Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
Summary
Each year, around 3% of all children aged 0–17 are assisted by Australia’s child protection systems. Some children are unable to live safely at home as they may be at risk of being abused or neglected, or their parents may be unable to provide adequate care. Children and their families may receive support services to keep children with their families, or be subject to investigations of reports of child abuse/neglect, protection orders, and/or placement in out-of-home care, such as with a relative or foster carer.
This report presents statistics on state and territory child…
Abstract
Young kinship carers tend to be overlooked in kinship care policy and practice. This Australian research project explored the prevalence of kinship care households in Australia, with a particular focus on households headed by young kinship carers. Census data were utilized to explore the number of kinship care households across the carer age spectrum and some of their characteristics, including households with Indigenous carers and carers with a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) identity. Characteristics of households headed by carers aged 16–30 years were explored in…
Family Matters – Strong communities. Strong culture. Stronger children. is Australia’s national campaign to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people grow up safe and cared for in family, community and culture. Family Matters aims to eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care within a generation, by 2040.
The Family Matters reports set out what governments are doing to turn the tide on over-representation and the outcomes for children and their families. The reports contribute to efforts to change the…
The childcare and early learning experiences of young children are important factors that influence their wellbeing outcomes. This Evidence to Action Note outlines key findings related to the childcare and early learning experiences of a group of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) in New South Wales aged 9 months to 5 years, drawing on the first interview with their carers for the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS). Links to current best practice and resources are also included.
POCLS Wave 1 data was collected during their first years in care. The study found that most young…
Abstract
Background
Cross-agency administrative data can improve cost-effective triage systems for child protection and other human service delivery.
Objective
To determine the minimum set of cross-agency indicators that could accurately classify placement in out-of-home-care (OOHC) before age 13–14 years.
Participants and setting
Participants were 72,079 Australian children (mean age = 13.16 years; SD = 0.37; 51.4% male) and their parents, for whom linked administrative records spanning the years 1994–2016 were available for analysis within the ‘New South Wales Child…
Abstract
Although children residing in statutory out-of-home care and those adopted from care are more likely than not to have mental health difficulties requiring clinical intervention or support, their difficulties often remain undetected. Children’s agencies have a duty of care to identify those child clients who require therapeutic and other support services, without regard to the availability of such services. The present article proposes a first-stage mental health screening procedure (calibrated for high sensitivity) for children and adolescents (ages 4–17) in alternative care,…
Purpose
This paper examines the recordkeeping governance requirements of the childhood out-of-home Care sector, with critical interlaced identity, memory, cultural and accountability needs. They argue that as we enter a new era of participation, new models for governance are required to recognise and dynamically negotiate a range of rights in and to records, across space and through time. Instead of recordkeeping configured to support closed organisations and closely bounded information silos, there is a need for recordkeeping to reflect, facilitate and be part of governance frameworks for…
Objective:
This article outlines an approach to assessing the quality of relationships between young foster children and their carers. These children are at high risk of disorganised attachment relationships and of developmental psychopathology given their relational experiences prior to and in care. During a semi-structured play interaction the emphasis is on identifying behaviours of clinical interest. This can be complex given the likelihood of atypical or unexpected behaviours expressed within relationships.
Method:
The paper draws on literature on the clinical application of…
This article describes the results of a meta-analytic review aimed at providing an estimate of the prevalence of physical and emotional neglect by integrating prevalence figures from the body of research reporting on neglect. The authors conclude that neglect seems to be a neglected type of maltreatment in scientific research. This was apparent from the fact that the study could trace only a modest number of studies reporting on the prevalence of neglect: 16 for physical neglect including 59,406 participants, and 13 for emotional neglect including 59,…