project presents an important opportunity to understand the dynamics of how a devolved system of territorial and provincial entities might collaborate in the development of a federal system of child maltreatment surveillance.