Search

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are integrated into child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC) systems via the connection element of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP). This article focuses on cultural connection in Australian child protection and OOHC systems over time, from its inception to its contemporary use to improve health and wellbeing and ameliorate cultural disconnection. An expanded understanding of cultural connection in Australian OOHC systems is articulated where cultural connection is theorised as a process of culturally connecting, while a critical position concerning the risk of cultural disconnection in OOHC is held. Indigenous cultures are fundamental to individual and community health and wellbeing. However, cultural connection in Australian OOHC systems risks becoming a site of bureaucratic policy compliance to ameliorate the effects of cultural disconnection produced by disproportionate First Nations child removals. This article illuminates this critical position while theorising how culturally connecting can be better understood in OOHC. IMPLICATIONS Cultural connection for First Nations children and young people is important for health and wellbeing, but is poorly understood in child protection and out-of-home care contexts. Cultural connection includes a community element, where culture acts as a point of distinctiveness to show that Indigenous peoples are surviving. At this juncture, cultural connection is a tool to resist the assimilatory impacts associated with ongoing child protection removals. Cultural connection can be understood as a complex journey of connecting for First Nations children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislative provisions for accepting unborn child reports into the child protection system in Australia have coincided with a noticeable rise in the number of infants entering care. This article collates information on the child protection process during pregnancy based on a desk review of relevant public primary sources. The effectiveness of child protection during pregnancy in reducing statutory intervention at or following birth and avoiding unintended consequences is also explored through an examination of relevant child protection data, reviews, and research. The summary revealed some differences in the process of making, accepting, and responding to an unborn child report across Australia. The knowns about child protection during pregnancy include a high rate of unborn child reporting, a high proportion of children involved in unborn child reports who are subsequently admitted to care, and a disproportionate representation of Indigenous children in these statistics. The knowledge gaps include the circumstances of parents involved in unborn child reports who are approached by child protection and when; parents who refuse to engage; parents who are provided advice and support; and the outcome of these cases. Some aspects of child protection practice during pregnancy, including information sharing, risk assessment and case planning, and parental engagement and partnership throughout the process represent further knowledge gaps. IMPLICATIONS Attention to the high rate of unborn child reporting to child protection in Australia and to the differences in procedures for responding across the states and territories is needed. The high proportion of children involved in unborn child reports who are subsequently admitted to care, and the disproportionate number of Indigenous children who are represented in unborn child reports, substantiations, and care entries during infancy need to be addressed. There is a need for further research on child protection practices during pregnancy and case outcomes to maximise safe pregnancy journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children in residential care have the most complex needs of all children growing up in Out-of-Home care (OOHC), due to complex trauma from pre-care experiences of abuse and neglect, inadequate therapeutic supports while in care and significant placement instability. Some argue that residential care settings are intrinsically criminogenic, as evidenced by significant over-representation of this cohort in youth justice. However, little is known about how children's experiences of trauma, including removal from family and placement in OOHC, is viewed by lawyers and decision-makers in criminal cases involving children in care. Criminal justice decisions can have long-term ramifications for children in care and custodial sentencing can often be a precursor to ongoing incarceration into adulthood. This qualitative, cross-national study explored the impacts of trauma and placement in residential or congregate care on the criminalisation of children in England/Wales and Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 legal, youth justice and judicial stakeholders in England, Wales (UK), New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria (Australia). While there are considerable differences in the operation of child protection and youth justice systems between these jurisdictions, thematic analysis using NVivo14 identified. confirmed ongoing systemic factors associated with criminalisation identified in previous literature persists despite attempts to address these through policy and practice reforms. These factors include an absence of therapeutic supports, unstable and unsafe residential care placements, over-reliance on police to respond to minor incidents, increasingly punitive police responses lacking awareness of the impacts of childhood trauma and inappropriate use of custody as an 'alternative' placement. These findings suggest the similar systemic processes across these jurisdictions are likely to reflect deeply entrenched ideologies about 'care' and 'protection' that function to criminalise trauma. The implications of these systemic factors when children are exposed to formal criminal justice decision-making are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact between children in care and family members is complex and often emotionally difficult for all concerned. In the context of a wider Australian cross-jurisdictional intervention trial, focusing on contact between children in long-term care and their parents, a snapshot survey of 901 children in Victorian foster care and kinship care placements was undertaken. The aim was to determine which children had seen parents, siblings or extended family members within a 12-month period, and how practitioners explained lack of contact between children and their parents. The study found that most children had had contact with parents or other family members, though children in long-term care were less likely to have seen their parents than those where reunification was still a possibility. Practitioners' views on why parental contact had not occurred for 18% of the sample illustrate the complexity of the issues involved in contact. IMPLICATIONS To support children's best interests, professionals should be clear about the purpose of family contact and provide support appropriate to that purpose. With children in long-term care less likely to see their parents, professionals have a role in helping these parents adjust to a new role. Developing strategies to maintain meaningful connections between children in long-term care and their parents may be more effective for children's best interests than the current emphasis on actual visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Movimento (0104754X) is the property of Movimento, da Escola de Educacao, Fisica, Fisioterapia e Danca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Perceived social support and a sense of belonging are thought to be protective factors against negative outcomes in adulthood that are commonly associated with childhood adversity. However, while this relationship is well established, very little is understood about how adolescents and young adults define these constructs themselves. This research aimed to examine adolescents' and young adults' understandings of perceived social support and sense of belonging, as well as their own understandings of their childhood experiences and current outcomes. Participants in the study were 275 adolescents and emerging adults aged between 17 and 24 (mean = 18.82, SD = 1.50), and included 177 females, 99 males, and 2 transgender participants, with 2 participants not disclosing their gender. Convenience sampling from a national group of young people accessing welfare service organisations within Australia was used. Qualitative data were obtained from 13 open-ended questions to an online survey. The study found that this group of adolescents and emerging adults with a history of childhood adversity understood social support and belonging as having someone who listened, as coming from people who surrounded them, and as impacted by their childhood experiences. We argue that support for this group of youth needs to revolve around building positive relationships in order to maximise resilience and well-being outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood adversity is a complex issue with the potential for lasting effects over the developmental trajectory. Research has confirmed that people who experience significant adversity, hardship and trauma in early stages of development are at an increased risk of a range of negative outcomes at later stages of the life-course, including increased psychological distress and dysfunction, decreased likelihood of educational engagement and an increased risk of early parenthood. However, distal events exert their influence on later outcomes through various proximal mechanisms. One such postulated mechanism is a sense of belonging. This study investigated the role of sense of belonging as a mediator between experiences of adversity in childhood and psychosocial outcomes in emerging adulthood, amongst a sample of 254 young people receiving a range of social services throughout Australia. Results of three mediation analyses confirm that the path from childhood adversity to psychological distress and educational engagement is only weakly mediated by sense of belonging. No other statistically significant relationships were found. These results indicate that additional mediators are likely needed to more fully explain the effects of childhood adversity on psychosocial functioning in emerging adulthood. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relevance of belonging for practice in the field of child and youth welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of decolonisation to counter the ongoing harms of state-sanctioned child removal policies that disproportionately affect First Nations families and communities in Victoria, Australia. Ongoing legacies of structural disadvantage, including drug abuse, mental ill-health, limited and conditional income support, and housing insecurity, are governed through a selective biopolitical vision that has informed child protection policies since colonisation. Family separation is assumed to protect both vulnerable children and the general community. We argue this logic reinforces structural inequalities that place unreasonable burdens on First Nations mothers to engage in 'desirable' and responsible parenting. We present current statistics on the over-representation of First Nations children in the Victorian child protection system, then describe how Western notions of biopolitics view family separation as central to protecting children. This approach now invokes neoliberal modes of governing through risk management, rather than supporting vulnerable families. We then briefly describe Victoria's child protection system, and critically examine key factual and procedural issues emerging from the application of the 'best interests' principle in four case studies documenting legal appeals instigated by First Nations families. We conclude by proposing decolonisation as a counterpoint to a governmental rationality that endorses the protection of children through state-sanctioned family separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]