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• Mentoring literature contains diverse, but as yet unclassified, mentoring relationship types. • Mentoring for young people young people transitioning out of care must address specific contextual needs and barriers. • More attention is needed in mentoring literature on the policy context and the nature of the gender and power in mentoring relationships. In Australia, out-of-home care (OoHC) is provided to safeguard children and young people unable to live with their families. Typically, this care stops at 18 years of age, leaving many young people without the relational support to find employment and stable accommodation. Mentoring is increasingly proposed as a way to support young people exiting care, though the types of mentoring and contextual factors vary considerably. This rapid review aims to identify key features of mentoring programs that support young people in OoHC. This paper utilised a rapid review methodology to survey the academic literature on mentoring programs with young people in OoHC. The authors conducted literature searches in October 2022 using a search string designed to provide targeted exposure to the literature. Articles were limited by year and location, with the specific search string and limitations applied to the Scopus database, and Proquest and Informit platforms. Utilising literature, we identified five overlapping models for mentor–mentee relationships into a provisional typology of five categories based on varying levels of formality and familiarity in the relationships: 'formal', 'natural', 'near-age', 'peer', and 'therapeutic'. In doing so, we identified seven important features of mentor–mentee relationships: shared experiences, relationship duration, boundaries and other relationships, identity and self-worth, educational contexts, power and participation, and role modelling. We identified four issues relating to mentoring in OoHC that are informed by the needs and barriers experienced by young people: training and support for mentors, unique challenges faced by young people in OoHC, transition out of care, and the matching process. Lastly, we established what might impact mentoring programs buy critically reflecting on the policy context and notions of empowerment. This rapid review of mentoring programs for care-experienced young people seeking employment offers valuable insights to inform future programs. The findings highlight diverse and unclassified mentoring relationship types, the absence of anticipated gender-specific findings, a lack of examination of the policy context, and a need for more robust conceptualisations of empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Practice directions should recognise multiple models of CSE and a wider context of vulnerability and unmet needs. • Anxieties about young people's sexual behaviours can detract from CSE making it challenging to identify and respond. • Outreach and support that addresses young people's emotional, social and practical needs are valuable directions. • Suitable placements and ensuring young people have a safe and stable home environment is vital to any response to CSE. • CSE responses should be guided by child-centred practice and informed by young people's perspectives. There is a growing interest in understanding and responding to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Australia, but limited empirical research from Australian contexts. The research reported here contributes to the evidence base by considering challenges and best practices for responding to CSE from the perspectives of 15 caseworkers in a statutory child protection and out of home care environment in one Australian region. In so doing, the paper also offers insight into CSE along with consideration of the emerging practice directions and systems surrounding these in the Australian context. Findings point to potential problems arising from existing frameworks for understanding and responding to CSE. Participants held concerns about a narrow focus on young people's sexualised behaviours in the wider multi-agency care context. This was understood to obscure a more complex understanding of CSE and its broader context of vulnerability and connection to unmet needs – some of which can arise from the care context itself – making identification and intervention difficult. Findings align with research that emphasises outreach and intensive support for young people centring on strengthening connections, identifying and addressing unmet needs and sustaining safety through consideration of placements and living circumstances. Consideration of practice challenges and opportunities signals the importance of child-centred, wellbeing-oriented directions allowing for multiple models of CSE victimisation, underpinned by a shared language in the multi-agency context and enhanced provision in existing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Young people with complex support needs who live outside metropolitan areas face unique challenges. Issues such as poor educational and employment opportunities, homelessness, racism, problematic substance use, challenging behaviour, disability and mental illness can be magnified and lead to judgment and marginalisation in small communities such as those in rural and regional areas. As a result of poor resourcing of services in these areas, young people may be forced to transition from place to place, service to service as a way of coping with life challenges. This paper presents findings from interviews and focus groups with service providers who support such young people in regional and rural Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria in Australia. Service providers reported similar challenges to professionals working in urban areas, such as navigating inter-agency and inter-professional work and dealing with funding shortages. However, these issues were amplified by the need to work across broad geographical areas, to recruit and retain skilled workers and to respond to the many structural and resource inadequacies in smaller communities. While services aimed to be responsive to young people, the challenges of providing support in a non-metropolitan context could create a context in which young people either disengaged from services or poor response resulted in systemic escalation to crisis. The implications for policy and practice are explored. Highlights • Supports to young people with complex support needs in non-metropolitan areas in Australia are poorly resourced. • Non-metropolitan services work best when they are based on relationship-based practice and local community needs. • Interagency collaboration is essential when working across broad geographical areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the increasing use of adoption to provide permanence for children living in out-of-home care, relatively little is known about the children involved. This paper presents findings on the previous life experiences of an entire cohort of 'difficult to place' adoptees who were placed in Australia over 26 years. Understanding the vulnerability of these children is important for practitioners supporting adoptive families, as well as policy-makers and researchers who are assessing the outcomes of adoption from care. The study describes a group of children who have experiences which may make them vulnerable to poor adult outcomes. The severity of their pre-care experiences is high, with implications for health and wellbeing difficulties in adulthood. Child welfare interventions after entry to out-of-home care are also associated with poor outcomes. Furthermore, a high number of adoptees presented with behavioural difficulties which further compromised their welfare. The study demonstrates that, while adoptive families can be successfully recruited for highly vulnerable children, there are important issues for timing of decision-making about permanency and for recruitment, training and support of adoptive families. Furthermore, policy makers and practitioners need to consider these vulnerabilities when comparing adoption with other forms of out-of-home care and assessing outcomes of adoption compared to the general community or fostered children. Highlights • A full cohort study of 'hard to place' adoptees from care over 26 years. • Adoptees are shown to have higher rates of 'significant' ACEs than the general population. • This vulnerability has been increased following child welfare interventions. • Significant implications for practice and assessing outcomes of adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Preparing teachers for child protection and safeguarding must begin in initial teacher education. • We included 31 studies in a systematic scoping review. • In future, course developers should draw from models of rigorously evaluated courses. • Underpinning courses with trauma-informed approaches is strongly indicated. To improve educational outcomes for maltreated children, there is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of the education workforce to respond appropriately to their needs. We conducted a systematic scoping review to synthesize current evidence about child protection and safeguarding in initial (pre-registration) teacher education with the aim of developing a knowledge base, and understanding what we — as researchers, teacher educators, and professional accreditation bodies — can and should be doing better. Thirty-one studies (reported in 38 papers) met the inclusion criteria. Studies were coded inductively against standardised criteria and critically appraised. Coding of study aims yielded three themes forming a descriptive map of research in the field: (i) studies investigating student teachers' perceptions of their preparedness to deal with child protection and safeguarding (n = 15); (ii) studies investigating preparation for child protection and safeguarding in initial teacher education courses (n = 14); and (iii) studies investigating student teachers' preferences for future training (n = 2). We identified key contents or topics covered, teaching methods and delivery modes, time allocations, and personnel involved in course delivery. Findings show that child protection and safeguarding are seldom investigated in initial teacher education, averaging only one published study per year over a 32-year search period with most studies having been conducted in Australia and the UK. Time allocated to child protection and safeguarding in initial teacher education courses varied from 1 to 16 h. Content covered was limited to several core topics with primacy given to child maltreatment subtypes, indicators, and reporting duties. Delivery methods were dominated by lectures, workshops, and discussions. Few studies had investigated the efficacy of innovative and interactive teaching strategies or online learning. We conclude that child protection and safeguarding in initial teacher education may be improved by leveraging off existing well-designed, rigorously evaluated programs, which have been found to be feasibly delivered and acceptable to future professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has set in motion a number of systemic and organizational approaches to identify and respond to child sexual abuse. These include increased child abuse awareness, developing and enhancing child-safe organizational cultures and policies and more thorough screening and supervision of staff in child and youth serving organizations. Although these advances should be applauded, many of the concerns that children and young people have raised about interpersonal safety have not been fully addressed. There is therefore a risk that children’s physical, relational, generational, and organizational powerlessness are reinforced through child-safe practices that restrict their meaningful participation, ignore their agency and capacity and fail to respond to their felt safety needs or wishes. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project conducted with 121 Australian children and young people and presents their perspectives on issues of vulnerability and the ways that they would like adults and institutions to respond to their safety concerns. The value of adult-child alliances, of formal mechanisms that are child-friendly and accessible and having external agencies monitor and review institutional strategies to preventing harm are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, child welfare services experience chronic workforce shortages and high rates of staff turnover. One strategy adopted to fill critical workforce gaps is the international recruitment of social workers. Child welfare employers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have a shared tradition of recruiting transnational social workers to address ongoing labour shortages in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This raises questions about the impact of this practice for those migrating social workers and about practice with indigenous populations. This paper scoped publications to identify emerging themes about social work movement between these countries, with a focus on knowledge that can prepare transnational social workers for the unique Australian context, including working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The review found that international recruitment to statutory child welfare in Australia is not well researched, with limited evidence about the profile of recruits, the effectiveness of this strategy and retention rates. The demographics and experiences of overseas qualified social workers in child welfare over the past 40 years in the various Australian jurisdictions remain relatively unknown. There are major gaps in knowledge about the ways international recruitment affects outcomes for children, and their families, in Australia's statutory child welfare services delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the efficacy of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Convention, UN General Assembly, 1989) through the lens of the over-representation of First Nations children placed in out-of-home care in Canada and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia. A general overview of Indigenous worldviews frames a discussion on the coherence of international human rights law and instruments, including the Convention, account for Indigenous Peoples' ontologies. The authors argue that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN General Assembly, 2007) and a new theoretical framework published by the Pan American Health Organization (2019) on health equity and inequity are useful tools to augment the Convention's coherence with Indigenous ontologies. The paper discusses how the Convention can be applied to structural and systemic risks driving the over-representation of First Nations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out of home care in Canada and Australia. These two countries are included as First Nations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in these countries have both had significant impact in advocating for their children despite experiencing similar barriers including contemporary colonialism. The advocacy work of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in Canada and the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency in Victoria, Australia are discussed. The paper ends by outlining some of the challenges ahead that include the need to meaningfully recognize Indigenous self-determination and equitable funding and resources to enable the actualization of self-determination. Further research contrasting international human rights instruments with Indigenous ontologies could help inform possible amendments to international human rights treaties and general comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, there is growing interest in the adoption of alternative responses that divert families, when safe to do so, away from the courts and out-of-home care system. However, it is widely recognised that the crisis-driven nature of statutory child protection in conjunction with the dominance of risk-adverse practice can inhibit practitioners' abilities to implement such interventions. In Queensland (Australia), 'intervention with parental agreement' (IPA) is an alternative response that allows the statutory child protection authority to work with families without a court order. Drawing on the perspectives of 30 practitioners recruited from the statutory child protection authority and tertiary non-government family support services, this paper explores the local factors that shape how IPA policy is implemented in practice. In particular, the paper considers the mechanisms that the leadership team within a statutory child protection office can use to shape a local practice culture that supports and is conducive to collaborative IPA practice. • Local practice context and culture contributes to inter-site variations in the implementation of parental agreements • Attitudes towards the nature and scope of non-government tertiary family preservation services in parental agreement cases vary • Branch office leaders from the child protection authority play a key role in creating local practice cultures towards the parental agreements • The attitudes and preferred practice approaches of those in leadership positions have implications for if and how parental agreements are used • When branch office leaders support family preservation, local practice cultures can challenge the dominance of risk-adverse practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carers are at the frontline working with children in the care of the child protection system. This paper reports carer's views about key factors influencing the placement trajectories of children and young people living in out-of-home care in Queensland, Australia. The study sample included 21 foster and kinship carers with a minimum two-year experience in the carer role. Study data were from semi-structured telephone interviews in which carers shared their experiences of the factors impacting upon placement stability and placement movement. Carers' responses were analysed thematically. Data analysis yielded an overarching theme regarding placement trajectory: Carer engagement, and its three sub-themes; with the child; with the child protection system; and, with the caring role. Findings suggested that carer engagement and ‘fit’ are complex constructs that play critical influential roles in placement outcomes (stability or movement) for individual children in out-of-home care. It is argued that practice needs to be better grounded in these relational dynamics, and better aligned concerning the power differentials that exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Risk factors were identified from the narratives of prenatal child protection reports. • Most families were reported to be experiencing three or more risk factors. • Prenatal supports must address multiple co-occurring problems. The prevalence of prenatal reporting to child protection is estimated to be 3% of Australian pregnancies. Understanding risk factors associated with prenatal child protection involvement is critical in identifying the needs of families who may benefit from early intervention. This paper reports findings of a case file review examining characteristics of families reported prenatally. Unit-record administrative data were extracted for unborn children reported to child protection in a single Australian jurisdiction during 2014. Intake reports relating to a 20% random sample (n = 131 unborn children) were coded using a tailored coding guide developed for this study. Most families were reported to be experiencing three or more risk factors, including current or previous intimate partner violence (70% of families), parental alcohol and other drug use (63%), parental mental health concerns (58%) or parent criminal activity (34%). Over one-third of parents in the sample had themselves experienced abuse and neglect as children. In families with more than one child, more than 90% of older siblings of unborn children had been the subject of a previous report. Supports must address multiple co-occurring problems, often in the context of personal and familial histories of child abuse and neglect, meaning that risks are intergenerational and enduring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately represented in the statutory child protection system across Australia. A strategy gaining traction to address this disproportionate representation is to recruit more Indigenous practitioners into statutory child protection work. However, the experiences of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work have not been explored thoroughly, particularly in an Australian research context. While it has been established in contemporary literature that exposure to trauma is an expected occupational hazard of undertaking statutory child protection work, the experience of racism as a potential source of traumatic stress for practitioners has not been explicitly explored. This paper reports on results from a recent doctoral study which explored the experiences of Indigenous child protection practitioners based in Queensland, Australia. This research relied on the stories of participants, shared through qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews, to answer the primary research question: what are the experiences of Indigenous child protection workers? The findings emerged from a research design that was underpinned by critical theory and decolonisation frameworks, which placed the participants as experts of their own experiences. The experiences of the research participants tell the story of a deficiency within the statutory child protection system to meet the wellbeing needs of Indigenous workers and provide a workplace environment that is culturally safe. Participants described recurrent experiences of racist behaviour displayed by non-Indigenous colleagues and a lack of support that acknowledges the distinctive experience of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]