From 25 November 2024, the method for mandatory reporting by psychologists in South Australia is changing. All psychologists working in South Australia must set up an e-CARL profile to make non-urgent mandatory notifications. Urgent or serious notifications must be made by the CARL telephone line (131478).
Serious concerns that should be reported by the phone line include any of the following:
- you suspect a child or young person is in imminent or immediate danger of serious harm, serious injury or death (including if they have a current injury suspected as caused by abuse or neglect) or chronic neglect
- an infant (under 12 months) has any injury (includes bruises for babies who are not mobile)
- a child or young person has been abandoned or is currently unsupervised
- a plausible threat has been made to kill or seriously harm a child or young person
- a child or young person has experienced sexual abuse and has contact with the alleged perpetrator within the next 24 hours
- the concerns are for a child or young person who is under the Guardianship or Custody of the Department for Child Protection.
Please familiarise yourself with the requirements here.
Members had expressed concerns about the process for creating an e-CARL profile as it involved verification through MyGovID. Their concerns were regarding how much of their personal information would be accessible through this process. AAPi reached out to DCP e-CARL support for clarification and received the following response:
We take our legislative requirement to protect the identity of notifiers very seriously. The use of myID for non-government users is intended to strengthen the data security of e-CARL and further protect the identity of notifiers.
The use of Digital Identity (myID – formerly called myGovID) is purely for authentication purposes. Meaning that it is just used to validate the user as a real person. Once within e-CARL, notifiers can update their contact details to include an alternative email address for contact and reminder/notification purposes.
Data provided as part of the notification is saved within the e-CARL system and no notification details are shared back to myGov or any other party.