Resources

A new report from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse examines carer recruitment, training and support policies and processes in Australia that aim to enhance the safety of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) and prevent sexual abuse. The research found that considerable attention is paid to the issue of child sexual abuse in OOHC. However, a number of significant barriers to preventing child sexual abuse are identified, including difficulties in attracting and retaining quality foster carers, a limited pool of residential care workers and high staff turnover. Another key issue highlighted by the research was the challenge of providing training and support to carers who live in rural and remote areas.

New research for the Children’s Commissioner for England, undertaken by the National Children’s Bureau and Research in Practice, has collated evidence reflecting the voice of children in care and care leavers regarding their experiences of the care system. This report suggests that practitioners and policy makers have much to learn from existing evidence and the voices of young people in care to help inform their practice. The report contains a number of useful examples of good practice, illustrated in short case studies.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has released this report outlining the results of a study into the service delivery pathways for young people transitioning from out-of-home care and the available opportunities to improve transition planning and housing outcomes. The study analysed linked administrative for all Victorian care leavers in 2013 and 2014 and found that smooth transitions are the exception, with most transitions resulting in housing instability, homelessness and other adverse outcomes. The report includes a range of policy development options.

This podcast episode features a discussion between the CEO of Family for Every Child and staff from VOYCE-Whakarongo Mai, an organisation in New Zealand focused on advocating for care experienced children and young people. Valuable for practitioners interested in child advocacy and hearing the voices of those with care experience.

This Australian study interviewed individuals with lived experience of out-of-home care to understand their transition to independent living, focusing on stable housing. It highlights the reliance on specialist housing services and recommends extending care support to age 25 and improving transition planning. The findings are relevant to practitioners, informing their work with young people in out-of-home care and guiding efforts to address housing and support needs during the transition to independent living.

This Evidence to Action Note provides an overview of the views of children and young people about whether they have contact with family members and their satisfaction with contact arrangements, with findings drawn from two surveys, the 2018 NSW OOHC Survey and the NSW Residential Care Survey.

This article, published by Lancet Public Health, reports the outcomes of a longitudinal study that used linked data to investigate the extent to which trends in child poverty relate to trends in out-of-home care entry in England. The study found many trends, which are detailed in the report.

This literature review explores the relationship between child poverty in New Zealand and the impact that poverty can have on the mental health of a child or young person, or later as an adult. It provides an overview of the extent and nature of child mental health and poverty in New Zealand, and the links between the two. The literature review shows that mental health conditions among children and adolescents can be reduced by addressing severe and persistent poverty, particularly during the early years of a child’s life.

This updated resource sheet provides a snapshot of the rates of involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection and out-of-home care. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are almost seven times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be the subject of substantiated reports of harm or risk of harm. Further, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 9.8 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be in out-of-home care. The experience of poverty, assimilation policies, intergenerational trauma and discrimination is discussed in relation to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the Child protection system.

This report was developed in collaboration with Melbourne University and identifies gaps in published literature pertaining to 5 key focus areas; Aboriginal children and families, out of home care, high-risk young people, trauma-informed practice, children with disabilities and their families and family violence.

This report by the Tasmanian Commissioner for Children and Young People, Mark Morrissey, presents findings aimed at improving the wellbeing of children and young people living in out of home care. Although he found that the 1,100 children in state care were ‘generally experiencing acceptable outcomes’, he also identifies a number of issues with the system. Morrissey presents seven recommendations to improve the OOHC system in Tasmania.

This report presents the perspectives of 59 children and young people from Tasmanian schools, out-of-home care, and youth detention on safety in government-run organisations. Valuable for practitioners seeking insights on child safety in institutional settings.

This discussion paper talks about the value of developing a coherent, manageable and principled practice framework for co-constructing the child’s personal life story archive. It also includes considerations around trauma, record-keeping, confidentiality,and information technology. Systems and collaborations are essential to translate this into practice.

The Australian Journal of Social Issues published a paper on the impacts of COVID-19 on children in out-of-home care and their carers. Findings show negative effects on education, social life, and physical activity for children, but improved relationships within living arrangements. Carers reported challenges in maintaining relationships with birth families and accessing support networks.

CREATE has produced a Position Paper on Transitioning from Care, calling for governments to listen to young people about their care experiences and their suggestions for improvement. It presents data from a range of sources that illustrate the experiences of young people transitioning from care, their life outcomes and the effectiveness of targeted services for these young people, such as the Go your Own Way project.

This article is part of a series of reports and articles seeking to understand the circumstances that lead to children and young people becoming ‘cross-over kids’; involved in both the child protection and criminal justice systems. It looks at cross-over children’s initial charges.

VACCHO publishes evaluation results on Culture and Kinship Program. Evaluation shows $8.29 Social Return on Investment for every dollar invested. Success factors include self-determination and cultural knowledge integration. Relevant for practitioners seeking effective approaches to supporting Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.

This Australian Institute of family studies (AIFS) paper outlines the latest changes within Australian child protection systems. It draws on a survey completed by child protection departments across Australia on change and reform planned or underway since July 2010.The key challenges faced by Australia’s child protection system include insufficient capacity to meet the quantity and complexity of cases in statutory child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC), failure to improve outcomes for children in OOHC and the over-representation of Aboriginal children in statutory child protection and OOHC.

This Melbourne Institute paper examines the relationship between parental separation and homelessness using Journey’s Home (JH), a dataset of disadvantaged Australians. The study finds a substantial causal effect between parental separation and entry into homelessness, particularly if the separation occurred before the respondent was 12 years old. The findings suggest that adolescent girls are more robust to parental separations than adolescent boys and that the effects of parental separations are larger when the parents were formally married.

This brief from the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care discusses what is needed to create genuine participation for young people in residential care. It discusses why youth participation is important and beneficial for designing services, programs and policies in this setting. It also covers a number of different models for participation, and implications for practitioners and organisations in using these approaches.

This report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) examines transitions from institutional settings, including out-of-home care, with the purpose of proposing policy directions to enhance housing supports. Findings are detailed in the report.

This evaluation report from the Brotherhood of St Laurence, examines The Brighter Futures Transformation Pilot (BFTP). This pilot was funded for two years from July 2018 to June 2020, and aimed to improve outcomes for young people with an experience of out-of-home care. The pilot responded to a need, identified through earlier work of the Area Partnership, for changing how the leaving care system worked with young people.

This evidence to action note from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice summarises the findings of the NSW Child Development Study, which examined 17 risk factors to see if they could accurately predict whether a child would enter out-of-home care (OOHC) by the age of 13-14 years. The study identified six risk factors that can jointly classify children with an OOHC placement with 95% accuracy. This summary note discusses the implications of these findings for policy and practice.

This resource aims to guide Forced Adoption Support Services (FASS) on best practice approaches to building networks. Local networks are important to creating a continuum of care for those affected by forced adoption and family separation. The paper outlines the service types that are integral to meeting the needs of those affected by forced adoption, and provides practical tools to promote collaboration with practitioners from the broader health and mental health sectors whose primary role is not post-adoption support.

Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Child Protection Studies (ICPS) has released a qualitative study aimed at identifying new and effective approaches to the recruitment, support and retention of kinship and foster carers. The report identifies some of the key approaches currently being used across Australia’s states and territories. The report shows that there is growing recognition that different approaches are required to find and support kinship carers, opposed to foster carers.

This article in Adoption and Fostering, valuable for practitioners, examines the dual roles of foster parents as parents and professionals. It provides insights into the challenges and evolution of their self-perception, highlighting the importance of understanding and supporting the complex dynamics within foster care.

Children in care often find it difficult to make and keep friends due to multiple home and family disruptions. This how-to guide by The Children's Society guides practitioners on how they can help children in care to build and maintain friendships - which can improve their wellbeing and reduce their isolation.

These publications from the Department of Health and Human Services share the complexities of work with children, youth and families and some of the innovative practice approaches being used to address them. This is an annual publication shining a spotlight on examples of good practice and the variety of practice approaches available.

This Monash University research article engages qualitative data from service practitioners to help identify factors that can lead out-of-home care leavers to become parents before age 21. Some key themes included feelings of loss and isolation and poor sex education with implications for service practitioners.

In this journal article, Herrenkohl et al. explain how the vulnerabilities for many children that are exacerbated by COVID-19 reinforce the need for systemic change within statutory child welfare systems and the benefits that would accrue by implementing a continuum of services that combine universal supports with early intervention strategies. This article also focuses on promising approaches consistent with goals for public health prevention and draw out ideas related workforce development and cross-sector collaboration.

The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Communities and Justice has released this Evidence to Action Note investigating the impact of maternal age on the likelihood a child will be known to the NSW child protection system. The department used linked child protection and Australian Bureau of Statistics data to conduct the analysis. It found that young maternal age is a risk factor for child protection, with these families more likely than average to be in contact with the system until the maternal age of 27.

This short article focuses on the need for better data collection to inform how to best support children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) at risk of offending. Research has clearly identified the link between living in OOHC and involvement in the criminal justice system. However, more work is needed to have an in-depth understanding of this cohort’s background, demographics, experiences and outcomes, and the different ways that vulnerable children become offenders.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released this report presenting data on the prevalence of income support receipt among young people transitioning from care. The study found that time in out-of-home care is associated with higher levels of income support receipt, with care leavers in young adulthood three times as likely as their peers who have not been in care to receive income support.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released this report presenting data on the prevalence of income support receipt among young people transitioning from care. The study found that time in out-of-home care is associated with higher levels of income support receipt, with care leavers in young adulthood three times as likely as their peers who have not been in care to receive income support.

This Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report has collated out-of-home care records from 1990-2001 and Centrelink data and provides information about income support payments received while transitioning out of care and beyond.

This Children and Youth Services Review report analysed the effects of face-to-face contact with birth parents for children in non-kinship foster care from 21 studies. The report provides insights into the variables that encouraged family reunification and improvement in children's wellbeing.

This free online international conference features live and pre-recorded sessions from various countries, including the USA, Australia, Israel, South Africa, Ghana, Italy, and Wales. The conference focuses on sharing current research on supporting care leavers' transition to parenthood. Presentations cover topics such as housing needs among care-experienced young parents, the implications of routine practices for pregnant and parenting teens in alternative care, and early pregnancy and parenting experiences of young women who have left care in Ghana and Uganda.

The School of Social Science at the University of Queensland released this report in December 2021. The report details an empirical study of Keeping Families Together, a supportive housing pilot project for families with a young child experiencing multiple vulnerabilities. The project assisted 20 families and the study found that all families exited homelessness in to housing with 95 per cent maintaining their housing for the duration of the 12-month pilot. The project also achieved reduced interactions with child safety and 31 per cent of families with children in out-of-home care had children returned. The study identified a range of success factors.

In September 2016, the Premier of Queensland requested the Queensland Family and Child Commission to undertake a review of the 'blue card' system, the approval and monitoring processes for foster carers, and pressure points in child protection service delivery. This report sets out the findings and recommendations relating to the Queensland foster care system. The report identifies opportunities to build public confidence, strengthen carer assessment, improve approval and renewal processes, and strengthen safeguards for children in care.

This Evidence to Action Note provides an overview of what young people think about the leaving care support they receive, with findings drawn from two surveys, the 2018 NSW OOHC Survey and the NSW Residential Care Survey.

This summary report from Ass. Prof Stephanie Taplin and Dr Aino Suomi at Australian Catholic University covers the main findings of the kContact study. This study is the largest trial to date testing the effectiveness of a contact intervention (the kContact Pratice Model) in the out-of-home care context. The main component of the kContact Practice Model consisted of the key workers contacting parents before and after each contact visit to provide them with support. This support helped parents clarify their concerns and expectations about contact, and provided practical and emotional support for the next visit with the study child.

This article is part of a series of reports and articles seeking to understand the circumstances that lead to children and young people becoming ‘cross-over kids’ who involved in both the child protection and criminal justice systems.

The University of NSW has published a report on the challenges faced by members of the ‘Forgotten Australians’ (children born in Australia who were placed in ‘care’ in the twentieth century), child migrants, and the Stolen Generations. The two year study engaged 700 participants who grew up in the care system between 1930 and 1989. Participants describe the suffering they faced in their out of home care placements and the kinds of support and protection they needed growing up. Participants also describe the ongoing challenges they face due to their experiences in care. It is hoped that in bringing these experiences to light, we can better anticipate the needs of children and young people in out-of-home care today.

The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care offers an online workshop for carers and workers, exploring cultural needs of Indigenous children in care and promoting cultural connection as a human right.

The last OPEN Forum of 2022 centred around innovations in out-of-home care, aiming to enhance the well-being of children and young people entering the care system, residing in residential care, or engaged with allied support services. Presentations featured topics such as The Care Hub, an innovative model of collaborative practice by Anglicare Victoria, the Improving Care Initiative by DFFH, and Empathy & Action: Learning from care leavers by The Centre.

Dr. Claire Baker's presentation on the Bright Spots program and surveys for children in care at the OPEN forum on March 23 provided valuable insights for service practitioners. The session offered practical knowledge and research findings that can inform their work in supporting young people in and leaving care.

The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) has released this systemic inquiry report into children and young people who are absent or missing from residential care in Victoria. The report investigates prevalence, patterns and characteristics of young people, the factors that contribute to their absence, and the harms experienced while absent from care. The report found that deficiencies in the current model of residential care are key factors driving absence from care, with young people feeling unsafe and/or seeking needed connection elsewhere. The report makes 18 recommendations.

This Evidence to Action Note provides an overview of the views of children and young people about whether they have a say in decisions that impact on their lives and whether they feel listened to, with findings drawn from two surveys, the 2018 NSW OOHC Survey and the NSW Residential Care Survey.

The Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS) is the first large-scale prospective longitudinal study of children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) in Australia. Information on safety, permanency and wellbeing will be collected from various sources. The child developmental domains of interest are physical health, socio-emotional wellbeing and cognitive/learning ability. This interactive webpage provides an overview of several elements of the study, including videos, methods and updates.

This research article uses multiple government departments' data investigating the relationship between out-of-home care leavers and homelessness. This report recommends a multidisciplinary, holistic and collaborative approach to housing pathways for the care-leaving population.