As the embarrassment and shame around the ‘resignation’ of our last Governor-General indicates, the abuse of children and young people has become a major public issue. An increasing body of Australian research reveals a history of violence against young people while media reports reveal a history of serious physical and sexual abuse and exploitation of young people by professionals responsible for their care and protection.

Moreover much of this systemic abuse took place in educational and welfare sectors that were and are relatively unregulated in respect to the professionalisation of workers. While there are now formal professional registration processes affecting teachers and psychologists, there is no equivalent for youth workers, social workers or community development workers.

The disclosures of abuse and neglect revealed the suffering and harm experienced by young people, and in turn seriously damaged the professional standing of those working with young people, as well as the public trust traditionally conferred on professions and institutions.

I argue that restoring public trust in the institutions and services where abuse took place, and indeed may still be happening, is an issue of considerable importance.

I critically review the conditions necessary for restoring public trust. Those conditions include improved governance and systematic improvements in the intellectual and professional education of youth workers to ensure that they have the requisite capabilities such as critical insight, advocacy skills and political resolve. The value of establishing a code of professional practice ethics is also considered.

Finally it is argued that advocating for young people's rights is another means of securing their well-being and workers' professional standing. I point out, however, that the rights option is somewhat limited because, although it obligates, it does not specify who owes the obligation, and for this reason rights talk too often remains ineffectual because it's abstracted. I suggest that the identification of obligations is also necessary for securing public trust and young people's well-being because, unlike rights, they specify who is bound and to whom the obligation is owed.

This paper attempts to unpack strengths-based practice in social welfare in order to reveal the location of social justice within such an approach. Firstly, this paper will briefly explore the origins of a strengths approach, including historical development of the approach, mentioning some specific practice theories. The paper will then investigate the concepts, using Jim Ife's (1998) model of a social justice perspective in community development to achieve this.

The two approaches will then be discussed in terms of how they should be used together to support not only positive casework, but effective social action, using the work of UnitingCare Burnside as examples.

Young people leaving care are arguably one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society. Compared to most young people, they face numerous barriers to accessing educational, employment and other developmental and transitional opportunities.

Using information from interviews and a range of documents, this study compares the leaving care supports currently available in two Australian states, Victoria and New South Wales. Attention is drawn to the history of the leaving care debate in both states, the nature of the existing legislative and program supports for care leavers in each state, the key political and policy actors that have either helped or hindered the development of leaving care policies and services in each state, and the principal unmet needs of care leavers in each state.

The findings suggest that NSW leads the way in terms of providing effective legislative and program supports to care leavers. The differences between Victoria and NSW are attributed to a number of factors including particularly the different relationships between the respective government bureaucracies and non-government child welfare sectors.

Fathers and father figures in child welfare and child development have often been neglected as a focus of interest and research, yet they are often recognised as being a key to the functioning of the family. In addition to this concept, parenting beliefs and practices inevitably influence those of child development and child rearing. By beginning to unravel the differences between role and gender and looking at the diverse dimensions of fatherhood, it is contended that there is no definitive discourse regarding fatherhood in the same way as it is suggested about motherhood.

Whoever these men are, and whichever ethnic group or culture that they may originate from, it is argued that they have often been ignored or avoided in child welfare work. It is hoped that by identifying some of the key concepts in this overlooked area, intervention can be planned to engage fathers more constructively.

The busy clinical practitioner, while being encouraged to innovate and formally evaluate his or her work, has less time than ever before to do either.

The Mums' and Dads' Project represented a modest attempt to implement a short-term parent education project in adult mental health and review it in the style of practice-research. A number of qualitative methods were employed to research the Project conducted in the Mid West Area Mental Health Service exploring consumer satisfaction and parents' perspectives of their children's needs.

Consumers attended the sessions readily, demonstrating knowledge of child development and a willingness to confront the difficult issue of informing children about mental illness. They reiterated how much they appreciated meeting other parents with a mental illness.

Service delivery to parents with a mental illness and their children deserves dedicated funding if their needs are to be addressed and programs carefully evaluated.