The past 30 years has seen the Australian community undergo significant structural and qualitative changes bringing prosperity and unprecedented standards of living to most citizens. But for some people these changes have left them behind and today their plight has reached scandalous proportions such that the nation's sense of social justice is in question.

Today we are only too well aware of the statistics on poverty, homelessness, child abuse and neglect, drug abuse and community violence. Thirty years ago we would not have thought it possible that sectors of the Australian community, apart from Aboriginal communities, would have such a growing sense of hopelessness and isolation from the mainstream of Australian life.

These difficulties are now pressing upon child welfare services and at a time of expenditure neutrality of the public welfare dollar. More and more as the costs of the welfare state approach crisis point, government and the community in general are being forced to turn to the resources of the family to find solutions to problems of social and personal need. In child welfare the notion of turning to the family and seeking resources or building upon inherent strengths is a new direction requiring a new understanding, knowledge and skills.