The NSW Children’s Court Clinic was established in 2001 under the Children’s Court Act 1987. The Clinic's role is to support the Children’s Court of NSW and higher courts in care and protection matters by providing independent expert clinical assessments of children and young people, and the capacity of parents and others to carry out parental responsibility. Clinic assessments underpin critical decisions impacting First Nations families, including decisions about removal of children from their families, placement in out-of-home care, and restoration pathways. 

This audit will assess the effectiveness of the Clinic in establishing governance, operational, and quality assurance frameworks to enable culturally informed, evidence-based assessments with First Nations children and families as required by legislation and policy.

The audit team will address the audit objective with the following criteria:

If you have experiences or views relevant to the audit scope, you can share them with the Audit Office. This can be done anonymously if you wish. Please note that submissions will close at 5 pm Friday 16 October 2026. 

You can contribute to this audit either through the contribute to this audit button in left hand menu (comment icon on top right for mobile) or through this link

We may use your feedback to identify key themes, risks or issues which may then be further investigated during the audit. In some instances, we may use extracts of contributions in our audit report as examples of feedback provided where appropriate. If we use extracts of a contribution, we will not identify the source in the report.

We will not share feedback provided to us with any other organisation or person outside of the Audit Office, and we will not publish feedback (including submissions) in our reports or on our website. 

In specific circumstances the Audit Office does have certain reporting obligations for matters relating to wrongdoing in the public sector that come to our attention. For more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions, please visit Our confidentiality and reporting obligations for contributions page.

However, please note:

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. Please see the contact details listed below for relevant contacts. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews).
• While we will consider all feedback provided, we may not contact you to discuss.
• We are not able to answer questions or provide information collected during the course of the audit.
• Performance audits focus on assessing whether public money is spent efficiently, effectively, economically and in compliance with the law. The Auditor-General is not permitted to question the merits of government policy objectives. Please visit the Performance audit guide for audited entities (including non-public sector entities) for more information on how we undertake performance audits.

The Audit Office is required by section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act to keep information obtained during an audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections very seriously. 

All information that the Audit Office receives, and working papers that the Audit Office creates during an audit, are classed as excluded information in Schedule 2 of the Government Information (Public Sector) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). An access application under the GIPA Act cannot be made for excluded information.

If you have questions or comments about individual matters, you can:

• Contact the NSW Children’s Court Clinic by phone on (02) 8688 1530, or by email
• Make a complaint directly to the NSW Children’s Court Clinic via the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network online through their webform, or in writing
• Make a complaint about NSW health service providers to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission via their online portal
• Make a complaint about a NSW government agency to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524

Click here for more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions received via our website.