New South Wales custody statistics: quarterly update March 2015

This report presents 24 months of reception, discharge and custody population data and comparisons between the current and previous quarter for age, gender, indigenous status, most serious offence and the average length of stay. Separate figures are presented for juveniles and adults. The counting unit is a cust odial episode. An individual will be counted multiple times in a period if they have multiple custodial episodes in that period. The data in this report are extracted from the Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) Offender Integrated Management System (OIMS) and the Juvenile Justice NSW (JJNSW) Client Information Management System (CIMS). The adult custody population figures include only those persons held in gazetted correctional centres managed by CSNSW. This includes: persons managed as forensic patients, persons held after expiry of their sentence awaiting deportation and persons awaiting extradition to another jurisdiction. Persons in the Special Purpose Centre at Long Bay Correctional Centre are not included. In addition to gazetted correctional centres, CSNSW manages a number of police/court cell complexes. This report excludes persons received into and then discharged from a CSNSW managed 24 hour police/court cell complex without entering a gazetted correctional centre. Adults refused police bail but not held in a gazetted correctional centre are not included. Custody population figures are counted as at midnight on the last day of the month or quarter as appropriate. Reception and discharge figures are those during each month or quarter as appropriate

Pilot study : tracer weaner trial for ovine Johne's Disease : National Ovine Johne’s Disease Control and Evaluation Program.

Eradication of ovine Johne’s disease requires destocking sheep and spelling land until Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculoisis has died out. There is no simple way to assess the residual level of contamination or the risk this poses to livestock. Consequently small groups of Merino weaners were orally dosed with M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Within 7-14 weeks the organism could be cultured from various locations in the gastrointestinal tract and associated lymph nodes. In addition, the results of a skin test were positive in 66% of weaners in which the organism had established an infection and were negative in uninfected sheep. The results of tests for gamma interferon were positive in some infected weaners but also in some of the controls. An ELISA test was not useful at this early stage of infection. Overall, the results suggest that weaner sheep could be used as sentinels in an infected environment, but this requires validation in a controlled field trial. Furthermore, the results suggest that the infectious dose of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis may be higher than previously thought

Ewe-lamb transmission of ovine Johne's Disease.

Knowledge of the likelihood of intrauterine or transmammary transmission of M. a. paratuberculosis infection in sheep is important in the design of control programs. Little has been published on this aspect of ovine Johne's disease, although studies in cattle have found up to 25% of foetuses from clinically affected cows to be infected. In this study 151 ewes from heavily infected flocks and their late term foetuses were examined using all available antemortem and necropsy tests. Five of six ewes with clinical OJD had infected foetuses. One of 54 subclinically affected ewes and none of 16 apparently uninfected ewes had infected foetuses. Only two ewes (both clinical cases which also had infected foetuses) had detectable M. a. paratuberculosis in their milk or mammary glands. Thus, although intrauterine or transmammary transmission may occur frequently in clinically affected sheep, it is infrequent in subclinically infected ewes or in ewes not detectably infected (even if from a heavily infected flock), suggesting that this mode of transmission is unlikely to significantly affect existing OJD control programs

NSW criminal courts statistics 2014

This report deals with criminal cases finalised in 2014 in the New South Wales Local, Children’s, District and Supreme Courts. Introduction While criminal disposals have increased in the Local and Higher Courts, they have fallen in the Children’s Court. In the Local Court, the number of defendants with a finalised matter increased by 4.4 per cent (up from 109,155 in 2013 to 113,917 in 2014). There was a 4.2 per cent increase in persons finalised in trial and sentence matters in the Higher Court (up from 3,618 in 2013 to 3,770 in 2014). In contrast, there was a 8.5 per cent decrease in young persons finalised in the Children’s Court (down from 7,401 in 2013 to 6,769 in 2014). This is in line with an 11.3 per cent decrease in the number of young persons proceeded against to court by NSW Police in the 24 months to 30 September 2014

Social housing in NSW: a discussion paper for input and comment

Currently the New South Wales social housing system faces many challenges – funding is decreasing, operating costs are rising and homes are ageing. This makes it difficult to maintain existing properties as well as to build more homes to meet the increasing demand for housing assistance. To make sure that the social housing system continues to provide a much-needed safety net into the future, the NSW Government is asking the community to provide innovative ideas to reform the system. Executive summary This paper invites input and comment from all stakeholders on the futureof the New South Wales social housing system. The New South Wales government believes the New South Wales social housing system can have a more positive impact on people’s lives by providinggreater opportunities and pathways towards client independence, particularly forpeople of working age, children and young people. At the same time, it should also continue to provide a safety net for vulnerable people; providing housing assistance tothose who need it, while they need it and where they need it. The New South Wales Government iscommitted to working alongside the non-government and private sectors to drive theinnovation required to meet these objectives

Local links and learning: Resilience in regional, rural and remote schools. Fostering community ties and harnessing learning opportunities to boost resilience

In recent years, schools in regional, rural and remote NSW have been affected by floods, drought, bushfires, animal plagues and other major disruptions, including COVID-19. It is vital that a school community's local capabilities are leveraged and boosted, so that they are ready to deal with future disruptions. This report focusses on two ways to boost the resilience of regional, rural and remote school communities: improving links between schools and their local communities, and opportunities for contextualised student learning and professional learning of school staff

Completing the mudmap on the riverbed - the legal lacuna in the tri-state area of the River Murray

ABSTRACT With the approaching centenary of the Victorian-Sout

Securing All intraVenous devices Effectively in hospitalised patients—the SAVE trial: study protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial

Introduction: Over 70% of all hospital admissions have a peripheral intravenous device (PIV) inserted; however, the failure rate of PIVs is unacceptably high, with up to 69% of these devices failing before treatment is complete. Failure can be due to dislodgement, phlebitis, occlusion/infiltration and/or infection. This results in interrupted medical therapy; painful phlebitis and reinsertions; increased hospital length of stay, morbidity and mortality from infections; and wasted medical/nursing time. Appropriate PIV dressing and securement may prevent many cases of PIV failure, but little comparative data exist regarding the efficacy of various PIV dressing and securement methods. This trial will investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of 4 methods of PIV dressing and securement in preventing PIV failure. Methods and analysis: A multicentre, parallel group, superiority randomised controlled trial with 4 arms, 3 experimental groups (tissue adhesive, bordered polyurethane dressing, sutureless securement device) and 1 control (standard polyurethane dressing) is planned. There will be a 3-year recruitment of 1708 adult patients, with allocation concealment until randomisation by a centralised web-based service. The primary outcome is PIV failure which includes any of: dislodgement, occlusion/infiltration, phlebitis and infection. Secondary outcomes include: types of PIV failure, PIV dwell time, costs, device colonisation, skin colonisation, patient and staff satisfaction. Relative incidence rates of device failure per 100 devices and per 1000 device days with 95% CIs will summarise the impact of each dressing, and test differences between groups. Kaplan-Meier survival curves (with log-rank Mantel-Cox test) will compare device failure over time. p Values of <0.05 will be considered significant. Secondary end points will be compared between groups using parametric or non-parametric techniques appropriate to level of measurement

Disparities in cataract surgery between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australia

&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; To investigate variation in rates of cataract surgery in New South Wales (NSW), Australia by area of residence for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Design:&lt;/b&gt; Observational data linkage study of hospital admissions.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Participants:&lt;/b&gt; 289 646 NSW residents aged 30 years and over admitted to NSW hospitals for 444 551 cataract surgery procedures between 2001 and 2008.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Methods:&lt;/b&gt; Analysis of linked routinely collected hospital data using direct standardisation and multilevel negative binomial regression models accounting for clustering of individuals within Statistical Local Areas (SLAs).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Main outcome measures:&lt;/b&gt; Age-standardised cataract surgery rates and adjusted rate ratios (ARRs).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Results:&lt;/b&gt; Aboriginal people had lower rates of cataract procedures than non-Aboriginal people of the same age and sex, living in the same SLA (ARR 0.71, 95% CI 0.68-0.75). There was significant variation in cataract surgery rates across SLAs for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, with the disparity higher in major cities and less disadvantaged areas. Rates of surgery were lower for Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal people in most SLAs, but in a few, the rates were similar or higher for Aboriginal people.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; Aboriginal people in NSW received less cataract surgery than non-Aboriginal people, despite evidence of higher cataract rates. This disparity was greatest in urban and wealthier areas. Higher rates of surgery for Aboriginal people observed in some specific locations are likely to reflect the availability of public ophthalmology services, targeted services for Aboriginal people and higher demand for surgery in these populations.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

The cost-effectiveness of Australia\u27s active after-school communities program

The objective of this study was to assess from a societal perspective the cost-effectiveness of the Active After-school Communities (AASC) program, a key plank of the former Australian Government\u27s obesity prevention program. The intervention was modeled for a 1-year time horizon for Australian primary school children as part of the Assessing Cost-Effectiveness in Obesity (ACE-Obesity) project. Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) benefits (based on calculated effects on BMI post-intervention) and cost-offsets (consequent savings from reductions in obesity-related diseases) were tracked until the cohort reached the age of 100 years or death. The reference year was 2001, and a 3% discount rate was applied. Simulation-modeling techniques were used to present a 95% uncertainty interval around the cost-effectiveness ratio. An assessment of second-stage filter criteria (&quot;equity,&quot; &quot;strength of evidence,&quot; &quot;acceptability to stakeholders,&quot; &quot;feasibility of implementation,&quot; &quot;sustainability,&quot; and &quot;side-effects&quot;) was undertaken by a stakeholder Working Group to incorporate additional factors that impact on resource allocation decisions. The estimated number of children new to physical activity after-school and therefore receiving the intervention benefit was 69,300. For 1 year, the intervention cost is Australian dollars (AUD) 40.3 million (95% uncertainty interval AUD 28.6 million; AUD 56.2 million), and resulted in an incremental saving of 450 (250; 770) DALYs. The resultant cost-offsets were AUD 3.7 million, producing a net cost per DALY saved of AUD 82,000 (95% uncertainty interval AUD 40,000; AUD 165,000). Although the program has intuitive appeal, it was not cost-effective under base-case modeling assumptions. To improve its cost-effectiveness credentials as an obesity prevention measure, a reduction in costs needs to be coupled with increases in the number of participating children and the amount of physical activity undertaken.<br /