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Children enter out‐of‐home care (OOHC) having experienced significant childhood adversities and trauma. Little is known about the short‐term impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on this vulnerable group. To gain some insights, we analysed the early impacts on the well‐being and experiences of children in OOHC and their carers using the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study data prior to and post the first lockdown restrictions. A total of 862 children, young people and their carers were interviewed either pre‐COVID‐19 restrictions (n = 567) (April 2019–March 2020) or post‐COVID‐19 restrictions (n = 295) (June–December 2020). While the two groups showed no significant differences in socio‐emotional well‐being, both the pre‐ and the post‐COVID‐19 restriction groups of children in OOHC had slight reductions in socio‐emotional well‐being. The interviews with the post‐COVID‐19 group showed that the pandemic restrictions affected children's well‐being and behaviour, education, social and physical activities, as well as time spent with their birth family. Likewise, interviews with carers post‐COVID‐19 found a negative effect on carers' well‐being, their ability to manage financially and their capacity to care and access services and support. The article contributes new evidence to inform OOHC policy and practice to support service systems facing unique challenges arising from a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with disabilities are known to have high rates of contact with child protection services. However, little is known about child protection contacts for a broader group of children with special healthcare needs (SHCN; i.e., special needs or other impairments of concern that affect learning). This study examined the characteristics of contact with child protection services (prior to the age of 6 years) for children with SHCN identified at school entry using the 2009 Australian Early Development Census, using administrative data from more than 65,000 children in the New South Wales Child Development Study. Child protection contacts prior to age 6 years were more prevalent among children with SHCN compared with those without; in particular, children with SHCN had higher odds of a history of exposure to neglect and physical abuse, and higher odds of being placed in out‐of‐home care, compared with their typically developing peers. Understanding the characteristics of child protection contacts among children with SHCN, with consideration of factors that may influence their patterns of contact with these and other human services agencies, will inform the development of appropriate social policy initiatives to fulfil Australia's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from an Australian study of veteran homelessness (Hilferty, Katz et al. 2019). The AHURI Inquiry into Homelessness Amongst Australian Veterans was funded by the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) to estimate the number of homeless veterans and to examine veterans' pathways into homelessness, service usage patterns and ways that service responses may be improved. This article presents the prevalence findings and describes the method employed by the research team. Drawing on primary data and extrapolating results to a larger sample of veterans, the researchers estimate that approximately 5,800 contemporary veterans experience homelessness over a 12‐month period in Australia. This estimate – the first ever to be based on primary data – indicates that veteran homelessness is a much larger problem than previously estimated and deserves priority attention from policymakers and sectoral representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine associations between being the subject of child protection reports in early childhood and diagnoses of mental disorders during middle childhood, by level of service response.Design, Setting, Participants: Retrospective analysis of linked New South Wales administrative data, 2001-2016, for a population cohort of children (mean age in 2016, 13.2 years; SD, 0.37 years) enrolled in the longitudinal NSW Child Development Study (NSW-CDS), wave 2 linkage.Main Outcome Measures: Associations between being the subject of a child protection report (any, and by level of child protection response) during early childhood (birth to 6 years of age) and diagnoses of mental disorders during middle childhood (6-14 years).Results: 13 796 of 74 462 children in the NSW-CDS (18.5%) had been the subjects of reports to child protection services during early childhood: 1148 children had been placed in out-of-home care at least once, and 1680 had been the subjects of substantiated risk-of-significant-harm reports but were not placed in care, while 9161 had non-substantiated reports, and 1807 had reports of facts that did not reach the threshold for significant harm. After adjusting for sex, socio-economic disadvantage, perinatal complications, and parental mental illness, early childhood contact with protection services was associated with increased frequency of being diagnosed with a mental disorder during middle childhood (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.72; 95% CI, 2.51-2.95). The frequency was highest for children who had been placed in out-of-home care (aOR, 5.25; 95% CI, 4.46-6.18).Conclusion: Childhood-onset mental disorders are more frequently diagnosed in children who come to the attention of child protection services during early childhood, particularly in children placed in out-of-home care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, typologies have been developed to better understand the way in which different countries create systems to protect the interests of vulnerable children and their families. A child protection system typology is a classification of a set of characteristics that capture and define different approaches to child protection. Typologies are helpful in enabling comparisons of systems across international contexts, helping also to illuminate the various strengths and weaknesses of child protection systems. Typologies can also guide or redirect the development of a system, as they illustrate the varied ways in which children might be better protected. They explain how a cultural value base underpins approaches to child protection and can suggest alternative ways in which a system might evolve, based on the experiences of other countries. This article builds upon early typology building work and presents an international child protection system typology that has universal application. Country examples are used to illustrate the development of systems across two dimensions: whether they are oriented towards an individual or community focus; and whether systems are more, or less, regulated. Key Practitioner Messages: There are a number of different legitimate approaches to developing an effective child protection system, and countries develop their system according to their own circumstances, values and beliefs. No one way is necessarily the right way.Typologies of child protection systems can: help us to understand and compare the strengths and weaknesses of systems; guide or redirect the development of systems; and suggest alternative ways of developing systems to those already in existence.Typologies explain how a cultural value base underpins approaches to child protection and can suggest alternative ways in which a system might evolve, based on the experiences of other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the findings of an international literature review conducted to examine the factors that drive inter‐country adoption rates within both sending and receiving countries. The authors then consider the implications of these findings for inter‐country adoption policy reform in Australia. The evidence in the literature highlights a distinction between the factors that drive ICA in sending and receiving countries. Factors that drive the practice in sending countries relate to structural forms such as socio‐economic and political conditions. In contrast, it is the growing demand for a child from infertile couples that drives the practice in receiving countries. The article then considers the challenges of domestic policy reform undertaken to increase numbers of inter‐country adoptions in a context of global decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many child protection systems struggle to implement effective models of frontline practice in the context of high caseloads, increasing costs, and compliance‐focused bureaucratic cultures. This article discusses changes brought about by "Practice First," a framework for practice introduced to improve the quality and effectiveness of child protection work in New South Wales, Australia. Findings drawn from quantitative and qualitative research with practitioners show that the initiative was effective in changing cultures of practice. It enabled workers to spend more face‐to‐face time with families and build relationships and was perceived to improve the quality of decision‐making. At the same time, the article highlights difficulties in attempting to embed change in practice cultures when broader systemic challenges persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the small size of the sub program, Social Worker Assessed Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients Income Management is often cited as a preferred approach to this type of initiative, being tightly targeted at a group of people with identified high needs, and demonstrated poor outcomes. Although the program was considered in the two recent major evaluations of income management, specific findings relating to it have tended to be overshadowed by the more general finding of an absence of positive outcomes, and indeed potentially negative effects, from compulsory income management. While the size of the sub program has made evaluation difficult, the two major evaluations of income management have nevertheless made specific findings which suggest that the program has had some positive outcomes for a highly marginal participant group. These findings, along with aspects of the operation of the program, including the role played by social workers, and a proposal to abolish the program, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on a series of qualitative interviews with professionals in Shanghai, China who work with children. The interviews explored the awareness of child protection issues amongst a range of people who work with children, how they differentiate corporal punishment from maltreatment and what they would do in response to cases of child abuse. Shanghai has one of the most well developed child welfare systems in China, and compared to similar professionals in other cities, those in Shanghai had higher awareness and more training, but were nevertheless reluctant to intervene and did not feel well prepared to deal with cases of child abuse should they be encountered. However there are some indications that practice is improving, and examples of recent developments are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has been experimenting with constraining the ways in which welfare recipients can spend their income support payments, limiting their ability to access cash and purchase some products. The policy objectives include to reduce spending on alcohol, gambling, pornography and tobacco in favour of meeting 'basic' family needs, especially for children, to limit the scope for financial harassment, encourage pro-social behaviours, and build financial capabilities. In the logic of the programs these outcomes are expected to be manifest at the individual, family and community levels. The policy has primarily impacted on Indigenous Australians as a result of its geographic targeting, although a recent report has recommended a more stringent version of the program be introduced universally to all welfare recipients other than the aged. The largest of these experiments is 'New Income Management' in the Northern Territory, which has had more than 35,000 participants since its introduction in 2010. This article reports on the key findings of the major independent evaluation of New Income Management commissioned by the Australian Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the relationship between parents' educational achievement (a marker of their socio-economic status) and children's early developmental outcomes has evolved in Australia since the early 1980s. The specific focus of this paper is whether the gradient in children's early developmental outcomes by parents' education has changed since the 1980s. A comparative analysis of two surveys is undertaken that follows Australian cohorts of children through their early years -- the Australian Temperament Project (following children born in Victoria in the early 1980s) and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (following a representative sample of children born in Australia in 1999). The analysis shows that the relationship between parental education and children's early developmental outcomes does not in general appear to have changed greatly over the years. The gradient associated with behaviour difficulties, persistence in behaviour difficulties over time, and in reading skills has either remained the same or strengthened somewhat, while the gradient associated with social skills has weakened. The paper concludes with a discussion of issues that might explain these trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the range of differences within European child protection systems and considers the relationship between different approaches and the integration of children and family services. A distinction is made between structures that are child and family welfare focused, and those that are child protection focused. Some of the different structures of service delivery are described and the effect of these structures on the roles of the main stakeholders (and therefore on integration of services) is considered. Reference is made to a practice-based research project that considered co-operation and communication between health and welfare services in 12 countries. This research provides examples of different ways of integrating services and encouraging co-operation. It is not possible to construct ‘league tables’ of best performing structures and services cross-nationally because there are no reliably comparable statistics, but the research project gave indications of the factors that contributed to better communication and to better outcomes. Structure did not seem to be of primary importance, though it might help or hinder. However, with co-operation, very different structures could work effectively. In general, high levels of material resources helped. However, professional time was the most important resource, because time was needed to develop effective working relationships with other professionals. The factors that facilitated good interdisciplinary and interagency work point to the centrality of a professional and managerial culture that values the development of good working relationships both with families and with other professionals. Conflictual and defensive inter-professional relationships created problems, however well organized the system. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Restoring children from out‐of‐home care (OOHC) to their families is the preferred outcome for all children removed by child protection services, yet little is known about how restoration processes are experienced by families and services supporting them. This paper provides important insights about Aboriginal child restoration from 40 practitioners and stakeholders at a community forum led by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia. This is one component of larger Aboriginal‐led research, which investigates child protection experiences and pathways to successful restoration in NSW and the data source for this paper. The community forum explored the issues for families navigating family preservation, OOHC and restoration within child protection and legal systems. Findings include the need for a continuum of support for families throughout their engagement with child protection systems and crucially following the removal of their children. Barriers to effective restoration practice included a lack of access to meaningful and ongoing preservation services, insufficient cultural care planning and family finding efforts that are often too late, the pressure on services to support families without adequate capabilities or enough resourcing, the lack of transparency and the complexities in navigating the restoration process, and the lack of culturally informed support for children and their families while children are in care. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. This paper contributes to understanding practice, processes and barriers for restoration, particularly focused on the perspectives of Aboriginal families and communities, with potential insights for practice within Australia and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a case of a 39-year-old male presented with pemphigus vulgaris and herpes simplex virus infection. History of the patient's disease; Clinical manifestations; Treatment for the patient's disease.