We all know what we personally find supportive and unsupportive. However, transforming the everyday ordinariness of what we experience as support into professional practice is not quite as simple as it may seem.

This paper explores some of the theories of support, how support works (including dilemmas for givers and receivers of support), supportive relationships and non-support. The theoretical material is illustrated with findings from research undertaken at a small inner city Melbourne foster care agency, Share Care. Birth parents, caregivers and social workers talk about their experiences as givers and receivers of support.

The research findings, in association with the theoretical material, provide insights into what could be seen as ‘best practice’ in terms of foster care support.

In 2005 the Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, was approached by the ACT Government and asked to evaluate the ‘child centredness’ of its child protection policies and procedures. An early review of the literature discovered some use of the term ‘child centred’ in government documents but very little clear indication of its meaning in the theoretical and empirical literature. This paper canvasses the literature and develops a set of principles for child centred practice which may apply to all child and family agencies. In developing these principles, the researchers identified four key themes which provide a broad, overarching framework for child centred approaches. These themes emphasise the importance of: recognising critical time frames in childhood and adolescence; taking into account the developmental needs of children and young people in all practice contexts; providing children and young people with appropriate opportunities to participate in decisions that affect them; and promoting a collaborative approach to influencing children’s multiple environments. The researchers claim these principles can be used to provide the basis for evaluating policies and practices and for ongoing training.

In Australia the rate of local or ‘known’ child adoptions is very low. Figures from the US and the UK (England only) are presented to highlight this issue. Adoptions from State ‘care’ are especially low compared with these other countries. This article explores public and professional commentary that may have contributed to the decline in the use of adoptions in Australia. Given that adoption offers the most permanent alternative care arrangement, suggestions are then made as to how adoption might become a more frequently used route out of State care for some Australian children.

Ballarat Family Services is the service that has evolved in Ballarat, Victoria as a result of a Department of Human Services initiative, the Family Support Innovation Projects. More than two years after the commencement of the program, Ballarat Family Services is leading a major re-orientation of the service system for families who have borderline involvement with the statutory Child Protection system. This re-orientation involves all parts of the service system, including the nature of the collaborative relationships between non-government agencies and the statutory Child Protection Agency. It has also led to Ballarat Family Services revisiting the nature and purpose of the practice of family support work. This paper will give an overview of the development of Ballarat Family Services and go on to outline the lessons learned in practice, placing them in the context of current theory and research.