This test case was about support for children with disability during their early childhood – before they start school.

This includes children with developmental delay.

When a child has a developmental delay, it means they don’t grow or develop how other children their age do.

When we say children with disability, we also mean children with developmental delay.

This test case let us answer questions about:

• early childhood supports for children with disability

• children with disability taking part in early childhood learning

• learning outcomes

• missing data about children with disability.

In this test case we used a different way of linking data about children with disability.

In this test case we looked at all children in New South Wales.

We found out which children used disability supports before they started school.

We also found out which children with disability:

• used childcare services
• visited doctors
• went to hospital.

We also found out which children didn’t use disability support.

We will work out which children used services before they started school.

We will look at the link between:

• children who use services before they start school
• their learning outcomes.

We will look at how different groups of children move between different services.

We will make a tool to look at data outside of this test case.

This test case was about people with disability who were involved with the justice system.

People with disability might be involved in the justice system if they’re a victim.

A victim is someone who experiences a crime.

A crime is when someone:

• does something bad to someone else
• breaks the law.

People with disability might be involved in the justice system if they’re an offender.

An offender is someone who:

• does something bad to someone else
• breaks the law.

This test case let us answer questions about:

• how many victims are people with disability

• why people with disability might come into contact with the justice system

• how to support people with disabilities who are involved in the justice system

• what services people with disability use in the justice system.

We linked more than 99 million records.

We linked sets of:

• New South Wales data
• Australian data.

In our test case, we looked at 2.8 million people with disability who came into contact with:

• the justice system
• disability services.

About 3 in 10 people who used a disability service came into contact with the justice system.

About 1 in 10 people who were involved in the justice system came into contact with a disability service.

There are now better ways to tell if someone is a person with disability.

We worked with First Nations researchers to understand data about First Nations peoples in the justice system.

We learned what data was missing.

We will look at how different services tell if someone is a person with disability.

This includes disability services.

We will look at the outcomes for people with disability who are:

• victims

• offenders.

We will look at how people with disability use services when they’re involved in the justice system.

This includes:

• before they’re involved
• when they’re involved
• after they’re involved.

We will find more data about people with disability who are involved in the justice system.

This test case was about data about people with disability who use housing services.

Housing services support people with disability where they live.

In this test case we answered questions about:

• data that says who is a person with disability

• how many people with disability used housing services

• how housing services support people with disability.

In this test case we also answered questions about how we can use the new data for Australia’s Disability Strategy (the Strategy).

The Strategy is a plan to make life better for people with disability.

This test case used data from different states and territories.

This test case talked about people with disability from all age groups.

There was a lot of linked data about people with disability who use housing services.

We will look at how people with disability use:

• housing services

• homelessness services.

Homelessness services help people who:

• don’t have a home
• must find a place to sleep each night.

We will look at how we tell who is a person with disability.

We will write a report based on what we found.

This test case was about mental health services.

Mental health services support people with their mental health problems.

A mental health service can be an:

• organisation
• individual.

We could answer questions about:

• who might have a mental health problem

• what supports people with disability and mental health problems use

• what supports can help make health outcomes better for people with disability and mental health problems

• what data about mental health services is missing.

We linked data about people with mental health problems from Victoria with Australian data.

The linked data looked at around 610,000 Victorians who used disability supports:

• from 1 July 2008
• to 31 December 2019.

This test case will help understand how to make mental health services better.

We will look at how we tell who is a person with disability and see what:

• works well

• can be better.

We will look at how people with disability use mental health services.

This will help us find missing data on mental health services.

This test case was about young people with disability who:

• leave school

• start new learning or training

• keep studying when they leave school

• start working.

This test case let us answer questions about:

• learning and working outcomes for young people with disability

• supporting young adults with disability to leave school and start work

• missing data about learning and working outcomes for young people with disability.

There was a lot of linked data in this test case.

We looked at different data about young people with disability.

Organisations that wouldn’t usually work together, did work well together.

There are things we can do to get better data about young people with disability.

This test case helps us understand how many people with disability start:

• new learning or training

• working.

We will understand what might make it better for young people with disability when they:

• leave school
• start work.

We will look at data about young people with disability and see what data can be better.

We will look at the learning outcomes of young people with disability who have left school.