Australian Childhood Foundation’s submission to the Queensland Child Death Review Board highlights its decades of experience in child safeguarding and the importance of survivor voices in reform. Co-authored with Emma Hakansson, Chair...
We have developed a model for understanding the reasons that organisations fail in their duty of care to protect children and young people from abuse and exploitation. In this diagram, we have set out a...
Watch and learn as our most experienced Safeguarding Children Practitioners talk about the important issues for organisations to consider and understand in their quest to create and maintain a child safe culture.
The first years of life are the foundation for all later growth, development and learning. The most important early learning happens through day-to-day life experiences. Every experience counts! Babies and young children are learning all...
Young people’s lived experience of relational practices in therapeutic residential care in Australiaby Lynne McPherson, Antonia Canosa, Robbie Gilligan, Tim Moore, Kathomi Gatwiri, Kylie Day, Janise Mitchell, Anne Graham and Donnah Anderson. Children and Youth...
The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (CETC) has submitted its response to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System. This submission highlights the urgent need for a nationally driven therapeutic approach...
Phase 1: Policy Analysis This document presents an overview of the findings from Phase 1 of the Strengthening Relationships and Connections in Therapeutic Residential Care project. This phase focused on analysing current policies to understand...
The focus of this submission The Australian Childhood Foundation and Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (CETC) are dedicated to upholding the rights of children and helping them to heal from trauma. This is joint...
Alternative Care Arrangements are the symptom of a care system in crisis ACAs have no place in a modern trauma-informed and child-centred out-of-home care system. The retention of foster carers is a major challenge facing...
Foster carers are a crucial human resource in responding to children and young people who have experienced abuse, neglect, and trauma. The design and implementation of foster care programs varies across Australia and internationally. However,...
A system in crisis: A call for transformation The out-of-home care system in New South Wales (NSW) should be a safe haven for children, young people and families. It is a system in crisis. Children,...
‘Understanding the Social Impact of Safeguarding Services for Children and Young People: An evaluation for the Australian Childhood Foundation’ provides an overview of the Foundation’s impact with its partners in keeping children and young people...
The significance of sibling relationships for children and young people in out-of-home care is well documented by national and international scholars (Luu, Conley Wright, & Cashmore, 2020). These relationships offer an opportunity for children to...
Kinship care placements in Australia are now more prevalent than foster care. They are the fastest growing form of out-of-home care in this country (AIHW, 2021). On 30 June 2019, 93% of Australian children in...
The ITC Pulse Check Survey and Outcome Report provides a point-in-time reflection on the experiences of the reform process by ITC agency staff. To this end, the survey results clearly show that the process of...
What is this research about? Young people in residential care face major challenges that can prevent them from forming healthy relationships and a strong personal identity, which are critical building blocks for their wellbeing and...
This research briefing aims to define and clarify what trauma, complex trauma and trauma informed care are. Extensive literature has now surmised that exposure to adverse experiences such as child abuse, neglect, abandonment, violence, deprivation...
This submission addresses the question of whether the age of criminal responsibility (MACR) should be increased and submits that the age should be raised from 10 years old to a minimum of 14 years...
It is generally accepted that child welfare professionals are at high risk of experiencing vicarious trauma: the manifestation of traumatic symptoms resulting from working with individuals who, themselves, have encountered significant abuse or hardship. Individuals...
As far back as 2002 in the creation of the Catalyst Program, Mitchell developed what was Australia’s first therapeutic foster care program and one of a handful of pioneering programs internationally (Mitchell, 2009; Mitchell, McPherson...
Many young people in out-of-home care are at an elevated risk of self-harm and suicidality. The reasons range from early exposure to abuse, disconnection from family, instability of their living arrangements and poor self-image (Furnivall,...
Indigenous children and young people face unique challenges in the child welfare system. The dimensions of this problem are complex and multifaceted. Providing culturally safe and traumainformed therapeutic care to Indigenous young people in out...
The literature on how young people participate in decision-making in residential care identifies three main aspects of participation: being able to access information to take part in decisions that matter; having opportunities and capabilities to...
In 2016, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia noted that Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) was a significant issue of concern for children and young people in residential care, as...
Young people who are in, or have been in out-of-home care, particularly those with experience of living in residential care, are vulnerable to a number of negative outcomes, including having contact with criminal justice systems....
This research briefing provides an overview of the current literature reporting on young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviours. Workers at the front line of practice have known for decades that these behaviours are...
Young people who are same sex attracted, trans or gender diverse – a population who will be referred to in this document as LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer/ questioning) except in particular...
The NSW Government has undertaken major reforms over the past two years aimed at improving outcomes for children and young people in out-of-home care. Following a review by Verso Consulting of its residential care services...
This research briefing is an introduction to therapeutic care as a preferred response for children and young people who have experienced complex trauma and are unable to live at home. Whilst therapeutic care programs have...
The move to independent living is challenging for any young person, requiring the exercise of many new skills and navigation of a range of social institutions with which they may be unfamiliar. A successful transition...
This submission highlights the urgent need for a nationally driven therapeutic approach to youth justice through enforceable national minimum standards to address the significant challenges faced by children and young people in youth justice.
This joint submission underscores the significant challenges that children and young people in contact with the youth justice system face, particularly those who are also involved in the out-of-home care system and those under the age of 12.
