The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has recently released a report on the educational outcomes for children and young people on guardianship or custody orders. This report, four years in the making, represents one of the first comprehensive Australian assessments based on educational performance data from multiple jurisdictions for children on guardianship or custody orders. Developed for the National Child Protection and Support Services data group, the study was funded by the Community and Disability Services Ministers’ Advisory Council (AIHW 2007).

This pilot study examines how children on guardianship/custody orders are performing compared with all Australian children in education department-based testing for reading and numeracy in years 3, 5 and 7. Mean test scores were examined in addition to the achievement of national benchmarks for reading and numeracy. These nationally agreed benchmarks are designed to assess whether children have achieved the minimum standards for years 3, 5 and 7 (AIHW 2007). Data on 895 children on guardianship or custody orders were collected from five jurisdictions - Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory - for August 2003 (AIHW 2007). The data were linked through collaborative efforts by state and territory education and community services departments.

More attention than ever before is being paid to children in Australian public policy concerned with domestic violence. In family law and in the areas of child protection, policing and in the provision of specialist services, there is recognition that children are affected by domestic violence. Yet the ‘discovery’ of the impact of domestic violence on children and the development of public policy responses have not been straightforward processes of problem identification and solution. Rather, there are a number of competing discourses which underlie various policy approaches. Drawing on Bacchi’s (1999) ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach, we examine the discursive constructions of children’s experiences of domestic violence and the responses to them as evident in Australian public policy. In identifying these particular understandings, and considering the implications of these meanings for current policy and practice, we aim to contribute to debate on the future direction of domestic violence policy concerned with children.

This article looks at the area of father absence in child welfare, which is a growing topic of interest in Australia and elsewhere. Based on the author’s PhD research undertaken so far, the article provides a brief overview of the literature surrounding the area of father absence in child welfare. This literature review is an attempt to highlight current key practice issues that workers and managers may face when delivering services to families.

This paper explores how separated fathers, who may have limited or no contact with their children, can be understood from a non-deficit perspective (Fleming 2002; Hawkins & Dollahite 1997; King 2000, 2001, 2005; King, Sweeney & Fletcher 2004). It describes how the generative fathering framework is used as a model to assist separated fathers to rebuild their connection with their children. The paper also examines parent/child contact time from a child focused perspective.

In recent times, Australian children have been exposed to a range of frightening images of war and terrorism in the media. To determine the possible impact of such distal events, fears were measured in a sample of 220 children aged 6 to 12 years using the Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R) as well as a free option method. On the FSSC-R, the type and intensity of children’s fears were similar to previous studies conducted over the past two decades, with being hit by a car, bombs and being unable to breathe producing the most fear. By contrast, spontaneous responses indicated that children’s greatest fears were of animals, the dark and being lost. Surprisingly few children mentioned war and terrorism without prompting. The findings suggest that concerns about Australian children becoming more fearful as a result of media coverage of war and terrorism are not supported.

In partial response to two fatal utility truck accidents involving local school students, the School Focused Youth Service Coordinator and the Student Welfare Coordinator decided to form a boys’ reference group to find out if the school was meeting the boys’ health and well-being information needs. This resulted in 20 young men discussing and deciding on how they would find out the information, then developing a survey and distributing it to 113 boys. A wealth of information was gained from the completed surveys from young men in Years 8, 9 and 10 on what their information priorities were and how they would like the information delivered.