Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:18:36.683Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in New South Wales (the Wood Report): A review and commentary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Patricia Hansen  and
Frank Ainsworth
Patricia Hansen
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield Campus, Sydney, NSW, Email: patricia.hansen@acu.edu.au, Dr Hansen is also a lawyer practising part-time in the NSW Children's Court.
Frank Ainsworth
Affiliation:
School of Social Work and Community Welfare, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, Email: frankainsworth@hotmail.com, Dr Ainsworth is a Guardian Ad Litem in the NSW Children's Court.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Wood Report is the product of a Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW that was set up in June 2006 and reported in November 2008. In March 2009, the NSW Government published a response to the report, ‘Keep them safe: A shared approach to child wellbeing’. The NSW Parliament in April 2009 also passed the Children Legislation Amendment (Wood Inquiry Recommendations) Act 2009 with little debate. This legislation has introduced many of Justice Wood's recommendations and has enacted other changes that were not included in the Commission of Inquiry report. While many of the amendments are welcome, there is cause for concern about the likely consequences of some of the new provisions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 17 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Biehal, N., Clayden, J., Stein, M. & Wade, J. (1995) Moving on. Young people and leaving care schemes, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Cashmore, J. & Paxman, M. (1996) Wards leaving care. A longitudinal study, Sydney: NSW Department of Community Services.Google Scholar
Frederick, J. & Goddard, C. (2006) ‘Pathways to and from state care: The experience of eight young people’, Children Australia, 31, 3, 34–41.Google Scholar
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1997) Bringing them home: National inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, Sydney.Google Scholar
Law Society of NSW/Bar Association of NSW (2009) Briefing note: Contact orders, 23 March.Google Scholar
Macaskill, C. (1988) Safe contact: Children in permanent care placement and contact with their birth relatives, Lyme Regis: Russell House Publishing.Google Scholar
NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet (2009) Keeping them safe: A shared approach to child wellbeing, Sydney. March. Available at www.dpc.nsw.gov.au Accessed 30 March 2009.Google Scholar
Shlonsky, A. & Gambrill, E.B. (2005) ‘Risk assessment in child welfare’, in Mallon, G.R. & Hess, P. McCartt (Eds.), Child welfare for the 21st century: A handbook of programs, policies and practices. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 312–318.Google Scholar
Shlonsky, A. (2007) ‘Initial construction of an actuarial risk assessment measure using the National survey of child and adolescent wellbeing’, in Haskins, R., Wulczyn, F. & Webb, M. Bruce, Child protection: Using research to improve policy and practice, Washington: The Brooking Institution, pp.62–80.Google Scholar
Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW (2008) Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Sendees in NSW, (The Hon James Wood AO QC, Commissioner), NSW Office of the Premier and Cabinet, Sydney. Available at <www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/cpsinquiry> Accessed 30 December 2008.+Accessed+30+December+2008.>Google Scholar
White, A. & Walsh, P. (2006) Risk assessment in child welfare, Department of Community Services, Centre for Parenting Research, Funding and Business Analysis Division, Sydney.Google Scholar
Wood report—see Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW (2008).Google Scholar
Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.Google Scholar
Children Legislation Amendment (Wood Inquiry Recommendations) Act 2009.Google Scholar