Each year, one of the most important duties of the Queensland Family and Child Commission is to maintain a register of child deaths in Queensland. We analyse the data behind the tragedies and report on trends and patterns over time. Our information is used in policies, programs and public education campaigns to reduce deaths and to help keep our children safe.
This is the seventh year of operation for the Commission and the seventeenth year of reporting on the deaths of children and young people in Queensland. It has been a challenging one, as governments and communities have worked to minimise the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have adapted our approaches so we could continue to make a difference to the safety and wellbeing of children.
In 2021, we implemented a redesigned register (Coda). This was significant, because Coda doesn’t just provide improvements to the quality and quantity of the data we capture, it also enhances our reporting capabilities. We can now provide more specialised analysis of the data held in the system.
This year alone, we recorded information relating to 398 children whose deaths were registered between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021. While the majority of these deaths (67 per cent) were from natural causes, 86 children and young people died from what we call ‘external causes’ that the government and community can do something about.
This report has been prepared under section 29 of the Family and Child Commission Act 2014. It describes information on the deaths of children and young people in Queensland registered in the period 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.