This article traces the history of child welfare in Australia, showing the ways in which policies and practices, deriving primarily from Britain, were adopted and adapted in a nation in which jurisdiction was split between colonies/states and further divided, within states, on the basis of race. It argues that child welfare has always been part of the nation-building project, central to national objectives when children could be constructed as future citizens, marginal, and more punitive, when they were more easily understood as threats to social stability. In this first part it examines the history of welfare provision for non-indigenous children in Australia from 1788 to 1939. The second part, to be published in a subsequent issue, will discuss post-war developments in services for non-indigenous children, indigenous child welfare services and the historiography of child welfare in Australia.

This article examines the politics and ideology of Victorian child protection services during the Kennett years. The argument advanced is that the Kennett Liberal/National Party Coalition Government viewed child abuse in narrow, individualistic terms. In contrast to the previous Labor Government, which emphasized a philosophy of minimal intervention based on a partnership of family, community and the state, the Kennett philosophy was one of minimal support. The key emphasis was on the reporting of child abuse to statutory child protection authorities, and the treatment and punishment of individual offenders. Spending on broader structural prevention and support services which actually help the victims of abuse was not a priority.

A number of examples of this neo-liberal agenda are given, including the poorly timed introduction of mandatory reporting and the associated diversion of resources from support services to investigation; the early cuts to accommodation and non-government support services; the inadequate response to demonstrated links between child abuse and poverty; the censorship of internal and external critics; and the appalling handling of the strike by child protection workers. Attention is focused primarily on the broader macro-political debates, rather than specific micro-service delivery issues.

Over the past decade imprisonment rates in Australia have substantially increased. As imprisonment rates rise, so too do the number of families affected by the imprisonment of a parent. Yet the needs of parents in prison and their families have received little attention in social policies and service delivery practices. As the specific issues faced by parents in prison and their families cross many areas of government and community services responsibility, they all too easily slip from policy agendas. This paper outlines the challenges to, and potential for, restorative practices with families affected by the imprisonment of a parent. It draws on recent research undertaken by the authors into the family support needs of parents in prison and their families.

The authors have, jointly and separately, evaluated twenty-five governmentfunded child and family community-based agencies and programs in Australia and New Zealand in recent years. They argue for more rigorous evaluation of these organisations as a tool for the development of the sector and as a requirement for the receipt of substantial funding from government sources. On the basis of their experience, they point to some of the inherent difficulties in evaluating community-based agencies that have no history of external evaluation. Unlike government departments, these agencies often experience the tension of short term, unstable funding which (realistically or otherwise) staff and management link to the outcome of the evaluation.

The complicity of state and church in the removal and placement of Aboriginal children in Australia has been well documented. Since the investigation by the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, a number of churches have apologised for their participation in these practices. Alongside the apologies, churches have engaged in activities of reconciliation. This paper documents a research project, commissioned by the Minajalku Aboriginal Corporation, to explore the role of churches and church agencies in Victoria.

A significant challenge for children and young people in care (and for the agencies which supervise their care) is to find ways to ‘have a say’ in the decisions which affect their lives. The aim of this paper is to bring together the results of several recent Australian studies which have explored the views of children and young people in care and to see how well they fit with the views of the adult professionals responsible for their care. This research makes it clear that the practice still lags some way behind the rhetoric and that many children and young people in care are not satisfied with their level of involvement. The main preconditions for facilitating effective participation by children and young people are outlined.

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 article reviews recent research evidence about the effectiveness of residential care, education and treatment programs, singularly referred to as treatment programs, for ‘at risk’ adolescents. This evidence is drawn from child welfare, mental health services and education studies. The national and international evidence is that foster care is in crisis and is unable to provide stable and continuous placements for many of our most difficult youth. It is time to reconsider residential alternatives. The research suggests that these alternatives are not ‘all bad’ and that they have an important place in the continuum of child and family services.

This paper outlines a three-year collaborative research project which aims to involve children and young people, as well as other stakeholders, in exploring strategies to meet the needs of children in care. In this paper we identify some research findings which indicate the importance of children participating in the defining of their needs in care, if these needs are to be responded to more effectively than has been the case in the past. We describe the aims of our three-year project and identify some of the methodological issues of implementing stage one of the project in terms of children’s participation. A conceptual framework is developed to clarify issues related to children’s participation in research and decision making and as a basis for deciding on appropriate research methods to employ in the first stage. Rather than merely outlining the work we have so far undertaken, we have insteadfocussed on reflecting on and analysing the theoretical and methodological challenges to researchers in implementing collaborative and participatory research in decision making with children.

This article describes an Australian project which was conducted over several years in which small groups of young people were engaged to participate in the selection of staff to work in youth programs. It builds upon a series of small projects of a similar nature which have been conducted in the UK over the years 1993 to 1996. The collaboration of staff and young people in staff selection was a rewarding one, and led to the conclusion that with appropriate preparation and resourcing, this process is a very worthwhile addition to conventional staff selection, and one which adds useful information to the selection decision.

This paper looks at the issues impacting on the physical and mental health of children placed in out-of-home care and at the capacity of the care system to recognise and respond to those needs. It draws on the findings of a recent exploratory research project in Perth, commissioned by the General Practitioners’ Evaluation Programme (GPEP), in which the author participated as a researcher. The paper focuses in particular on the paucity of information about the child’s journey through the care system, reflecting on the aggregate ‘snap-shot’ focus on cohorts and ‘children as through-puts’, rather than on individualised, longitudinal profiles of placed children. A typology of care journeys is presented as a potential framework for locating and mapping children’s experiences.

When a child has been abused by his or her father or father-figure and makes the statement ‘I want Dad to come home’, whose voice are we hearing in treatment, how do we interpret and respond to what the child is saying? Understanding and responding to the voices of victims of abuse is a complex issue. This paper explores the issues of listening to and responding to a young vicitm of abuse in the context of the impact of the abuse on this young person, and how these issues emerged and were addressed in the therapeutic process. Amanda, a 13-year-old girl, disclosed sexual abuse by her stepfather. In the initial months of counselling she repeatedly expressed her wish for her stepfather to return home. Amanda’s response to therapy, the short-term and long-term impact issues that were addressed, and the various therapeutic techniques that were used to assist in her recovery, are traced in the context of theoretical considerations.

This paper reports some results of a study of practitioners’ perspectives on performance assessment in the field of family support services. Existing empirical work on performance assessment emphasises the perspectives offunders and/or service users. However, practitioners are a key stakeholder in both service delivery and assessment, and consideration of how this group approaches and appropriates performance assessment can maximize its effectiveness, and ensure the incorporation of their practice-based knowledge about service delivery and outcomes. We find that family support workers are committed to understanding the effectiveness of their work, and use a variety of means to attempt to evaluate their own effectiveness. However, these means are rarely systematic, andare unlikely to provide data useful for measures of service economy and efficiency. This may be because their practice consists of processes to which conventional evaluation techniques are ill-suited. The challenge for providers of social services is to find ways to assess the caring work at the heart of their practice in ways which are ‘legible’ to all stakeholders, including government flinders.

Relationships between social workers and foster care, permanent care and adoptive parents are based on a combination ofknowledge, power, partnership and support, the ‘mix’ of which is likely to change over time. Different interpretations of what each side contributes to these relationships during assessment and post-placement contact, add to the complexity which parents and workers negotiate.

In a longitudinal research project on support in permanent placements, avoiding saying too much was an important part of these relationships. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ parenting, expectations, blame, physical punishment and not coping are just some of the issues which were not spoken about.

This article explores the gap between the things which can be said and the things which are rarely said, and looks at how this gap affects relationships between fami lies and workers.