The STARTTerS Early Childhood Programme at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) has been developed in response to the complex refugee experiences of very young children, their families and communities. This biopsychosocial and systemic model is informed by neuroscience, attachment theory and current knowledge of the nature and impact of refugee-specific trauma on very young children and their families. It addresses the complex interactions between, social, cultural and political factors within the trauma and recovery environments, as they influence the clients’ presentations and the choice of interventions with families in cultural transition (FICT).

This paper provides a background to the STARTTerS programme, and reports on the results of a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project with the Karen and Mandaean refugee communities. It explores perceptions and cultural views of signs and symptoms related to early childhood trauma. It also explores help seeking preferences in relation to the recovery, settlement and health needs of families with young children. This research has led to ongoing collaborative and consultative processes with those communities, resulting in the development of services and referral systems, which will build a comprehensive and culturally appropriate early childhood programme.

Thanks to the greatly increased interest in the experiences of young people leaving state care, there is now a much better understanding of how vulnerable this group is when making the transition to adulthood. It is also now clear that there must be interrelated formal and informal support provided to young people when leaving and after leaving care if their life chances are to be significantly improved. This article extends the logic of that systemic thinking to embrace the challenge of globalisation as a necessary aspect of contemporary thinking about care leaving. It recognises the difficulties in developing an international perspective but suggests a model for promoting cross national exchange. An agenda is suggested around which global networking could be built in order to ensure that advances being made for care leavers in any one country are both secured against the negative impact of globalisation and become part of a global resource.

This paper critically examines Marxist and feminist literature on child protection, and identifies both their strengths and weaknesses. The author concludes that, while both ideologies call for broader policy reforms to address the prevalence of poverty and male violence, the core responsibility of statutory systems remains the protection of children and their rights.

The theme of this paper is the central role of consumer groups in promoting greater accountability in child protection systems. In recent years, numerous Australian authors have drawn attention to the failings of our State child protection systems. Particular concern has been expressed about the potential ‘systems abuse’ of children in care, and the failure of statutory systems to engage or adequately consider the perspectives of biological parents. One of the principal reasons for these deficits appears to be the absence of formal consultation mechanisms with consumers of protection services. This paper considers the recent rise of consumer groups of both young people in protection and care, and their parents/caregivers, in relation to the above concerns, with particular reference to Victoria. Attention is drawn to both the strengths and weaknesses of the better known groups such as the Australian Association of Young People in Care and their State affiliates, and the Parent Inquiry into Child Protection. The author believes that the role of consumer groups as a ‘watchdog’ will become even more important with the intended privatization of some State child protection systems.

This paper describes the technique of participative case planning, a tool developed and used by the author for working with families who have had their children removed because of abuse and/or neglect. This technique seeks to assist families and practitioners to work together in an empowering way to return children home quickly and safely. The particular model draws on theoretical principles and perspectives of empowerment, case management, case planning, crisis intervention, task centred therapy and contracting.

The paper outlines the steps involved in participative case planning pom preparation for the meeting to its end. It also addresses a number of issues, including the role of the chairperson, involvement of children and non-return of children.

There is a paucity of publicly available information on Australian children in out-of-home care. Data on the characteristics of children in care, their experiences during placement, and the services provided for them are badly needed to monitor service effectiveness, to identify where service improvements can be made and to ascertain how to improve the allocation of resources. This paper provides a rationale for using information collected on the ‘Looking After Children’ (LAC) schedules to generate an Australia-wide database on children in out-of-home care, as well as identifying some of the problems to be overcome if the LAC schedules are to be used to collect aggregate data.

Recently the Department of Community Services in New South Wales and the Department for Child Safety in Queensland have both released information about funding and the award of contracts for group homes and other residential services. In addition, in the 2008 discussion about out-of-home care at the Wood Commission of Inquiry into the Child Protection Services in New South Wales, group homes were discussed in terms of them being less demanding environments than foster care. The view presented was that group homes are appropriate for some young people who are either unsuitable for foster care or who want a less intimate setting than that provided by foster care. This article argues that group homes or residential programs, against the New South Wales and Queensland descriptions, fail to respond to the need for quality residential programs for children and youth. This is partly due to the low level of training for staff in group homes and high staff turnover.

In a theoretical extension of Goddard's Hostage theory, the authors propose that a pathological attachment may be formed between the abused child and the abuser. While this attachment may have value in the short term for the abused child, it may have longer term developmental costs. Some preliminary evidence for a pathological attachment can be found in the literature.

To date, little is known about manifestations of child sexual abuse (CSA) within ultra-orthodox Jewish communities both in Australia and abroad. There is a paucity of empirical studies on the prevalence of CSA within Jewish communities, and little information on the responses of Jewish community organisations, or the experiences of Jewish CSA survivors and their families. This paper draws on a case study of two ultra-orthodox Jewish organisations from the recent Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to examine the religious and cultural factors that may inform Jewish communal responses to CSA. Attention is drawn to factors that render ultra-orthodox communities vulnerable to large-scale CSA, religious laws and beliefs that may influence the reporting of abuse to secular authorities, and the communal structures that may lead to victims rather than offenders being subjected to personal attacks and exclusion from the community. Commonalities are identified between ultra-orthodox Jews and other faith-based communities, and reforms suggested to improve child safety across religious groups.

Indicators for children in care typically describe the administrative status of children, an approach that serves administrative decision-making more than the personal well-being of foster children. At the same time, there is little research on what constitutes indicators of the personal well-being of children in care, especially Indigenous children.

This paper reports research that sought to define social, cultural and spiritual well-being indicators for Indigenous children in care by seeking the opinions and knowledge of Indigenous child protection workers and foster carers. The study examines a series of strategic change indicators that address Indigenous concerns about the social, cultural and spiritual development of Indigenous children in care.

Following on from the article appearing in Children Australia Vol 30 No 2 (King 2005), this short paper develops a checklist for organisations working with fathers for assessing the programs they provide to men. The checklist uses four categories – environment, language, initial contact and marketing, and service provision – to assess their programs’ strengths and weaknesses.

The paper provides an opportunity for organisations to benchmark their approach in working with male service users and provides guidance on how program delivery can be improved.

Survey data indicated that parents (notably mothers) regarded their own parents and partners as the most important sources of parenting information. Respondents were not at all likely to use parenting courses in a preventative sense, that is, to use courses in an attempt to anticipate problems before they occur and consider ways of dealing with them. Parents reported that they would be more likely to attend parenting courses once difficulties had become established. There was a preference for any parenting courses to consist of one-off sessions on particular topics rather than longer courses. Drugs and teenagers’ was the topic most frequently rated as ‘Very important’ for a parenting course. When presented with hypothetical problem situations, parents showed a preference for solving such problems within the family rather than consulting professionals. Parenting courses were not frequently seen as a solution to such problems. Reason for these perceptions are discussed. It seems that the ways in which parenting courses are described (advertised) may be crucial to their acceptance by parents who might benefit from them.

A growing body of literature indicates that corporal punishment (CP) has the potential to adversely affect the mental and physical wellbeing of children in childhood as well as into adulthood. Corporal punishment of children in the home is legal in all states and territories in Australia, but not much is known about this type of family violence in the Australian context. This article presents a review of the literature currently available on the prevalence of CP of children in the home in Australia, covering online surveys, academic research, government data and grey literature. The role of online surveys is examined, and the lack of data available from government studies concerned with the wellbeing of children is also explored. There is found to be an overall lack of consistent data available on CP of children in the home in Australia, and this article calls on researchers and policymakers to further research and act on this aspect of family violence.

The care and protection of children takes a different turn when there are allegations of child sexual abuse in a custody battle in the Family Court. In the case referred to in this discourse analysis, two 4- and 5-year-old sisters disclosed incest to a number of people. These were the police, their mother and maternal grandmother, as well as to 12 other people, including contact supervisors and a psychologist. In cases of this kind, the court may ask relevant experts to provide reports in order to decide what action will be in the ‘best interests’ of the children. The following is an analysis of the conversation between the investigating police officer, the social worker and the mother. It shows that mindsets become evident when discourse analysis is applied, and indicates that judges may not be receiving appropriate and comprehensive information or, indeed, ‘the full story’. Discourse analysis, in this instance, suggests that courts could become more aware of other issues at play within interlocutory situations, which may, in fact, determine a child's wellbeing more than is evident before the bench.

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.

This article is written as a bold opinion piece. It stems from the fact that once again we are seeing reports of abuse in residential care while at the same time there are calls for the reclaiming of residential care as a positive choice for children and youth. Yet there seems to be confusion as to exactly what function these programs should perform in the broader out-of-home care system. There are also important questions about the knowledge and skills that staff would require if such programs are to be non-abusive. A rejoinder to this opinion piece would be welcome.

For the last twenty-five years, in Australia and in most western type countries, the planning of services for children and families has been strongly influenced by a series of ideological concepts. These concepts are: deinstitutionalization, normalization, least restrictive environment, mainstreaming, minimal intervention, and diversion. Together they are the central tenets of a paradigm (CTP) currently used by policy makers and human service planners. This paper argues that the use of the CTP has had an unintended negative impact. It has lead to the neglect of the most difficult ‘at risk’ adolescents and their families. What we have is a situation where services of sufficient power, intensity and duration (PID) needed by this group are not favoured since they do not conform to the CTP. For ‘at risk’ adolescents and their families this is socially unjust.

Complex developmental trauma impacts on neurobiological development through the creation of a frightening and unpredictable environment in which the brain develops. This early experience results in an under-developed limbic system and pre-frontal cortex. For some children and young people, their experiences of early trauma lead them into the residential Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) system. Neurodevelopmental delays that occur as a result of early trauma and abuse often become particularly pronounced during adolescence, including limited impulse control, poor emotional regulation and attachment impairments. These same delays contribute to offending behaviour and subsequent contact with the justice system. Complex developmental trauma has serious repercussions both for the individual and the society in which he or she lives. These repercussions may take the form of offending behaviour and contact with the justice system, drug and alcohol abuse, and continuing cycles of abuse and violence within families or victimisation.

There is now increasing recognition that child abuse and domestic violence are not separate phenomena and ‘witnessing’ domestic violence can seriously affect children. This paper reports on a qualitative research project undertaken by researchers from the University of South Australia from June 1998 to January 1999, as part of the Commonwealth and States’ Partnerships Against Domestic Violence initiative. The focus of the research was on assessing the needs of women, men and young people who have experienced domestic violence in South Australia. The participants identified many ‘effects’ of witnessing or experiencing domestic violence on children, along with their needs. The findings will inform early intervention campaigns as well as broader service systems in supporting and responding to the needs of these young people.

This paper reviews the introduction of the UK Looking After Children practice and management materials in a number of Australian States and Territories against the background of a comparative analysis of UK central government systems to prescribe standards of service and to monitor outcomes for children in care. The writer argues that the UK Labour government commitment to a ‘whole of government’ interventionist set of activities and processes is significantly more successful in driving child welfare initiatives than the more fragmented and secretive systems in Australian States. Finally, the writer reflects on the central influence of commissioned research in informing needs and service outcomes for vulnerable children and their families.