Welcome to the year of 2015. This year celebrates the 40th year of Children Australia's publication, quite an achievement when one thinks of the difficulties in establishing and maintaining a journal – and the many changes that have taken place over that time in the way of technical production and the processes of publication. This year we welcome a number of new international Editorial Consultants from the UK, Norway, Ireland and the USA, and, of course, welcome back our readers and supporters of the journal. I trust you had a safe and peaceful Christmas and New Year, though this is often such a brief interlude that it is easily forgotten amid the busyness of the return to work. For 2015, we plan to have a June Special Issue, and apologise to those of you who expected this current issue to contain the plenary addresses to the International Conference on Innovation in Therapeutic Approaches with Children, Young People and Families. We are hoping that trauma-related papers from the Conference, titled Childhood trauma – understanding the basis for change and recovery, will be published in June.

Children Australia has had the support and advice of many academic and professional practitioners over its many years of publication, with a number of people serving as Editorial Consultants. More recently, a number of international academics have joined our ranks, following in the footsteps of Nicola Taylor, Director of the Children's Issues Centre at the University of Otago, in Auckland, New Zealand, who was the first of our overseas academics. Nicola was the Guest Editor of a Special Issue some time ago, heralding what is now a more regular feature of the journal – encouraging collections of papers addressing specific topics.

Living in poverty has lifelong consequences for children. In response to the obvious needs of highly vulnerable, impoverished children and youth in its neighbourhood, Community and Family Services International (CFSI) commenced the Park Avenue Initiative (PAI) which was aimed at addressing the impact of poverty through promoting and testing community-based initiatives in child protection, youth development, and opportunity-creation. Building upon research into the reproductive health (RH) practices of young people in the area, the PAI was expanded to include a new programme addressing RH and the high risk sexual behaviours engaged in by many youth. This article critically examines how poverty is impacting on children. It presents the PAI RH approach as an example of a programme which addresses many of the multiple risks poverty presents for children. The PAI RH programme takes a holistic perspective to address the co-morbidity of poverty risk factors. The programme works with children, their families and the community. The article concludes that programmes need to take an integrated approach to address the multidimensions of poverty and engage with children and their families in actions which are aimed at building individual resilience and strengthening communities.

This opinion piece draws on the literature regarding absconding from care and its links with child sexual exploitation and trauma. The author draws on her experience in the child protection, out-of-home care and therapeutic services to raise some questions and suggest some themes about how the system responds when young people run away from what is purportedly safe to what is palpably unsafe. The article concludes with a brief description of trauma-informed practice and suggests that this concept is a useful contribution in our response to helping young people no longer needing to run.

When child protection caseworkers make first contact with the parents of a child (or children) who is suspected of being at ‘significant risk of harm’ they may encounter a range of hostile, angry and aggressive verbal responses from parents. If this contact results in a child being removed from parental care, it is not unknown for these responses to escalate into attempts at verbal intimidation and loud threats of personal violence. These behaviours then get recorded in case files and in materials submitted to the Children's Court to support the case for permanent removal of a child from parental care; these behaviours being presented as evidence of the parents’ unsuitability and unwillingness to comply with demands for changes in their child rearing practices. But how should child protection caseworkers view these less-than-helpful parental responses, and how should they, in turn, respond? This article explores this issue and offers a number of ways of understanding these behaviours, and canvasses new ways for caseworkers to respond when these behaviours occur.

Kinship care as a form of protective care in Australia has grown considerably over the past decade. The University of Melbourne Family Links: Kinship Care and Family Contact research project comprised a survey of kinship carers and consultations with key stakeholders. Given the significant over-representation of Indigenous children in kinship care arrangements, the project included a nested study of Indigenous kinship care. Research participants stressed the imperative for Indigenous children to be connected to family, community and culture. However, survey responses indicated that in many cases, family and cultural connections were not being assisted by cultural support planning. Indigenous caseworkers described the complexities of facilitating family contact, highlighting good practice as well as dilemmas and shortcomings in culturally sensitive practice. There was much evidence of the straitened circumstances of Indigenous kinship carers and unmet support needs among carers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Suggestions are made about ways in which children in kinship care might be better supported to maintain their family relationships.

Mentoring Mums, a community-based pilot program, exemplifies a model of volunteer home visiting to vulnerable and socially isolated new mothers and their at-risk infants. An evaluation of the program found that positive changes for both mothers and their babies had been achieved, providing the rationale for exploration of elements that made the mentoring role effective. This article undertakes this exploration through the research question: What do mothers, mentors and workers contribute to the conceptualisation of the mentor role with vulnerable mothers and their infants? The article argues that the program's effectiveness resided in a mentor role that shared primary values of befriending and neighbourliness, rather than in mentors enacting a quasi-professional role. Conceptualisation of the mentor role is based in theory and practice, seeing mentors as straddling the formal world of service intervention and the informal world of kith and kin. It presents ‘befriending’ as part of building substitute networks around very isolated new mothers. The very significant problems experienced by these vulnerable mothers made necessary parallel involvement of a professional volunteer coordinator and ongoing case management. Mentoring did not replace professional involvement, but rather was distinguished as providing something different, but much needed for vulnerable new mothers and their babies.

Although the physical punishment of children is overall an ineffective disciplining strategy, has adverse long-term psychological effects, and carries the risk of physical punishment escalating into child abuse, parental physical punishment is lawful in all Australian states and territories within the bounds of lawful correction or reasonable chastisement. What is considered to be reasonable is open to considerable interpretation, which further increases the risk of physical harm to children. Physical punishment of children also contravenes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Australia has ratified. Although more effective disciplining strategies, such as cognitive-behavioural parenting strategies, are available and have been advocated by professional organisations, the vast majority of Australian parents condone parental physical punishment of children and are opposed to its prohibition. Predictors for this stance include perceived social norms, the belief that physically punishing children is an effective disciplining strategy and a parent's right, a perceived absence of alternative parenting strategies, and fear of prosecution if physical punishment were to be banned. Countries that have phased out the physical punishment of children have demonstrated that, to encourage a shift in parental attitudes and behaviours, public awareness about the detrimental effects of physical punishment and the effectiveness of alternative disciplining strategies needs to be raised. Additionally, parents require support through free and convenient access to evidence-based parenting programmes that promote alternative disciplining strategies; and the defence of lawful correction needs to be repealed, with the aim of setting a new standard, as well as education rather than prosecution.

Although many researchers have demonstrated that music videos contain high levels of sexual connotation, none have specifically investigated music videos accessible to young children. This study analysed 405 individual music videos broadcast on Australian free-to-air television in time periods classified PG/G to identify the types and frequency of sexualised display. Results showed that these music videos contained relatively high levels of sexualised content, with particular genres and artists displaying higher levels of sexualised material. The findings indicate a need for a review of the current Australian classification system.

In Australia, many researchers and policy makers believe that statutory child protection systems are overburdened and ineffective. The way forward, they suggest, is a public health model of child protection. A public health approach comprises four steps: (1) collecting surveillance data; (2) establishing causes and correlations; (3) developing and evaluating interventions; and (4) disseminating information about the effectiveness of intervention activities to the public health community. However, in Australia there are no reliable surveillance data. There is no information about ‘person’. Information is not collected about the characteristics of children (e.g., ethnicity) and parents (e.g., mental illness) reported to child protection services. Data are not comparable across place. This is because the states and territories have their own child protection legislation, definitions and data recording methods. Data are not comparable over time. This is because many jurisdictions have introduced new data recording systems over recent years. This paper concludes that it is essential to develop an effective child protection surveillance data system. This will ensure that services are located in areas and targeted towards populations in greatest need. It will enable large-scale evaluation of the effectiveness of prevention and intervention activities.

Thousands of hours of evidence of trauma, pain and culpability presented to the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have left no doubt that organisations have always been and continue to be responsible for enacting a culture that ensures that their own staff and volunteers do not harm, abuse or exploit children who are involved directly or indirectly with the activities or services provided by the organisation. In the past 6 years, through its Safeguarding Children Accreditation Program, the Australian Childhood Foundation has worked with more than 100 organisations nationally and internationally to strengthen their capacity to protect children and young people. Our experience has highlighted that substantial confusion exists about how to construct a child protection policy that frames the expectations and responsibilities of individuals who work, volunteer or use the services/activities of an organisation. In this paper, the authors offer a blueprint for considering the critical elements of a child protection policy that organisations can use to evaluate and possibly reconfigure or formulate their own. The paper outlines the function of the child protection policy in an organisation; the principles for constructing the policy; and an example of content for a child protection policy. The authors conclude that, if constructed with heart and sensitivity, a child protection policy can shape and define the very narrative about what the organisation stands for in relation to the safety of children and the responsibilities of adults to fulfilling the rights of children and young people more broadly.

Samantha McMahon is a final year Social Work student who has completed her studies at Deakin University and had the unusual final fieldwork experience of being in the office of the Federal Member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters MP, where she was able to observe political processes at work, visit Canberra and conduct a research study to inform the Australian Labor Party's interest in early childhood care and education. Lisa Chesters MP is the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friendship of Early Childhood and the secretary of the ALP Social Policy Caucus committee. The following is a review of the literature based on the research Samantha conducted. This demonstrates that we have quite a long way to go in Australia if we are to gain the benefits other countries have had from their early childhood service system.