Foster care is in crisis in most western countries, including Australia. Increasing numbers of children are being placed in out-of-home care at a younger age due to arange of issues, including parental substance abuse.

Mirror Families is an early intervention model which seeks to address the underlying causes of the foster care crisis. It supports positive, lifelong outcomes for vulnerable children and young people who are at risk of being placed outside their birth families or who are already in kinship, foster and permanent care.

This paper focuses on how a ‘village’, or extended family, can be created for each child so that lifelong (and beyond) supportive relationships can be established and nurtured. The key question which informs the model is: ‘Who will be therefor the grandchildren?’

This article outlines rough and tumble play of young children in early childhood settings and strategies for educators seeking to manage the play. Descriptions and a categorization of the elements of rough and tumble play observed as part of a research study are presented which serve as a foundation to interpret and manage the play. An example of effective policy development is presented in support of educators developing effective strategies to successfully incorporate rough and tumble play in their early childhood settings.

International travel has long been associated with opening and expanding the minds of those who travel; and exposure to differences in culture, language and environment often has profound effects. Academic travel—visiting an international college or university for the purposes of teaching and learning—adds an additional layer of experience, resulting in exposure to research and teaching which is being filtered and reinterpreted through a different cultural lens. In this reflective commentary, we discuss a number of experiences encountered on a two week academic study trip to Coburg, Germany, in June this year—but first, a description of our travelling party and impressions of the Bavarian region.

We were a party of four from the School of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University, Bendigo Campus—Jennifer returning for a second visit to Coburg University after six years; Steven, a Year 4 Social Work Honours student ready for adventure in an already packed year of activity; Matthew Holmes, an Aboriginal graduate now working for the Department of Sustainability and Environment in Bendigo; and Catherine Cameron, a Year 3 student who was making her first journey outside of Australia. It was early summer in Europe with the fields and trees a lush green, crops growing thickly, the market places smelling of field strawberries and colourful flowers, white asparagus wonderfully juicy and tasty, and NZ apples everywhere! We were generously accommodated by the staff and students of the Social Work course at Coburg University and, in particular, Tina and Nadine provided constant assistance with translation on our visits, which ensured full appreciation of both pleasure activities and for study and teaching purposes.

Children and young people in out-of-home care experience significant challenges in the adjustment process. All family members are affected by the transition of a child or young person into the family and so carers require a unique set of skills and strategies to respond appropriately. This paper is the second in a series of four papers examining responses to a range of challenging behaviours seen in children and young people placed in out-of-home care contexts. The first paper explored strategies that carers could employ to deal with oppositional behaviours identified in the child or young person. This paper considers offensive behaviours that may be evidenced in children and young people, and practical approaches which carers can utilise to respond proactively to such behaviours.

Over the past three years, there has been a significant change in the focus of hospital social work intervention with pregnant women–from supportive counselling relating to motherhood, to systems advocacy within the child protection context.

Hospital social workers in this field have frequently been faced with the inevitable conflicting interests of supporting parents and protecting infants. However, the recent changes have thrown up various ethical questions, and issues of integrity and advocacy, in what is a complex area of practice.

This paper seeks to examine some of the current practice issues for social workers in this area. By examining the current context and literature, several practice themes will be considered and explored. In examining this issue at both the micro level of current hospital social work practice and the macro level of legislative and systemic issues, several best practice suggestions are considered within the context of the author's current workplace.