Victorian child protection law reforms due to come into effect next month will give parents two years from when their children are removed to lift their game, before permanently losing custody.
We’re still working out the extent of the problem, but it’s not too early to act.
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While the disability system has undergone significant and important reforms over the past three decades, many problems remain. We’re still failing to protect people with disabilities.
In response to the tragic death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine in South Australia, adoption has been raised as a solution to a “child protection crisis”.
Social workers can successfully work with most families that find themselves in trouble without taking their children away.
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After a long period of expansion in the number of children living in out-of-home care, most modern child protection systems around the world have been labouring to prevent such placements. Instead, they’re…
Many Indigenous families fear the welfare system.
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In some jurisdictions of Australia, the rate of Indigenous children in foster, kinship and residential care on any one night has reached almost one in ten. This rate is almost ten times higher than non-Aboriginal…
Foster parents often receive inadequate emotional and financial support.
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When children are deemed at risk of abuse or neglect and are removed from the family home, they are placed in out-of-home care, either with foster parents, relatives or in residential facilities. The latter…
People with complex trauma appear like they are always anticipating or responding to a threat.
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Experiencing trauma has significant implications for mental health. We’ve known this for some time but particularly since the early 1970s after observing and studying the effects of war on American servicemen…
People who have been in care are more likely to have children at an early age and are at greater risk of having their own child taken into care.
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Most people reasonably assume there is evidence of good long-term outcomes for children who come into contact with child protection systems. Why else would we intervene in the lives of children and their…
Four-year-old Chloe Valentine sustained injuries and died after being made to ride and repeatedly crash her 50-kilogram motorbike.
AAP Image/South Australian Supreme Court
The tragic death of four-year old Chloe Valentine in South Australia has raised concerns that the state’s child protection system is in crisis. Following a history of abuse and neglect, Chloe’s mother…
Decisions are difficult and prone to error when risk and protective factors appear to be fairly equal.
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Imagine you’re a child protection worker who has received a notification from a teacher voicing concerns about a child in her class. The case involves a five-year-old boy named Toby. Toby’s mum has had…
Daniel Pelka suffered horrific abuse at the hands of his parents.
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The horrific neglect and subsequent death of Daniel Pelka at the hands of his mother and step-father raises a number of questions about safeguarding procedures and practice. We are told teachers were concerned…