Australian Social Work Responses to Family Disadvantage and the Removal of Children.

In 2017 paediatrician Dr Peter Jones called for a policy debate on the need for some people in Australia to have fewer children. His call came in response to unacceptably high numbers of children and young people in out-of-home care in Australia and resulting adverse outcomes for these children and young people. This paper challenges this call from a critique of neoliberal society which is characterised by increasing socio-economic disadvantage and rising inequality. It uses Standing's notion of a social construction of a precariat grouping to understand what is happening in many vulnerable families where children's safety and well-being needs are compromised. The argument posed in this critique is that societally we need to promote policies that tackle poverty, inter-generational disadvantage and associated social ills in an attempt to address the causes of these unacceptably high statistics on children in the statutory care system. The paper examines the responsibilities of a critically informed social work approach to posit an alternative social policy approach. Such an approach is based in particular philosophical beliefs about the need for social change to benefit vulnerable citizens. The author concludes that we need to do more to challenge dominant negative discourses about those families. Only when all has been done in the active provision of support should we be having discussions about policy restrictions on family choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]