This report summarises a comparison of Australian and select international jurisdictions against the approach of the Joint Investigation Response Team (JIRT) model in New South Wales. The structure of this report includes a brief rationale for the characteristics compared, a narrative summary of cross-agency responses in Australia, a narrative summary of selected cross-agency responses in equivalent international jurisdictions, and a detailed comparison of responses in Australian jurisdictions.

This report reviewed a variety of international MDT models to better understand cross-agency practices in comparable jurisdictions. The included jurisdictions were judged to be comparable liberal democracies with similar social and economic conditions. The review included a brief narrative discussion of prominent international collaborative models. These include Child Advocacy Centres in the United States and Canada, Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (United Kingdom), Joint Child Abuse Investigation Teams (Scotland), Barnahus (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, & Iceland), and Puawaitahi (New Zealand). These are briefly compared to the JIRT model. (From the Executive summary). Record #5653