VPRS 3480 General Welfare Client Files, Central Highlands Regional Centre

Full description

This series of records comprises general welfare client files from the Central Highlands region, 1970 - 1984.

The files appear to document the social worker's interaction with the client and Departmental intervention. The files appear to detail case files regarding children and adults at risk with family violence, breakdowns etc.

The files appear to include such matters as financial assistance, child truancy, wardship, adoption, foster care, protective intervention and community based corrective supervision, housing and aged care, relationship counselling, and so on. The records reflect the often detailed and lengthy Departmental intervention with individuals and families. The files in this series appear to relate primarily to clients of the Central Highlands Regional Centre.

The files comprise some or all of the following documents:
- Family Card - compiled by the social worker; has immediate and in some instances extended family member names and information
- Intake Form - proforma compiled with: Name, Address; Date of Birth; Phone [number]; Office Visit; Phone Contact; Source of Referral; Family Constellation; Family Background; Education / Employment; Finances; Health; General Comments; Action Recommended; Next Appointment; Worker; Date.
- Staff Memo - notes from public coming up to the counter to speak to the case workers
- Staff case notes
- Client index cards - only with client name and address and case code, not all categories completed
- Interview Notes and attached forms for financial assistance
- Correspondence with other regional case workers and other government departments
- Correspondence from medical specialists, solicitors, case workers regarding the client or family
- Probation Order, Breach of Probation Report and related correspondence etc
- Child Protection Orders
- Correctional Field Services Report
- County Court Case documentation.

Most of the sequences of regional files start in the 1970s and represent the Social Welfare Department's emphasis on providing localised services assisting individual clients and entire families, and as well as a general referral service liaising with other government agencies. The files also reflect the diversification of services in the mid 1970s with the case workers taking on the responsibility for probation and parole. It is possible that the system of regional files emanated from the Social Welfare Department but incorporated an earlier system from the Social Welfare Branch of the Chief Secretary's Office (subject to further research).

This series also includes files relating to State Wards. When assuming responsibility for the care, custody and control of the child to the exclusion of parental rights, the State's representative made an application in the Children's Court on various grounds, depending on the terms of different Children's Welfare Acts. A child could be classed a Ward because they were deemed to be neglected, uncontrollable or in moral danger. Victoria abandoned use of the term ward with the passing of the Children and Young Person's Act 1989, when the language shifted to children in need of protection.

The system of files mainly appear to comprise single client files, with a small component of family files documenting more complex transactions with entire families requiring assistance from the Department, or deemed at risk. The Client / Family Files comprise the first contact summary sheet, correspondence and other documents which detail the staff's interaction with the individual person or entire families. A component of the files relate to simple transactions or no action from the office, relating to welfare assistance, enquiries about counselling services, unsolicited public information from locals regarding children at risk, child truancy from schools, and so on. Some of the files provide detailed family information and complex transactions between clients and entire families which have category incidents, including physical assault, incest and instances of murder. The system of files and cards was produced as contextual information for each individual client or family by the social worker and / or case worker.

Some of the regional filing systems include the social worker's Family Cards which were compiled to chart the 'constellation' of the family unit or extended family, and how that configuration related to the individual client or entire families. Both the index cards and system of files and cards were produced as contextual information for each individual client or family by the social worker and / or case worker. Cases which were not proceeded with generally include an index card, and this document seems to have been one of the primary documents compiled for each enquiry. The Family Cards seem to have been initially kept as a separate system and later combined with the relevant files.