A camera pans slowly across the crowd of spectators early one winter’s morning. As parents smile, indulgently cheering every passage of play, very young footballers of no more than six years of age strive their hardest. The children fumble, they trip, stumble and often miss the ball completely. An avuncular voice-over extols these halcyon days of blossoming friendships and burgeoning attitudes, asserting that such experiences will forge lifelong memories for those most actively involved … and for the children too.

In almost all current debates concerning services for young people in out-of-home care it has been customary to define services in terms of the so-called ‘continuum of care’, a hypothetical typology of placement options that differ in varying degrees from conventional family life. According to this philosophy, children should always be placed into family foster care rather than congregate care because foster placements are more normalised, nurturing, and place fewer limits on children’s individuality and freedom of choice. In this paper, we argue that this approach is limited because it fails to consider the diversity of actual services and structures possible at different points in the hypothetical continuum. In our view, future policies may be better served by a dimensional approach that views placement options as a configuration of factors including: the physical and living environment, service type, and staffing characteristics. In this system, the quality and suitability of placement options is no longer defined by names or labels (eg, family, group or residential), but by the actual nature of the placement provided. Appropriate combinations of these elements, rather than a choice between fixed categories, may assist in the development of innovative options better able to meet the needs of young people not suitable for existing care arrangements.

This paper presents key findings from current North Queensland doctoral research on the topic of foster carer education, training and support. Sixty-one interviews were conducted with Indigenous, non-Indigenous and relative foster carers and a broad range of other ‘key informants’. Research findings presented indicate the need for more highly specialised and accredited training for foster carers than currently exists in Queensland, and argues for the professionalisation of foster care linked to increased payments and improved support for foster carers. The paper concludes that such changes in the current foster care system are crucial if foster carers are to be recruited to, and retained in, the role and, more importantly, for there to be much improved outcomes for children in statutory care.

An earlier evaluation of the New Zealand child protection program ‘Keeping Ourselves Safe’ found, inter alia, that girls with learning problems were highly vulnerable to drugs, sexual abuse and violence (Briggs & Hawkins 1996a). This led to the present study, the aim of which was to focus specifically on children with learning disabilities, and to include data from boys as well as girls.

Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from one hundred and sixteen students aged 11–17 years (61 females and 55 males) who were interviewed in special education units. Their common characteristics were that they had all been assessed as being 3 years or more behind their chronological age group in their development and achievement, they needed individually planned curricula across the range of school subjects, and they had all previously attended mainstream schools throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

The study confirmed the vulnerability of children with learning disabilities to the risks of drugs, violence, psychological bullying, pornography and sexual abuse. Significant levels of violence in both schools and the home were found. The study also showed the need for special attention for the protection of boys.

It is possible that children with learning disabilities were targeted because they were seen as safer targets in terms of an expectation that they would be less aware of the difference between right and wrong and less likely than other children to make a report about any abusive behaviour. If this speculative hypothesis is correct, it means that children with learning disabilities require even more vigilant forms of protection than other children.

Written from a practitioner’s perspective, this article explores some concerns with the application of the very popular strength based approaches to statutory child protection work. It is suggested that, despite the many benefits and positives in these approaches, these models are sometimes used (or misused) too early in intervention, which can lead to over optimism about the possibilities for change. The article questions whether a solely strength based approach can be safely applied to child protection work, and encourages practitioners to question their practice and ‘proceed with caution’.

Following on from the article appearing in Children Australia Vol 30 No 2 (King 2005), this short paper develops a checklist for organisations working with fathers for assessing the programs they provide to men. The checklist uses four categories – environment, language, initial contact and marketing, and service provision – to assess their programs’ strengths and weaknesses.

The paper provides an opportunity for organisations to benchmark their approach in working with male service users and provides guidance on how program delivery can be improved.

This article reviews the development of men and family relationship services in Australia from a practice perspective. Significant milestones in increasing the range and diversity of services for men have been achieved since 1998, when the first National Men and Family Relationships Conference was held in Canberra. Eight principles for successful practice in working with men are identified, along with the challenges faced by the sector.