Protecting Children

Topics

Child Protection and Out of Home Care 

• Keeping the Child in Mind: Child Protection Practice and Parental Mental Health (2011) Department of Families and Communities SA. This study aimed to increase the knowledge and understanding of the prevalence and nature of parental mental health difficulties associated with protective concerns for children and young people.
• Children in care (2011) - Leah Bromfield, National Child Protection Clearinghouse. This resource sheet provides information about children in out-of-home-care in Australia who are on care and protection orders.
• All together now: Research examining the separation of siblings in out-of-home care (2011) - Anglicare Victoria. This report is the result of a study carried out by Victoria's largest foster care agency, and is the first of its kind in Australia.
• Fatally flawed: the child protection crisis in Australia, Jeremy Sammut (2009). This report argues that it is not underfunding or large workloads that has caused child protection services to fail, but the failure to investigate reports and remove children in danger.
• Protecting children: Where to from here?, Dr Adam M. Tomison (2009). This presentation discusses key policy and practice shifts in Australia and other western democracies, focusing on the key drivers for change, including the role of child death and other inquiries in changing practice, child protection evidence-base and lessons that can be learned from the development of culturally appropriate service systems for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
• Child Protection Australia 2009-10 (AIHW) provides information on State and Territory child protection and support services. As well as data for the year 2009-10, the report documents trends in child protection notifications, investigations and substantiations, children on care and protection orders and children in out-of-home care.
•  From a child protection system to a system for protecting children (2008) NSW Commission for Children and Young People. Submission to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW: Dr Judy Cashmore, Professor Dorothy Scott, Commissioner Gillian Calvert
• Children in state care: commission of inquiry report (2008), Ted Mulligan/Commission of Inquiry into State Care, Government of South Australia. This final report of a commission released in April 2008 found that many of these children were sexually abused while in state care.
• Inverting the pyramid: Enhancing systems for protecting children(2009)- Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY). This report was launched following a comprehensive review of Australia’s child protection systems and international models. The Report describes a systems-based approach to child protection by examining the ways that systems and organisations can collaborate to deliver the best outcomes for children.
• Australia's children: safe and well, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. The federal government is developing a national framework for protecting children. This discussion paper canvasses ideas on what should be included. Source: Australian Policy Online.
• A national approach for child protection: project report (2008), Leah Bromfield and Prue Holzer, National Child Protection Clearinghouse. The purpose of this report is to provide high-level descriptions of key processes and approaches to the delivery of child protection services across Australia. Source: Australian Policy Online.
• Protecting children is everyone's business: National Child Protection Framework (2009)- COAG. The Council of Australian Governments long anticipated Child Protection Framework has been released setting out an ambitious long term approach to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Australian children. The Framework includes the development of ambitious National Standards for Out-of-Home Care. 

Child Abuse Prevention and Child Protection in Indigenous Communities

• Children on Anangu, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara Lands Commission of Inquiry: a report into sexual abuse, Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry. This 2008 report of an inquiry to examine the incidence of sexual abuse of children on the Lands, the nature and extent of that abuse, and to report as to measures which should be implemented to prevent sexual abuse of the children and to address the consequences for the communities. Source: Australian Policy Online.
• Little Children are Sacred: Report of the Inquiry into Protecting Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse (2007), Northern Territory Government. The Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse was established on 8 August 2006 and was Co-Chaired by Ms Patricia Anderson and Rex Wild QC. The purpose of the Inquiry was to find better ways to protect Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.
• Australian social policy (2008), Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Produced annually.  The major articles in this edition are: Mortality of Children and Parental Disadvantage, by Peng Yu; and Benchmarking the Indigenous Sub-Sample of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, by Boyd Hunter. Source: Australian Policy Online.

      See also Indigenous Families and Communities

Child Abuse Prevention

• Protecting children is everyone's business: Annual report to COAG 2009-10 (2011). The first Annual Report on the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children 2009-2020 was released on 10 March 2011. It outlines actions taken in the first year of the National Framework (2009-2010) and brings together data that COAG will use to measure progress in protecting Australia’s children. It also describes the indicators of change and the current available data relating to those indicators.
• Risk assessment in child protection (2011) - Price-Robertson & Bromfield, National Child Protection Clearinghouse. The purpose of this Resource Sheet is to outline the different approaches used to assess whether children are at risk of maltreatment, as well as to explore some of the issues and criticisms surrounding the use of standardised risk assessment instruments in child protection.
• Child deaths from abuse and neglect in Australia (2011) - Alister Lamont, National Child Protection Clearinghouse (NCPC(. This resource sheet provides a statistical overview of child deaths from child abuse and neglect in Australia and internationally. Child deaths from abuse and neglect are deaths resulting from acts of physical violence or neglect of a child that are perpetrated by a family member of caregiver.
• The economic costs of child abuse and neglect (2011) - Bromfield, Holzer & Lamont, National Child Protection Clearinghouse (NCPC). This resource sheet examines expenditure related to child abuse and neglect that is made by departments responsible for child protection services in Australia.
• Working together to prevent child abuse and neglect - a common approach for identifying and responding to early indicators of need. Latest report to FaHCSIA on the Common Approach to Assessment, Referral and Support Project (CAARS). Source: ARACY.
• Intra-familial adolescent sex offenders: psychological profile and treatment, Australian Institute of Criminology (2009). The sexual abuse of children by other children or adolescents constitutes a significant proportion of sexual offending against children. This report examines the psychological profile and treatment of these offenders. 
• Responding to online child sexual grooming: an industry perspective, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo (2009). This paper discusses non-legislative measures including initiatives taken by those operating social-networking sites and the financial services industry to address online child exploitation, in particular, the grooming of potential victims for sexual abuse.
• A stitch in time saves nine: Preventing and responding to the abuse and neglect of infants, Jordan and Sketchley, AIFS (2009). Some issues addressed in this paper include: how to ensure infants protection; how to respond to those who have suffered neglect or abuse; how to create a society that reduces these risks; and how to deal with the limits and failures of such endeavors.
• Family group conferencing in Australia 15 years on (2008), by Nathan Harris. 
• AWARE: A model for estimating applicant and workplace risks in NSW for child-related employment background checking (2009), NSW Commission for Children and Young People. AWARE stands for applicant and workplace risk estimate. This report discusses the current system to support the wellbeing of children in organisations, focusing on the part of the system known as background checking. It encourages organisations not only to develop and implement policies, procedures and mechanisms for identifying and managing risks and assuring quality, but also mechanisms that create a culture and environment that promotes openness, makes children feel welcome and facilitates disclosure of children at risk issues.

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