Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T20:00:01.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Out-of-home care in Australia: A State by State comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Howard Bath*
Affiliation:
Marymead Child and Family Centre in Canberra

Abstract

All Australian statutory child welfare agencies collect and report data on children under their supervision, but it is not always clear from this data how many children are actually placed in out-of-home care. This paper reports on a survey of the eight state and territory statutory agencies which focused on comparative placement rates, the usage of the two major types of out-of-home care, and placement patterns for Aboriginal/TSI children. Comparisons are drawn with the USA and a number of European countries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angus, G. & Wilkinson, K. (1993) Child abuse and neglect, Australia 1990-91, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: Child Welfare Series No.2, Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1985) Children in care Australia, 1983-84, Catalogue No. 4410.0. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1993a) June 1987 to June 1992, Estimated resident population by sex and age. States and Territories of Australia, Catalogue No. 3201.0. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1993b) 1991 Census of population and housing: Aboriginal Community profile. Catalogue No. 2722.0. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Barth, R.P., Berrick, J.D., Courtney, M. & Albert, V. (1992) Pathways through child welfare services, Berkeley, California: Family Welfare Research Group, School of Social Welfare, University of California.Google Scholar
Bath, H.I. (1994) Family Preservation services: Do they have a place in Australia? Children Australia 19(1). pp1016.Google Scholar
Besharov, D.J. (1988) How child abuse programs hurt poor children: The misuse of foster care, Clearinghouse Review, 22(3), pp218227.Google Scholar
Besharov, D.J. (1989) The children of crack: Will we protect them? Public Welfare. Fall, pp611.Google Scholar
Billingsley, A. & Giovannoni, J.M. (1972) Children of the storm: Black children and American Child welfare. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Butler, B. (1993) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children: Present and future services and policy. Children Australia, 18(1), pp48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, L. & Tierney, L. (1993) Families First Report of the evaluation of the pilot program. University of Melbourne, School of Social Work, September.Google Scholar
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (1992) Families First with Bill Moyers, Video tape presentation. New York: Author.Google Scholar
Fahlberg, V.I. (1992) A child's journey through placement, Indianapolis, IN: Perspectives Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J., Freud, A. & Solnit, A.J. (1980) Beyond the best interests of the child, London: Burnett Books.Google Scholar
Hellinckx, W. & Colton, M.J. (eds) (1993) Child Care in the EC. Aldershot: Arena.Google Scholar
Hill, B.K., Hayden, M.F., Lakin, K.G., Menke, J. & Novak, Amado A.R. (1990) State-by-state data on children with handicaps in foster care. Child Welfare, LXIX, pp447462.Google Scholar
Kahan, B. (1993) Children living away from home. Children & Society, 7(1), pp95108.Google Scholar
Knorth, E.J. (1994) Entering residential youth care: A research into a laborious enterprise. Paper presented at the 1994 International Child and Youth Care Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 20-26, 1994.Google Scholar
Kraus, J. (1981) Foster children grown up: parameters of care and adult delinquency, Child and Youth Services Review, 3, pp99114.Google Scholar
Mangine, S.J., Royse, D., Wiehe, V.R. & Niettel, M.T. (1990) Homelessness amongst adults who have been in foster care. Psychological Reports, 67(1), pp739754.Google Scholar
Maxwell, G.M. & Morris, A. (1992) The family group conference: A new paradigm for making decisions about children and young people. Children Australia, 17(4), pp1115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGowan, B.G. (1983) Historical evolution of child welfare services. In McGowan, B.G. & Meezan, W. (eds.), Child welfare: Current dilemmas, future directions (pp4590), Itasca, IL: Peacock.Google Scholar
Ministerial Review Committee (1992) Review of out-of-home care in NSW (chair: Usher, Fr. John). NSW Department of Community Services, January, 1992.Google Scholar
Minty, B. (1987) Child care and adult crime. Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Mowbray, M. (1992) The political economy of out-of-home care: Developments in child welfare in new South Wales. Caring, 16(3), pp416.Google Scholar
NSW Department of Community Services (1992) Trends in the usage of different types of out-of-home care in NSW, Issues and trends in Community Services series. Research and Data Analysis Branch Discussion Paper, NSW Department of Community services, August, 1992.Google Scholar
Paterson, J. (1992) Evaluation of welfare programs: Facts outcomes and black holes. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 4(2), pp1128.Google Scholar
Pelton, L.H. (1989) For reasons of poverty: A critical analysts of the public child welfare system in the United states. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, U.S. House of Representatives. (1990) No place to call home: Discarded children in America (publication No. 25-744). Washington. DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare (1985) Children in institutional and other forms of care: A national perspective. Report of the Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare. Canberra: AGPS, June.Google Scholar
Standing Committee of Social Welfare Administrators (1992) WELSTAT: Children under care and protection orders, National data collection, 1989-1990.Google Scholar
Szwarc, B. (1985) Particular care reconsidered. The follow-up report of the 1979 survey into non-government children's homes and foster care – 30th June 1984. Victoria: The Children's Bureau of Australia.Google Scholar
Tatara, T. & Pettiford, E. (1985) Characteristics of children in out-of-home and adoptive care: A statistical summary of the VCIS National Child Welfare data base. Based on FY 83 data. Washington, DC: American Public Welfare Association.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. (1990) Leaving care and homelessness. Melbourne: Brotherhood of St. Laurence.Google Scholar
Were, A. (1994) Mandatory reporting of child abuse in Victoria: Impacts on non-government services, Newslink, June, 1, pp45.Google Scholar
Widom, C.S. (1989) Child abuse, neglect and adult behaviour: research design and findings on criminality, violence and child abuse, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 59(3), pp355367.Google Scholar