Annual report 2009-2010, NT Child Deaths Review and Prevention Committee
NT Child Deaths Review and Prevention Committee annual report 2009-2010
Office of the Children's Commissioner Northern Territory
E-Publications; PublicationNT; E-Books; The Children's Commissioner Northern Territory annual report; Annual reports
2010
Date:2010; Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
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Children, Aboriginal Australian; Northern Territory; Periodicals; Death; Causes; Statistics; Periodicals; Children and death; Periodicals
Northern Territory Government
Casuarina
The Children's Commissioner Northern Territory annual report; Annual reports
2009-2010
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Northern Territory Government
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/236802
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/640686
Page 20 by most other similar child death registers throughout Australia. By choosing this standard of classification for underlying and multiple causes of death, data that the NT holds is able to be compared to other jurisdictions data. The Committee entered into agreement with the National Centre for Health Information Research and Training (NCHIRT) for one of its specialist coders to provide coding of cause of death for each child death registered with the NT BDM Registry from 2006 to 2009. NCHIRT is contracted to continue this service each year for the medium term. Calendar Year Reporting The Committee has continued to report data trends based on calendar year rather than financial year. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the Child Death Registers in the different Australian jurisdictions report with the same method. The reporting period for the Committee is based on the financial year (1 July to 30 June) and the data is being reported on the calendar year. This timing permits the Committee to analyse and review data more thoroughly, permitting greater validation of reported data. Validation and Review The Committees inaugural report in 2009 published basic child deaths data from 2006, 2007 and 2008 which is slightly different to information in this years report. This is a result of ongoing validation and review of this data. The basis of the Child Deaths Register is data obtained from the NT BDM Registry which is derived from death certificates. There are occasions where data is provided to the CDRPC for a child who has died in the NT but may not be a resident of the NT and therefore should not be included in any statistics or references to deaths of NT children. These adjustments will be an ongoing issue as transborder migration occurs regularly especially among Aboriginal groups in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland. There are also exceptional cases in which it has been difficult to ascertain the age of a person who has died. In these cases the Committee is able to use its statutory powers to obtain information regarding a persons age, (often from health facilities) to determine if the person should remain or be removed from the database. Some child deaths present on the Committees database are also subject to investigation by the Territory Coroner as they are deemed to be a Reportable Death under the NT Coroners Act. In these cases the factors relevant to a childs death can take some time to be determined, especially if an inquest into the death is convened. In these circumstances the coronial findings may result in a change of the initial determination of the cause of death. Australian and New Zealand Child Death Review and Prevention Group The Northern Territory is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Child Death Review and Prevention Group (ANZCDRPG), an informal body that comprises representatives of child death review teams in all Australian jurisdictions and New Zealand. The role as Chair of the ANZCDRPG has recently transferred from New South Wales to Queensland. Along with this transfer had been an agreement to review the terms of reference for the national body and the establishment of priorities for the next three years. The group is currently exploring a number of issues including the development of a standardised data dictionary to facilitate the sharing of information and research.