Interviews with children aged from 5 to 8 highlighted their vulnerability to molestation. This vulnerability is based in part on children's developmental levels. These include a limited capacity for abstract thought which renders some well intentioned attempts at child protection ineffective. Designers need to consider these developmental limitations when they develop child protection programs. Common parenting practices are also implicated in the perpetuation of children's vulnerability. These practices make it unlikely that a child would have the confidence to report adult-initiated sexual misbehaviour to a parent. Education is necessary to inform parents about ways in which they can reduce children's vulnerability by changing their own practices.

Research on young people transitioning out of the childcare system and into young adulthood is inevitably reductionist in that it is unable to take into account the many complex forces that play a role in the development of a child from birth, into and through the care system and on to adulthood. Consequently, studies on the outcomes of care-leavers need to be interpreted with care and thought. This paper serves to illustrate these challenges in research and the various ways that research results can be interpreted by drawing on data from a study being conducted in a residential care programme in South Africa. Demographic, pre-care and in-care variables of a sample of care-leavers are compared with a set of independent living outcome variables a year after aging out of care. Unanticipated results are contrasted with those that were anticipated, and multiple interpretations of the same results are provided. Because of this, the author calls for judicious and humble use of research results when making judgements about the outcomes of care-leavers and the effectiveness of child welfare interventions.

This paper addresses the question: Are the consequences of child sexual abuse moderated or exacerbated by the family, the legal system and other support structures which are involved following disclosure? To answer this question, the present study employs a methodology which enables the young women to discuss their experiences and feelings in each of these areas. Through a four stage interview process, in- depth data was gathered from five young women whose cases had been dealt with through the legal system, and from their mothers.

Given that little research has been undertaken in this area, particularly in Australia, the current work focuses on the ability of these groups to provide acceptance and validation subsequent to disclosure, and the resulting responses of the young women. The study concludes with a discussion on the effects of the response of the family, the legal system and other support on the young women, and raises some issues crucial to addressing societal response to child sexual abuse. Suggestions for further research are also offered.

At the Victorian Child Trauma service, we are using a sensorimotor framework to help children recover from their experiences of trauma. Informed by the work of Pat Odgen, this approach helps children to feel safe, aware and connected to their bodies and minds. In this article, we will describe the development of a group program incorporating sensorimotor principles, with the aim of helping children to regulate and engage in healing relationships. Group outcomes suggest that the use of sensory elements and principles in guiding our group program helps dysregulated children to establish safety and connection in meaningful ways with those around them.

In the last fifteen years a great deal of material has been published on child sexual abuse. All violence within the home retains a significant element of secrecy, but child sexual abuse has remained a shadowy secret longer than other forms of intra-familial assault. The battle to draw attention to physical abuse of children within the family was hard fought but controversy over child sexual abuse retains its intensity.

There are disagreements over the scale of the problem (Glaser and Frosh, 1988; Search. 1988) and the research findings concerning the effects of child sexual abuse vary ‘wildly’ (O'Hagan, 1989:53). Some myths about the problem however, have been successfully challenged. The stranger is no longer seen as the main danger and it is recognised that most perpetrators are members of the victim's immediate or extended family or known to the victim (Goddard, 1988).

Words not only describe and define events, but also describe and define those who use them. Recent media coverage of the rescue of an American Air Force Captain from Serb-held Northern Bosnia, and the slaughter of a family in Melbourne by a severely disturbed man used the term ‘Rambo’ for both stories. In the same newspaper, the activities of child molesters in Asia were described under the heading ‘Child love’. The importance of the words used to describe assaults on children was recognised in a recent Victorian Crime Prevention committee report.

When a convicted or alleged child sex offender is living, or having contact, with his own children or stepchildren, the obvious worry is that these children are victims or will become victims of sexual abuse. One way of determining the risk of this occurring is for the convicted or alleged offender to undergo a forensic sex offender risk assessment. In this article I raise questions regarding the usefulness of sex offender risk assessments within the statutory child protection context. Most importantly, I ask whether static and dynamic risk assessment instruments can accurately predict the risk an alleged or convicted sex offender poses to his own children. I conclude that ‘high’, ‘moderate’, and ‘low’ risk outcomes of forensic sex offender risk assessments in the child protection context are unreliable and can result in error, and explain that these errors have consequences that, within the child protection context, have consequences that can be dangerous to children.

The purpose of this paper is to report on new parents’ experiences of using the available range of parenting resources that help to guide parenting choices and practices. Using a semi-structured interview schedule, 30 participants were asked about their engagement with parenting resources. The types of resources considered most salient to the participants of this study in Victoria, Australia, included professional services, peers, family and friends, and written material. On the whole, these parents valued expert opinion when they encountered problems but experienced a level of frustration when they did not ‘feel heard’ by professionals or when faced with mixed messages. While they reported some resistance to overt advice offered by family and friends, especially if the information was considered ‘out-dated’, they relied heavily on informal advice and support from peers, even if this was supported only by anecdotal evidence.

Sibling groups placed in out-of-home care are often separated due to the relatively small number of caregivers who are able to care for large sibling groups, as well as the individual needs of the children. This article briefly explores the complexities of sibling placement within the international, national and Victorian contexts. It continues with a description of the Oz Child Sibling Group Placement Program which was implemented in Victoria's Southern Region to place sibling groups of three or more children together in foster care. The results of a review of the program are presented, including referral statistics, placement data and caregiver feedback. The article concludes with the consideration of recommendations for change as a result of the review.

In this article, the authors describe the development, piloting and evaluation of a parenting programme delivered to Aboriginal families of young children in remote NSW. The parenting programme was based on Parents as Teachers, an evidence-based early intervention and prevention home visiting programme that draws on child development theory, and was developed in collaboration with representatives from the local Aboriginal community. The impetus for the programme came from concern about the poor early learning and child wellbeing indicators in this community, pointing to the need for early parenting support that could be effectively delivered by trained Aboriginal workers in a remote area where early childhood resources were very limited. The sessions, implemented within a group setting, were structured and intensive. Six topics identified as being most important to parents of children aged from birth to 18 months, and six topics for parents of children aged from 18 months to 3 years were presented, with three sessions developed for each topic. An evaluation of the programme to date revealed that parent satisfaction with the programme was very high, as were reports of increased knowledge of child development and parenting skills, and increased connection with other families. Aboriginal staff valued the structured programme and resources that were developed. They reported increased knowledge of child development and how to run groups effectively, and observed positive changes in the participating families.

The first section of the paper makes some observations about young people, crime and the police, and the particular vulnerability of Aboriginal youth coming to the attention of the police. Two issues, the maintenance of public order and juvenile offending, provide the framework for the discussion here. The second section looks at the nexus between the pre-trial conference - a recent innovation in the Children's Court in Perth - police prosecutors, and Aboriginal youth.

This is the second of three articles dealing with the co-ordination of services for children and adolescents suffering with emotional and behavioural disturbance. It describes the structures, process and findings of a Project established by State Government agencies in Western Metropolitan Melbourne during 1992-1993. The aim of the Project was to develop a model of co-ordinated services to better meet the needs of this group. The third article will describe the model.

This article presents the work of the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program and Adolescent Sex Offender Treatment Program, auspiced by the Children's Protection Society. The focus is upon their experiences in working with families in which sibling incest has occurred. It outlines the philosophy, principles and model of the program, gives an overview of the demographic data and client profiles, and finally reflects on practice observations relating to issues which have emerged in their work.

The ‘new’ American solution for abused and neglected children — Intensive Family Preservation Programs — are being heavily marketed to Australians. Victoria and New South Wales have enthusiastically embraced the idea with pilot programs based on American statistics proving its value in maintaining children with their families and improving their safety. No matter that the Americans themselves warned that evaluations showed that out of home placements rate was no higher for families that did not receive the program and that the programs came from a country whose own Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect described the child protection system as a ‘national emergency’.

This paper was presented at a seminar on ending the physical punishment of children, held in Melbourne in September, 1994.

This paper represents a personal view of the evolution of the Mulberry Bush School and Organisation. I will define three developmental stages, and within these some “core concepts” which, in my view, have enabled our services to evolve. I will illustrate these with case studies.

The Lighthouse Foundation provides long-term accommodation to young people aged 15–25 at risk of homelessness, through a therapeutic model of care. This paper will explore its application to young people with histories in the out-of-home care system and those who are leaving care, by focusing on a four-stage process of recovery and the unique experiences it raises for this population based on their history. Drawing on themes identified through our practice with vulnerable young people, it is proposed that key elements of the programme and process hold particular relevance to the long-term recovery of this population, including the provision of stable and consistent therapeutic residential workers, an integrated care team, and the capacity to work with the young person beyond his or her eighteenth birthday. (Please note, no specific examples of young people are provided, rather the article will present observed themes at the various stages of the Therapeutic Family Model of Care.)

Administrative data on foster carers in New South Wales (NSW) are sadly lacking. Based on research commissioned by the NSW Department of Community Services, this paper uses the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing and other data to provide up-to-date information on the characteristics of foster carers and the demographic trends that are influencing their numbers. Census data indicate that foster carer families are most likely to contain women aged 35–54 years, not in the labour force. Couples account for two-thirds of all foster carers, with the majority of those couples also caring for birth children. While single parents account for less than one-fifth of all foster carers, they are more likely to foster than couples, either with or without birth children. Higher rates of fostering were found in relatively disadvantaged areas. Projected increases in female labour force participation are expected to contribute to a decline (or to slower growth) in the number of foster carers over the next decade. However, projected increases in sole parent families and couples without children are expected to have the opposite effect. The relative magnitude of these effects was not ascertained.

In child protection, ‘status indicators’ typically describe the status of children in care in regard to reason for coming into care, length of time in care, racial or ethnic identity and whether specific bureaucratic milestones have been reached. With Indigenous children, status indicators are broadened to encompass explicit requirements arising from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle. Our contention is that this approach serves administrative decision-making and not the needs of Indigenous children.

We propose a different process for evaluating the effectiveness of foster care for Indigenous children that considers their well-being rather than their status as cases. This paper examines ‘well-being indicators’ for Indigenous children in care that emphasise foster family capacity to fulfil basic developmental, health, educational, social, cultural, spiritual, housing (Fisher, Pecora, Fluke, Hardin & Field, 1999) and economic needs. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice research on well-being indicators in Indigenous families.

This paper was commissioned for this issue of Children Australia to integrate perspectives of the caring team and its broader social context.