This report details the findings of an information systems application audit reviewing Assist, used by the Department of Communities to support its work with vulnerable children and families. Assist contains personal and highly sensitive information about children and families. The audit found significant weaknesses that risk the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the system and vulnerable peoples’ information. It concluded that Assist is a flawed system that does not appropriately support Communities to manage its interactions with children and families. 

Until a new system is in place, planned to occur in 2028, Communities can and should take steps to better protect Assist and its information. This includes restricting children’s files to only staff supporting their care, only storing investigation reports in Assist or other approved recordkeeping systems and implementing more comprehensive logging and monitoring to detect inappropriate access to information.

The audit also raised concerns about the quality of information in Assist. Errors and gaps in information could delay or impede Communities’ support to children. Additionally, Communities needs to improve its business continuity plans to consider how it will continue to deliver services if Assist has an outage.