Universities play an integral role in training teachers in the areas of understanding and preparedness to deal with child abuse and neglect while at the same time advocating for the ‘rights of the child’. Unfortunately pre-service teachers are at risk of being ill-prepared to meet their mandated and teaching responsibilities if their course content is not approached strategically. While numerous studies have investigated teachers' understandings of child abuse and the barriers in detecting and reporting this abuse, this research investigates pre-service teachers' understandings of child abuse and their preparedness to deal with the signs, symptoms and disclosures of child abuse. This paper reports on findings concerning pre-service teachers ‘views of their professional role in child protection and their recommendations for content to be included in their undergraduate degrees in teacher education.

Between 2004 and 2006, the State Government of South Australia funded a foster carer recruitment service to increase the number of foster carers within the State. Based on a combination of public advertising, community consultation, and a step-by-step process of assessment, the service was successful in attracting considerable public interest in foster care. However, only limited success was achieved in recruiting new foster carers. To investigate this, a retrospective survey of 347 people who made contact with the recruitment service was conducted. The survey examined several factors that might have acted as barriers to becoming a foster carer, including: perceptions of the quality of the service, the nature of the assessment process, concerns about foster care, and personal characteristics and circumstances. The results showed that concerns about the nature of foster care (e.g. nature of the children, their families and fear of being falsely accused of abuse) discouraged around 30% of respondents, but that the majority declined to continue because of inopportune personal circumstances or a fear of failure. The findings highlight the importance of providing greater community information regarding foster care prior to large-scale campaigns, as well as undertaking more specifically targeted recruitment strategies.

Recently the Department of Community Services in New South Wales and the Department for Child Safety in Queensland have both released information about funding and the award of contracts for group homes and other residential services. In addition, in the 2008 discussion about out-of-home care at the Wood Commission of Inquiry into the Child Protection Services in New South Wales, group homes were discussed in terms of them being less demanding environments than foster care. The view presented was that group homes are appropriate for some young people who are either unsuitable for foster care or who want a less intimate setting than that provided by foster care. This article argues that group homes or residential programs, against the New South Wales and Queensland descriptions, fail to respond to the need for quality residential programs for children and youth. This is partly due to the low level of training for staff in group homes and high staff turnover.

This paper presents the case study of a family which was supported by a Victorian foster care agency over a two-year period whilst both parents were imprisoned. The article aims to raise awareness amongst practitioners across a range of fie Ids of practice about the issues faced by the children of prisoners, and to document effective and collaborative practices which enable the impact of parental incarceration to be managed and minimised for the children involved. The paper is based on data gathered for a study examining the impact of maternal incarceration on young people conducted by one of the authors. Through focusing on one family, the paper discusses the increasing phenomenon of mothers in prison and the challenges this presents both to their families and to practitioners. The paper concludes by reflecting on the process and suggests that collaborative work with the families of prisoners requires not just good intentions but resources, commitment from all parties, and mutually respectful relationships.

‘Hey, Dad! For fathers who have a child with a disability’ is a new resource to assist organisations to facilitate a program of group sessions for fathers of children with a physical, emotional or developmental disability. This paper describes the program, the reasons for its development and the reactions to its 2007 pilot.

Previous research suggests a link between experiences of state out-of-home care – particularly residential care – and involvement in prostitution. This study explored the nature of this relationship via semi-structured interviews with nine Victorian health and welfare professionals who had worked with young people living in residential care. The findings suggest a complex interaction between precare and in-care factors. Environmental and systemic factors within residential care that may contribute to prostitution involvement include peer influence, older males, drug use, staffing factors, poor provision of sex and relationship education, placement decisions, and social isolation. Some significant implications for policy and service delivery are identified.

This article addresses common misconceptions about the historic abuse of children in Victoria during the mid-twentieth century, including those contained in the 2006 official Victorian Government apology to state wards. The article has two aims – firstly, to consider allegations of abuse and some common reactions to, and explanations of those allegations; and, secondly, to test the abuse allegations against the 1954 and 1960 Victorian Children's Welfare Regulations concerning the use of corporal punishment in Children's Homes. The author contends that historical relativism and the notion that abuse allegations can be explained as a feature of changing attitudes towards children and discipline do not stand up to scrutiny and inhibit useful examination of the causes and consequences of abuse in out-of-home care.