In preparing the June issue of Children Australia, the editors, Jennifer Lehmann and Rachael Sanders, have shared the task of writing the editorial and developing the content. Beginning with Jennifer's thoughts on the ‘Slow Movement’, followed by Rachael's overview of the articles and reviews in this issue. Also included is information about the journal's recent change of publisher to Cambridge University Press, as useful information for those planning to submit to the journal.

When young children tell their mothers that they are being sexually abused by their father, the mother faces a dilemma; if she does nothing, state child protection services can remove her children as being in need of care and protection. If police are called, she is likely to be told to leave the family home to keep her children safe. If she does, the father is likely to turn to the federal family law system1 to seek time with the children. If the mother seeks an order for supervised, or no further contact with the child to protect them from abuse, she may lose residence of the child and the child may be ordered to live with the abusing parent.

A decade of inquiries into the child protection and out-of-home care sectors across Australia has revealed a legacy of systemic abuse and individual neglect. The findings presented in this article form part of a larger research project that examined the experiences and needs of children and young people in out-of-home care within this broader context. Using document analysis, the larger study involved developing an in-depth understanding of their experiences and needs, and specifically, constructing a taxonomy of needs. The study also explored a series of salient findings about children and young people's experiences and needs in care and a number of these were explained using an innovative visual display method known as tag clouds. The aim of this article is twofold. First, to discuss the salient findings around the experiences and needs of children and young people in care in Australia using the tag clouds to illustrate the study's findings, and second, to discuss the potential use of tag clouds as an effective tool for providing visual representations of qualitative data.

This article reports on a study of Children's Court files relating to completed applications for variation of care orders (section 90 applications) in three specialised Children's Courts in New South Wales. All files that could be located for completed applications were reviewed and nonidentifying data was recorded. The study attempted to examine the type of applications, the characteristics of applicants and the outcomes of the applications. One hundred and seventeen applications were reviewed: almost half of these were made by the then Department of Community Services (DoCS), and about the same proportion of applications were made by parents. After the section 90 applications were determined there was an increase in care orders allocating parental responsibility to the Minister for Community Services with 73% of the children placed under the care of the minister to age 18.

Due to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the out-of-home care system many children will not always be cared for in a culturally appropriate placement. Therefore, cultural support planning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people must be a high priority for all staff, carers and volunteers of out-of-home care services. Six themes have been identified as assisting in the provision of cultural support planning within placements. Each theme has a detailed list of resources that can be accessed for children and young people, carers and professionals.

Two important documents that address the health, care, protection and wellbeing of children and families, both past and present have been recently published and distributed within the public arena. Here I would like to provide a brief overview of each document. The aim is not to review or critique the publications, but rather act as a summary of their content and intent, with particular reference to their recommendations.