The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has recently released a report on the educational outcomes for children and young people on guardianship or custody orders. This report, four years in the making, represents one of the first comprehensive Australian assessments based on educational performance data from multiple jurisdictions for children on guardianship or custody orders. Developed for the National Child Protection and Support Services data group, the study was funded by the Community and Disability Services Ministers’ Advisory Council (AIHW 2007).

This pilot study examines how children on guardianship/custody orders are performing compared with all Australian children in education department-based testing for reading and numeracy in years 3, 5 and 7. Mean test scores were examined in addition to the achievement of national benchmarks for reading and numeracy. These nationally agreed benchmarks are designed to assess whether children have achieved the minimum standards for years 3, 5 and 7 (AIHW 2007). Data on 895 children on guardianship or custody orders were collected from five jurisdictions - Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory - for August 2003 (AIHW 2007). The data were linked through collaborative efforts by state and territory education and community services departments.

The use of e-technology as a way of improving communication and collaboration across services in child welfare has generated significant interest in recent years. The Information Sharing and Assessment (ISA) is an e-technology initiative that has been introduced by the British Government as an attempt to promote better information sharing between professionals, early identification and multi-professional interventions. This article looks at one aspect of ISA, the introduction of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). It considers some of the issues relating to the introduction and use of the CAF, and discusses some of the ways in which systems of child welfare may learn from the English experience. While acknowledging the potential for e-technology to strengthen practice developments in child welfare, it emphasises the need for careful scrutiny of new developments to ensure that they do not have negative, unintended consequences.

More attention than ever before is being paid to children in Australian public policy concerned with domestic violence. In family law and in the areas of child protection, policing and in the provision of specialist services, there is recognition that children are affected by domestic violence. Yet the ‘discovery’ of the impact of domestic violence on children and the development of public policy responses have not been straightforward processes of problem identification and solution. Rather, there are a number of competing discourses which underlie various policy approaches. Drawing on Bacchi’s (1999) ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach, we examine the discursive constructions of children’s experiences of domestic violence and the responses to them as evident in Australian public policy. In identifying these particular understandings, and considering the implications of these meanings for current policy and practice, we aim to contribute to debate on the future direction of domestic violence policy concerned with children.

This paper presents the findings of qualitative research on the use of mobile phones and home access to the Internet amongst some Australian welfare service users. It shows that a digital divide – the exclusion of some groups from information and communication technology – goes well beyond access to hardware. Phones are often unavailable and access to the Internet is contingent on infrastructure, technical support and individual interest. Access to the Internet at home is poor and, even when available, the way in which mobile phones and the Internet are used appears deeply affected by poverty, literacy and age. These findings present challenges for those concerned about vulnerable children’s ongoing disadvantage. Welfare agencies wishing to use the potential advantages of information and communication technology with families need to address patterns of use and the many barriers to access.

A glossary of ICT terms used in this article is presented at the end of the paper.

When Australia signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, federal and state governments agreed, under Article 19, to create appropriate legislation and all necessary social and educational measures to protect children from all forms of abuse and exploitation and provide treatment and social support for victims and their carers. Seventeen years later, Australian child advocates are wondering where those services are, especially for those outside state capital cities. More importantly, where is the justice system that protects children and caters for victims of sexual abuse?

Australia, in common with other former British colonies, inherited the Westminster adversarial system, described by Mallon and White (1995, p. 50, cited in McGrath 2005) as:

In Australia there is limited research and information regarding how Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) families are assessed within the child protection system. This paper explores assessment issues faced by child protection investigation officers when working with CALD families in the Queensland child protection system. The research examined the level of knowledge, training and experiences of child protection officers and whether they were ‘culturally competent’. The study found that entry level officers did not receive adequate training and resources, and lacked CALD-specific knowledge on how to deal with cross cultural issues when working with CALD families. Respondents indicated that interpreters‘ services were effective during investigation and assessment of CALD families. The findings of this study highlight key concerns in the provision of child protection assessments, practice, policy and service delivery when working with CALD families.

This article looks at the area of father absence in child welfare, which is a growing topic of interest in Australia and elsewhere. Based on the author’s PhD research undertaken so far, the article provides a brief overview of the literature surrounding the area of father absence in child welfare. This literature review is an attempt to highlight current key practice issues that workers and managers may face when delivering services to families.

Much child welfare research does not differentiate between the needs of Indigenous and non-Indigenous clients and/or does not specifically address issues concerning Indigenous children, families and communities. As such, evidence is not informed by Indigenous perspectives and knowledge. The research reported upon in this paper was conducted jointly by a university-based researcher and Indigenous child protection agencies. It explored the support needs of Indigenous carers in the context of the increasingly detailed regulatory framework for out-of-home care. It suggests there should be more investment in ongoing support for carers and more personal contact between the statutory department and the carer/s after the placement is made. This would fulfill many purposes: support for carers with attendant benefits such as satisfaction and retention; better meeting the needs of the child; and the regulatory function of ongoing monitoring of placement quality for accountability purposes.

This article articulates the value of ethnographic research into poverty and particularly into the issue of student hardship. The question is asked whether ‘poverty line’ models of research, which claim to establish objective and accurate measures of financial adversity, actually help in understanding the problem of student hardship. Similar questions are asked about discourses that use the language of participation and social exclusion.

Consideration is given to the value of listening to young people talk about their experiences of studying and living without sufficient means. I refer here not only to the ethics of including ‘the subjects’ of research in the knowledge-making activity, but also to the value of the ethnographic material that is produced. This offers insights into the particular social problem which it is critical to understand in order to respond effectively. It is also material that is not available through more traditional forms of research. While the focus in this article is on university students and financial hardship, it is also arguing more generally in favour of giving priority to interpretivist tradition in research about contemporary social problems.

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.

This paper explores how separated fathers, who may have limited or no contact with their children, can be understood from a non-deficit perspective (Fleming 2002; Hawkins & Dollahite 1997; King 2000, 2001, 2005; King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004). It describes how the generative fathering framework is used as a model to assist separated fathers to rebuild their connection with their children. The paper also examines parent/child contact time from a child focused perspective.