DOCUMENTING AND REPORTING

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Making written notes is the best way to record concerns you have about a child or their parents or caregivers. When making written notes, the date and time the notes are recorded is essential – but you also have to include the date and time you made your observations or the child disclosed to you. It’s important to show how much time elapsed between an observation or disclosure and the making of notes. You should make the notes as soon as possible after any observation and definitely immediately after any disclosure. 

Describe the circumstances surrounding the observation or disclosure. For eg, “I was in the playground supervising after lunch play and Amy and Nathan were fighting over the small blue bike. Nathan was sitting on the bike and Amy wanted it. I went over to where they were beside the sandpit to help them resolve the argument.”

Then you need to record details of the observations or disclosure. Make sure you record the exact words used by the child. For eg. “I said, “Amy would you like to play with the red bike because nobody is using that one,” and she replied, “No. Uncle Peter has a red bike.” I said, “Tell me about Uncle Peter.” She said, “He is rude and very naughty.” I said, “How is he rude and naughty?” and Amy said, “He do rude stuff with his doodle – it hurts my bot bot.”

Also make sure details of observations are objective – no opinions or conclusions. So instead of writing, “I know Amy very well – she’s an honest girl and I could tell from the way she spoke that she was telling the truth,” you would write, “When Amy told me this she was looking directly at me and she answered my questions confidently without hesitation or delay.”