Child Disability Payment decision making guide
Watching over
“Watching over” should be given its ordinary meaning, which is to: pay attention to someone to make
sure that nothing bad happens to them.
Source: www.collinsdictionary.com
Ashley is 7 years old and has autism. She wakes up between 2am and 5am at least five nights every week. Ashley will go downstairs and into the kitchen, where her parents have observed her playing with knives and trying to turn the oven on. Ashley’s dad now sleeps downstairs.
He:
- wakes if Ashley comes downstairs
- is ready to intervene
- often encourages Ashley to leave the kitchen
- prevents Ashley from playing in the kitchen.
The person does not need to be actually looking at the individual all the time. It is enough that the person is awake for the purpose of watching over the individual for the necessary period or periods.
Frequent intervals at night
The frequent intervals do not need to be spread throughout the night (CDP regs, reg. 11(1)(d)), but can be concentrated in one part of the night.
Frequent should be given its ordinary meaning. There is no strict numerical test. However, it is unlikely that once or twice would amount to “frequent”.
Prolonged or repeated
Prolonged is not defined in the legislation but is generally understood to be for a period in excess of 20 minutes.
Repeated means more than once – it is not a single or occasional occurrence.