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Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people are a particularly vulnerable group. This paper examines the existing literature on this group of children and young people in and leaving out-of-home care in the UK and Australia, and compares and contrasts their experiences. Attention is drawn to legislation, policies and programmes which alternatively assist or hinder their successful transition to adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Adoption was legalised in Australia in the 1920s, but not widely embraced before the Second World War. During the 1950s, a series of court cases in which birth mothers challenged the validity of the adoption of their children, threatened the viability of this new social policy. This paper argues that the 1960s tightening of secrecy provisions should be understood in the context of these challenges which reopened debates around the status of adoptive motherhood. By listening for the voice of relinquishing mothers, it challenges the view they were complicit in the process which deprived them of claims to maternal status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people transitioning from state out-of-home care are arguably one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society. Many have been found to experience significant health, social and educational deficits. Most western countries have now introduced specific policy and practice initiatives to improve the life chances of care leavers, but there have been varied conclusions about the efficacy of those programs. This paper argues that a community development support model based on a partnership between professional social welfare workers and local community networks is most likely to enhance opportunities for the social inclusion of care leavers. Particular reference is made to the leaving care and after care support program introduced by St Luke's Anglicare in the Australian rural city of Bendigo which has included key program initiatives around housing, employment and mentoring. Some conclusions are drawn based on the experiences of service users about 'what works' in leaving care programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children who accompany their parents or guardians during a period of homelessness make up 37% (more than one in three) of all people accessing the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) services. This paper describes an Australian qualitative study that explored the experiences of children who accompanied their families during periods of homelessness. It focuses particularly on what children and young people say they want from the services that they come in contact with; particularly specialised homelessness services such as housing support services and refuges. Key themes that emerged from the research include: the need for services to engage with children as individuals in their own right, to listen to and acknowledge their stories, to have services that meet their individual needs, to act and respond when children feel unsafe and for workers who can provide support to children to talk to parents about what is going on. Children and young people wanted workers to know that they felt their parents were doing their best to keep them safe. They focused on what their parents could do and did do rather than what they were not able to provide. They called on the human service system to do the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of victims and their children. Situational as well as individual factors shape victims' responses to the experiences of IPV in many ways. This study uses a quantitative approach to examine the factors that influence victims' decisions on whether and where to seek help. The role of (unborn) children has been examined together with other demographic and situational factors to reveal their influence on victims' help-seeking decisions. Two items were used to measure the role of children, including victims' pregnancy at the time of the abuse and children residing with the victim and witnessing the abuse. Relevant findings derived from the analysis of a sub-sample of women interviewed in the process of the International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS) 2002/03 are discussed throughout this paper with a specific focus on the role of children. While the presence of unborn children (i.e., pregnancy) had no effect on victims' help-seeking decisions, children witnessing the abuse emerged as the strongest predictor of general and more formalized help-seeking decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to early childhood services is widely considered to be an important means of supporting vulnerable children and families. Yet the evidence that access to such services automatically makes a difference for vulnerable families is mixed at best. The growing presence of for-profit early childhood services may have an impact on the sector's capacity to provide the enhanced education and care to those most likely to benefit. What are the current and future possibilities for early childhood services to benefit vulnerable children and families? What resources are required to build the capacity of early childhood settings in supporting vulnerable families, and are these likely to differ between for-profit and not-for-profit settings? This paper will explore these questions using a Benevolent Society project, Partnerships in Early Childhood, funded through the Commonwealth's Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, Invest to Grow, as an illustrative case study. Researchers from the Social Policy Research Centre evaluated the first three years of the project, which involves a number of not-for-profit early education and care providers. The paper describes the implementation of PIEC as an attempt to improve the quality of early education and care services to vulnerable children, and lessons that can be drawn for the future of similar interventions. We conclude that time, support for staff and partnerships between different organisations appear to be critical for the success of these interventions, and that the capacity of for-profit services to provide these resources deserves attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's poverty has long been a central concern for policy makers and policy researchers. The body of extant research conducted and the range of programmatic interventions undertaken by successive governments in this and other countries is extraordinary. Nevertheless, children remain in poverty. Clearly there are many reasons for this, not least of which is the maintenance and intensification of market capitalism with its attendant blatant inequalities. Even so, the moral, political, social and economic imperatives for developing workable responses to children's poverty remain. This paper argues that we, in Australia, should adopt an approach increasingly taken in the UK. Drawing on, among other things, the new sociology of childhood, this approach begins not with the expertise of adult researchers and policy makers, but with that of children. In doing so, the case is made for why children's perceptions and experiences of poverty are key concerns for policy. The paper outlines in theoretical terms why children's voices matter. Invoking the new sociology of childhood and the sociology of identity, a conceptual framework for understanding why policy scholars and makers should carefully attend to the voices of their subjects is sketched - in this case, the subjects are children. Finally, some methodological implications of this for undertaking policy research informed by this approach are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child welfare case management systems were designed, in part, to standardize participatory practices for both young people and their parents. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of Australian service users' experiences of participation when using the case management systems, Looking After Children and Supporting Children and Responding to Families. Findings indicate that the majority of service users reported positive experiences of participating in the use of these systems. However, participatory relations were often slow to develop and frequently involved conflict. Some service users used their power to control the flow and accuracy of information, or resisted workers in other ways. Some children and young people were excluded from the opportunity to participate because the systems did not have a ‘text-based’ format to ‘ensure’ that this process occurred. These findings indicate that case management systems did not result in relationships which consistently informed the intervention in a way that the systems' authors had envisaged. Service users did not necessarily take up the openings offered to them and workers did not necessarily comply with the systems' obligations. The findings cause us to question the assumptions that power can be bestowed or withdrawn, in the way suggested by these case management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programme evaluators increasingly strive to capture how service users experience child and family welfare programmes. Yet user involvement is rare in a more routine form of evaluation: performance measurement. This paper considers how service users' perspectives can help improve the performance indicators that inform child and family service funding, management and planning. Qualitative research, conducted in family support contexts in New South Wales, Australia, identifies five user-defined domains upon which indicators can be based. As well as showing how parents judge service quality and outcomes, the findings also show how they experience data collection, and how they prefer to participate in the routine performance measurement and monitoring that informs child and family welfare provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After years of problems with the Child Support Scheme in Britain, the Government has decided to attempt reform again, less than four years after a previous major change was implemented in 2003. The author evaluates these reform proposals, drawing upon his experience in leading a recent major review of child support policy in Australia. While many of the reform measures offer a sensible way forward for child support policy, Britain risks going backwards in terms of community acceptance of the child support obligation. The Government needs to consider the likely impact of its policy settings on private agreements about child support. Ways are proposed both to protect the Treasury and to promote the wellbeing of children by adopting different policy settings that ensure the resident parent has an incentive to bargain for the level of child support required by the new formula. The new formula itself is evaluated in the light of the international research on the costs of children. Ways are also suggested for developing a co-ordinated approach across government to the provision of support services for parents who do not live together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Summary: Although many ‘Anglophone’ countries now host significant linguistic diversity, minimal attention has been paid to language policy in social work. This paper examines how language policy in both its overt and covert forms infiltrates social work via three ‘orientations’ to linguistic diversity: language as a problem; language as a right; and language as a resource. The utility of this framework for viewing linguistic diversity in social work is explored with reference to an exploratory study that canvassed the views of overseas-born bilingual social workers practising in Australia. • Findings: The participants strongly identified with a problem orientation to language, where a lack of English constitutes a significant barrier to participating in the social, economic and political domains. While a rights orientation to language was endorsed, it was seen to have limitations in terms of the inadequacies of legislation for challenging ‘monolingual’ language attitudes. All informants supported a resource orientation to language, but claimed that linguistic diversity is often devalued in English-dominant locations. • Applications: Rather than privileging one particular lens on language, the study concludes that a flexible framework that allows for movement between different language orientations is necessary given the context-dependent nature of language use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an article published in 2002, one of the authors of this paper offered an analysis of the Australian child protection data from 1999 to 2000 and raised questions about the effectiveness of mandatory reporting. Recently, child protection data for 2003–2004 has been released. This provides an opportunity to re-examine some child protection issues and the effectiveness of mandatory reporting 5 years on. These have been tumultuous years. Each state and territory has held major inquiries into this area of practice and, as a result, significant organizational changes have taken place and new resources are being made available. Nevertheless, questions about the effectiveness of child protection services remain. There is continuing doubt about the value of comprehensive reporting systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of the extent to which child protection applications brought to the Melbourne Children's Court in Victoria, Australia, were based on emotional/psychological harm or neglect of a child and what factors were presented as evidence of harm or neglect. The study examined records of 208 court-ordered pre-trial conferences heard in the court between February and July 2002. What was found was that, although cases involving emotional abuse have increased in terms of child protection applications, they remain cases that are difficult to decide. While in 1998/9 emotional harm was a ground in 25.7% of child protection matters completed in the Family Division of the Children's Court of Victoria, legal decision-makers are reluctant to make a finding of child abuse in these cases because there is less accuracy in the determination of emotional harm and negligible legal criteria available to guide decision-making. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental illness is listed as a child protection concern for a number of families reported to child protection agencies in Australia. Parents with mental health problems are more vulnerable, as are their children, to having parenting and child welfare concerns. Studies undertaken in the Melbourne Children's Court (Victoria) have found that the children of parents with mental health problems comprise at least one-quarter of all new child protection applications brought to the Court (Sheehan, 1997; 2001). This paper reports on a study undertaken in 2002, in the Melbourne Children's Court, to examine (a) the extent to which the children of parents with mental health problems are involved in child protection matters, (b) the contribution by mental health professionals to resolving these child welfare concerns, and (c) the difficulties which confront the Court in deciding these matters. The study considered in this article found that, although parents with mental health problems are a significant group coming to Court, there is negligible involvement by mental health professionals in the child protection system. It was apparent that there was very little co-operation between adult mental health and child protection services in this field. The Court was, therefore, given little appreciation of a parent's mental health functioning and its contribution to, and impact upon, the child, and thus may not have all necessary information about the needs of, and likely outcomes for, these children and their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, insufficient resources and assistance have been provided to young people leaving state care. Care leavers have been found to experience significant health, social and educational deficits including homelessness, disproportionate involvement in juvenile crime and prostitution, poor social supports and early parenthood. This paper compares the UK and Australian debates around improving outcomes for care leavers. Whilst there are some minor differences in the respective legislative frameworks and responses, the similarities are far greater. Both countries have failed to provide the range of in-care, transitional and post-care supports and services required to ensure improved outcomes for care leavers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislative responsibility for child protection has become a major theme in the international human rights arena and a major policy issue within early childhood education and care. This paper examines child protection policy and legislation in Australia and measures that are being employed to safeguard children and childhood within contexts that are seen as increasingly risky. Juxtaposing perspectives on child protection and child liberation, it examines the protective responsibilities specified in legislation in the context of predominantly adult agendas. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is now considerable evidence from numerous countries that statutory child welfare agencies are being overwhelmed by a massive increase in child protection referrals which require investigation, while there has been a growing failure to develop preventive family support services. This paper describes the changes introduced in Western Australia to address this situation in what has come to be called New Directions in Child Protection and Family Support. The results demonstrate that the changes have led to a significant restructuring of the way the Department of Family and Children’s Services there responds to concerns expressed about children. It is argued that this has had an impact on the proportion of child maltreatment cases which are substantiated and the way responses are prioritized and allocated, and has provided the Department with a more explicit and clearer focus for its work in a period of increasing demand and rapid change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although formal childcare is considered a key social investment policy to combat inequality, available research indicates that in most European and other high-income countries parents with lower socio-economic positions are less likely to use formal childcare. As the literature on the underlying causes of this so-called Matthew effect has not yet converged, this article is the first to assess whether educational gradients in formal childcare uptake can be accounted for by micro-level employment potential and work–family attitudes in 14 European countries and Australia. Complementing available research on supply-side factors such as policy design features, this study indicates that a large part of the educational gradients in formal childcare uptake persist after controlling for socio-demographic background variables, employment potential, and work–family attitudes as micro-level predictors. However, this study also shows that a considerable part of the educational differentiation in formal childcare uptake reflects differential employment potential. This finding turns attention to policies other than childcare to enhance labour market outcomes for lower educated groups, which in turn might attenuate the Matthew effect in formal childcare. Furthermore, a positive relation between individual-level work–family attitudes and the uptake of formal childcare is also identified as a partial explanation for educational gradients in formal childcare uptake. Although the explanatory power of work–family attitudes as an underlying determinant of the Matthew effect is more limited compared to employment potential, such variation in the acceptance of maternal employment and formal childcare should also be considered in the design of inclusive work–family policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual abuse and dating violence are chronic problems for children and young people in out‐of‐home care. This study explored the impact of a prevention and response programme Power to Kids, which targets harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), child sexual exploitation (CSE) and dating violence (DV) for children and young people in home‐based (foster) care. Twenty‐eight case managers, 25 foster carers and 13 children and young people participated in a mixed methods study in Victoria, Australia informed by the research question: How does the Power to Kids programme impact the sexual health and safety of children and young people in home‐based (foster) care? The data analysis revealed a SAFETY approach whereby the sexual health and safety knowledge of carers and case managers was enhanced, and carers were given permission to have Brave Conversations with children and young people, who could then apply the new knowledge to their lives. Case managers were upskilled in identifying indicators of sexual abuse and empowered to escalate stalled therapeutic and disruption practice when children and young people were identified as experiencing HSB, CSE or DV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While an extensive body of literature has demonstrated an association between socioeconomic status and child mortality, there have been relatively few papers which discuss the impact of socioeconomic inequality on child morbidity. This absence of data is partly attributable to methodological problems (need for large samples, the difficulty of assessing morbidity) and partly to the absence of relevant official health statistics. This paper reports results from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) and its outcomes. The sample comprises 8556 consecutive pregnancies, of which over 90% were followed up to birth. Of those mothers giving birth, approx. 70% of children were successfully given a health assessment five years after the birth (mothers report of the child's health using a set of standard indicators). The results indicate a consistent pattern with the children of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers manifesting the worst health. Thus children living in socioeconomic disadvantage have a higher rate of health service utilisation, more chronic health problems and poorer dental health. The paper discusses some social policies for redressing these inequalities.

Socio-economic inequalities in adult and child health in Australia have been an issue of national concern. While a large body of data has discussed adult health, there have been relatively few Australian reports of socio-economic inequalities in child health. This occurs in a context where there have been increases in the proportion of Australian children living in poverty and where there has been an increased interest in child developmental delay as an indicator of child health status. This paper reports the result of a longitudinal study of pregnancy outcomes and one indicator of child health, namely child developmental delay. Three indicators of socio-economic status (chronic socio-economic disadvantage, mother's education, family income) were used to predict child developmental delays observed some 5 1/2 years after the study commenced. Mothers who had the lowest socio-economic status (using any of the indicators) had substantially higher rates of children manifesting developmental delays.

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]

In recent times, child welfare bureaucracies have been required to redefine their relationship with indigenous communities, particularly in view of the impacts associated with their past interventions within these communities. This process of readjustment has been grounded in the apparent endorsement by child welfare bureaucracies of the principle of indigenous self determination and their declared acknowledgement of the desirability of devolving greater responsibility for decision making about child welfare matters to indigenous communities. This paper suggests that, despite statements to the contrary, the processes and mechanisms employed by child welfare agencies to promote indigenous autonomy have not adequately acknowledged the saliency of indigenous social domains nor have they seriously challenged the precepts of the existing administrative domains that govern child protection interventions. Consequently the processes employed by child protection agencies to develop culturally appropriate services have seldom matched the rhetoric associated with them. It is still the case that indigenous Australians are expected to fit within the current structure of child welfare agencies, and that their expectations should conform with the accepted orthodoxies that govern child protection interventions. This paper seeks to examine the processes by which child welfare bureaucracies have, on the one hand, attempted to re-cast their relationship with indigenous communities, while, on the other hand, maintaining the primacy of their administrative domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While there has been considerable theorizing about how social workers think and act, there has been relatively little research in this area. In the study reported in this paper, in-depth interviews and observations of practice were used to explore the process of assessment undertaken by Australian social workers in a hospital specialist service and in a statutory child protection service. Using a semi-longitudinal approach which 'shadowed' 10 families (17 allegedly abused children), highly detailed data were collected from 42 observations of practice and 123 interviews with 12 hospital social workers and 15 child protection workers on how their assessments evolved over the life of these cases. While there were some individual differences between practitioners within each organization, of greater significance were the marked differences between the two groups in the variables to which they attended. Both groups tended to adopt a proceduralized model of practice which narrowed the range of factors considered in assessment. [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]

Couchsurfing, or temporarily staying with friends, extended family, acquaintances, or strangers, is a growing form of homelessness within Australia, and particularly concentrated among youth. System involvement with child welfare and its link to youth homelessness has previously been well-established, but not within the context of couchsurfing. In interviews with 19 young people with both couchsurfing and a history of system-involvement, we identify and describe six different pathways into couchsurfing. These pathways extended from the beginning to the end of their child safety involvement, and demonstrate how fear of reprisal for reporting, fear of out-of-home-care, and lack of transition planning pushed-or-pulled young people into couchsurfing. These findings indicate the link between couchsurfing and child safety involvement began very early in the investigative process, suggesting multidisciplinary service teams that include housing support should be involved in initial contact. We also echo the recommendations of other researchers to prioritise Housing First programming and risk assessment for evaluating young people's living spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laws and policies in different jurisdictions provide a range of mechanisms that allow children involved in child protection processes and care proceedings to express their views when decisions that affect them are being made. Whether these mechanisms facilitate children's involvement and whether they result in children's views being heard and "given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child", as required by article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is the focus of this article. The law, policy and practice in New South Wales, Australia, are used to provide a contextual illustration of the wider theoretical and practical issues, drawing on international comparisons and research. It is clear there is still some way to go to satisfy the requirements of article 12 in Australia and other jurisdictions. These mechanisms often do not provide the information children need to understand the process, nor do they consistently encourage meaningful participation through trusted advocates who can accurately convey children's views to those making the decisions. It is generally unclear how children's views are heard, interpreted, and weighted in decision-making processes. The research findings from a number of countries, however, are clear and consistent that children often feel 'unheard' and that they have had few opportunities to say what is important to them. A number of conclusions and practice suggestions are outlined for how the law could better accommodate children's views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assumptions and worldviews shape social work research, particularly when influenced by settler colonialism in contemporary Australia. This article explores experiences from graduate research drawing on Ruch's model of reflective learning and Fook and Gardner's action-orientated approach to critical reflection. Written following PhD completion, it investigates significant learnings by reviewing reflective journal entries, feedback on draft manuscripts and supervision notes that were made during the time of the study. Deconstructing and reconstructing assumptions across all phases of graduate research show the trajectory from experienced social worker to novice researcher and the context within which this learning takes place. This process foregrounds graduate research influenced by Australia's demographic, historical and political context in which the impact of colonisation continues to reverberate. Critical interrogation is required for socially just change. Currently, there remains a risk that graduate research produces knowledge that is founded on and shared through white perspectives, maintaining the status quo. Critical reflective learning needs a stimulating and safe learning environment that encourages hidden assumptions to surface and be openly questioned. This study concludes that personal and professional biases unconsciously influence graduate research and need to be identified in a constructive and supportive learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited research has directly sought the input of parents involved in the child protection system during pregnancy and with their infants. As the focus of these policies and practices, parents have a unique and important insight not available to others, so it is vital to obtain their input. As part of a larger Australian study, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 13 parents asking about their views and experiences. Parents predominantly became involved with child protection services during pregnancy through a prenatal report. Parents who previously had their newborn removed from their care described it as sudden and unexpected, leaving them distressed and unsupported post‐removal, with a growing list of requirements for them to see their baby or for restoration to be considered. Domestic violence was a particular issue of concern for some mothers who expressed distress that their partners, perpetrators of violence, were allowed access to their infant with fewer requirements than for them. Improvements recommended by the parents included greater communication and preparation for the removal, better recognition of improvements in their situations and increased supports to be provided to parents both pre‐ and post‐removal. Parental experiences provide an important guide to improving child protection practice with these families. [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, 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 mixed methods study examines the benefits of basing a family support worker (FSW) at a primary school in Melbourne, Australia. The school has a number of high needs families requiring extensive support from school staff. Pre and post intervention data was collected on the time spent on social problems in the school community. These included managing students with behavioural and emotional issues, providing support and practical assistance to parents with problems and liaising with agencies to access support for students and families. Pre and post intervention Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires were completed by teachers whose students and families were clients of the FSW (n = 8) and compared with non clients (n = 10). Semi-structured interviews were held with FSW clients (n = 6), class teachers (n = 3) the assistant principal, principal and the FSW. Employing a FSW showed a reduction in the amount of time spent on welfare cases for teachers, and therefore a monetary saving for the school. Qualitative data collected from school staff and FSW clients was overwhelmingly positive. Having a FSW based at a primary school provides savings in teacher time, and expenses to the school. Teachers are freed to concentrate on education and the parents valued the relationship provided by the FSW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact visits, or family time, enable children in out-of-home care to sustain relationships with their birth families. In Australia, direct contact including face-to-face visits is typical for children on long-term orders, including guardianship and open adoption. Caseworkers are charged with supporting relationships between children's birth family members and carers and ensuring contact is safe and child-centred. This article describes how people with lived experience of family time in out-of-home care have collaborated with researchers to co-design practical resources, in the context of an action research study aimed at changing caseworker practice. These resources include a book for young children and a book for older children and adolescents, which both use trauma-informed language and empower their audiences to know their rights and ask for what they need. Additional resources include co-designed tip sheets for family members and carers. People who have personally experienced the care system have unique insights into the experience of family time in out-of-home care and how it can be improved. In partnership, researchers and people with lived experience can identify the gaps in knowledge and practice resources, and co-design resources that integrate lived experience and research findings, underpinned by theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often over-represented in child protection and out-of-home care services. Despite this fact, little is known or understood about their experiences with these services. This scoping review seeks to identify the published literature about children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are engaged with child protection and out-of-home care services. Findings from the 18 studies included in this review show that these children are at increased risk of entering the child protection and out-of-home care system, with outcomes that do not fare as favourably as their nondisabled peers. This is largely due to a lack of support, training, and resources for the children, their families, and carers. Placement failure was a common theme with residential care more likely for children with greater complexity and support needs. These children are understudied, with more research needed to better understand the factors that contribute to their experiences. Greater insights into how a child protection and out-of-home care pathway can be avoided, via the provision of adequate services and supports, are also urgently needed so that fewer children are placed at risk in a system where poor outcomes are common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children placed in residential care are significantly over‐represented in youth justice systems. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with service providers, this exploratory study examines practice factors that impact on the criminalization of this group of children across multiple services and systems, including in the residential care environment, police, lawyers, courts and youth justice systems, as well as multi‐systems practice with this group in one Australian state. Positive outcomes were observed for children in residential care where well‐functioning care teams existed, as well as for children in therapeutic residential care settings. However, clear limitations were identified across all phases of children's youth justice system involvement, including placement with offending peers, the criminalization of behaviours of concern, greater use of remand and detention, limited support to navigate legal and youth justice processes, challenges to service collaboration, and limited applicability of sentencing considerations. The findings indicate a pervasive level of systemic disadvantage for this group of children, and imply that a holistic strategy underpinned by affirmative action across several systems will be necessary to address the ongoing criminalization of children in residential care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]