A research-led reform strategy is urgently required in the field of child protection in Australia. While international research can be a valuable resource, a strong research base which is relevant to this country’s needs, legislation and service systems is essential. Two recent audits of Australian research completed over the past decade – one on out-of-home care and the other on child protection more broadly – have highlighted significant gaps in existing research. There is a number of important topics that have not been addressed – as well as an over-reliance on small-scale, qualitative studies and a very low level of funding for research. This paper explores these gaps and identifies crucial areas for development, encompassing: the development of a national child protection and out-of-home care research agenda; adequate funding for research, especially for multi-site, cross-jurisdictional studies; and closer collaboration between researchers, policymakers and practitioners to close the gap between what we know and what we do.

Notions of childhood have been debated through time and place. This paper works from the understanding of childhood as an adult imposed, socially constructed and culturally transmitted concept. This paper provides a typology often ways in which adults construct children and childhood. The authors assert that in the process of defining children, adults necessarily and simultaneously define their own position/s in relation to children. Thus for each of the ten constructs of childhood, the authors present ten types of relationship adults consciously or unconsciously impose upon themselves when they work from these constructions. The authors intend that the typology presented creates a beginning tool for conscious, critical reflection of how we are perceiving children and how this perception may drive our work and relationships with them. It may also provide a reflective tool for imagining working differently with children in ways which better serve them (and us!).

The aim of this paper is to review the Australian and international literature on social and emotional issues affecting children in kinship foster care and to examine stresses experienced by kinship foster carers.

There is a growing trend of kinship foster care as an alternative form of care for children in Australia and overseas which is attributed to factors such as child abuse, parental incapacity, parental incarceration, and parental substance misuse. The ideology supporting the use of kinship care is that it is in the child’s best interests because it helps them to maintain ties with their family of origin.

A comprehensive search of the literature on kinship care was undertaken and articles addressing social and emotional issues of children in kinship care or their carers were selected for critical review.

The literature suggests that children placed with kinship foster carers suffer from a range of social and emotional issues and these may impact on outcomes in adulthood. The existing literature does not, however, adequately differentiate the impacts of kinship care itself from the children’s pre-existing difficulties and there is a paucity of literature comparing kinship care outcomes with outcomes for children who have experienced other forms of out-of-home care. Common factors experienced by kinship foster carers that can make it challenging for them to deal with children’s issues are economic disadvantage, stress, health issues and lack of resources.

In conclusion, this review supports the arguments for assessment and interventions for children in kinship foster care; and support, parent training and interventions for kinship carers. Longitudinal studies are needed in this area.

This paper outlines the possibilities and tensions that emerge in legal and social discourse when popular images and narratives of children as ‘at risk’ are juxtaposed with more revised constructions of the child as capable and autonomous. The paper explores this shift in representation of children against a background of extensive family law reform currently under way in Australia. It then reports insights from a pilot study which found that children ‘to and fro’ between accounts of hurt and powerlessness associated with divorce, and their desire to participate in the processes and decisions taking place around them. The paper posits that discourses of participation taken up in research, practice and policy need to acknowledge a dialectic relationship between agency and vulnerability if we are to respond to children in ways that include rather than marginalise. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the challenges that exist for researchers and practitioners seeking to be open to new ways of thinking about children’s lives – ways based on an ethic that refuses the kind of normalisation and neat analyses conventionally pursued through research endeavours.

This article presents the findings of a study into the effectiveness of trained volunteers working with families where substance abuse was identified as an issue. The study was initiated by Mater Family Support (now known as Mater Parent Aide Unit), Mater Health Services, Brisbane, and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (now known as the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs). The goals of the study were to begin to understand the effectiveness of volunteer Parent Aide services that have been provided to myriad client groups over many years. The findings demonstrate that the services are valued by this particular target group. This is summed up in the words of one participant who said, ‘Government has to fund this for more people because there are so many people I know who could use it, but haven’t been offered the chance’. Replication of the study with other client groups will further enhance understanding of volunteer service provider effectiveness.