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The high representation of children involved across both child protection and youth justice systems remains a pressing concern. Contributing factors include unnecessary police intervention for behavioural difficulties in residential care, and deficient systems integration particularly between child protection and youth justice.
Policy reforms in the past 15–20 years have aimed to prevent and address this concern across jurisdictions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The study offers an updated review and analysis of these policies, targeting…
The overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter, Indigenous) children in Australian child protection and out-of-home care systems is not a new phenomenon. While there are growing concerns over a second Stolen Generations, this perspective article highlights the continuity of overrepresentation, and systemic racism, in Australian child protection and out-of-home care systems over time.
In highlighting the continuities between past and present child welfare practices, this article demonstrates that systemic racism is an ongoing feature of Australian child…
Abstract:
Young people transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC), often called care leavers, are known to experience mental health challenges. This article presents a scoping review of research studies completed on the mental health care needs and outcomes of care leavers in Australia from 2015 to 2021. Incorporating 17 studies consisting of six peer-reviewed papers and 11 grey literature reports, the review identified several common concerns pertaining to high levels of poor mental health and psychosocial complexity.
These concerns were attributed to a number of factors…
Executive Summary:
This research sought to improve understanding of the experiences of parents with disability of Australian child protection systems, paying particular attention to the experiences of First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse parents with disability. It addressed the following questions:
- What are the experiences of parents with disability across the spectrum of engagement with child protection systems from initial reports of child protection concerns to out-of-home care (‘OOHC’) and restoration or permanent removal?
- How do child…
As the keynote speaker at the Family Inclusion Network South East Queensland’s Global Day of Parents Forum on Tuesday, 4th June, sociologist David Tobis told the story of how parents worked with allies in New York City for over twenty years to bring about dramatic change to the child protection system. This article describes the keynote address and the story of the parents and allies who changed the child protection system in New York City.
Living in unstable long-term government-supported ‘out-of-home’ care (OOHC) is causing harmful and often lifelong impacts for increasing numbers of Australian children. There is a growing awareness that all children need stable homes and families to thrive. This has led to policymakers facing mounting calls from adoption advocates (myself included) to increase the number of ‘open adoptions’* from out of care in Australia.
The difficulties in giving more children safe and permanent homes through adoption led the Federal Parliament’s Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs to…
Abstract
Background
Longitudinal data on health costs associated with physical and mental conditions are not available for children reported to child protection services.
Objective
To estimate the costs of hospitalization for physical and mental health conditions by child protection status, including out-of-home-care (OOHC) placement, from birth until 13-years, and to assess the excess costs associated with child protection contact over this period.
Participants and setting
Australian population cohort of 79,285 children in a multi-agency linkage study.
Methods
Costs…
This report, which was authored by Taylor Fry with support from Their Futures Matter (TFM) - a landmark reform of the Government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia to deliver improved outcomes for vulnerable children, young people and their families - and stakeholder agencies, presents key results and insights from the TFM Investment Model, an actuarial model of future outcomes and costs of providing key government services to children and young people in NSW.
The purpose of the report is to define groups of vulnerable children and young people and highlight the poor social outcomes…
Background
The number of children and young people experiencing serious issues in Australia, including placement in out of home care, is alarming and increasing.
The purpose of this report is to:
- reveal how much Australian governments spend every year because children and young people have reached crisis point
- highlight the opportunity of earlier and wiser investment in children to improve the lives of young Australians while reducing pressure on government budgets.
Introduction
This paper urges the government and nation to give effect to long-standing Kaupapa Māori models for developing the new required evaluation measures aimed at reducing the disparities for Māori children and young persons who come to the attention of Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children. Section 7AA(2)(a) will soon come into force in the recently amended and renamed Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 / Children’s and Young People’s Well-being Act 1989 due to reform measures in 2017. This provision, which is effective from July 2019, has great potential to change care and protection…