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“Packed with cutting-edge evidence and insights from experts across the ﬁeld, this remarkable book will inform thinking and practice in child protection for years to come. ” —Professor Robbie Gilligan , School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin “This is an excellent collection of signi ﬁcant international relevance. The book ’s20 chapters bring together leading scholars from across the globe to address critical issues in child welfare and protection. Chapters cover key elements of the child protection process, whilst at the same time underscoring the central role that family networks play in pro viding care and protection for children. Given the book ’s comprehensive scope, it will be of considerable value to social work educators, students and practitioners alike. ” —Professor Karen Broadhurst , Director: Centre for Child and Family Justice Research, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK “This carefully curated volume includes an impressive array of internationally renowned scholars who grapple thoughtfully and constructively with the theoretical and practice dilemmas inherent within the child protection and child care continuum. The accom plished editors pull the diverse threads of knowledge, theory and practice together to achieve better understanding, assessment and decision making for children and their families, not just in Australia but globally. ” —Marian Brandon , Professor of Social Work and Director of the Centre for Research on Children and Families, University of East Anglia, UK “This book is essential reading for practitioners and students working with children, young people and families involved with child protection systems. The editors present contributions from leading international researchers to oﬀer an evidence-informed and practice-based approach to better practice from early intervention to protective care. The approach is child-centred, family-inclusive and culturally sensitive. I strongly recommend this book. ” —Professor Karen Healy, AM, Head of Discipline for Social Work and Counselling, The University of Queensland, Australia Child Protection and the Care Continuum This important new book critically examines the complex policy and practice issues sur rounding child protection, including the impact of theoretical orientations, contemporary debates, policy initiatives and research ﬁndings, and maintains an emphasis on the ethics and values underpinning child welfare interventions. The book introduces policies that are central to understanding the position and needs of children and young people, and how policy and practice have been inﬂuenced by develop ments including the children ’s rights agenda. It also explores the most signi ﬁcant issues in child welfare. These include: the experience of maltreatment by children, the systems of child protection to safeguard them, the methods and challenges of risk assessment, and the wide range of policy and therapeutic interventions to respond to children ’s needs. The book also examines family support to promote children ’s wellbeing before considering provision for children and young people who are looked after in out-of-home care. There is also a ﬁnal section that focuses on best practice in communicating and working with children and young people, drawing on participatory, rights-oriented and resilience-based approaches, and sup porting foster and adoptive carers and biological parents. Contributing in a substantive and clear manner to a growing international conversation about the present function and future directions for child welfare in contemporary societies, this textbook will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate social work students and those from allied disciplines, and professionals who are engaged in child welfare services. Elizabeth Fernandez is Professor of Social Work, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia. She teaches courses in Life Span Development, Child and Family Welfare Practice and Research. Her research focuses on child and family poverty, early intervention and family support, pathways and outcomes for children in care, including reuni ﬁcation of separated children and outcomes of care leavers. She has led several Aus tralian Research Council funded research studies focusing on these themes and has published widely. She is Associate Editor for Children and Youth Services Review and The Journal of Child and Family Studies . She is recipient of the 2019 International Society for Child Indica tors (ISCI) Award in honour of Alfred J. Khan and Sheila Kamerman in recognition of out standing contribution to the ﬁeld of child indicators research from an international perspective. Paul Delfabbro completed his PhD in Psychology in 1998 and has been employed by the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia, since 2001 in a combined teaching and research position. He was appointed to Professor in 2014. His principal research areas are behavioural addictions, applied cognition and child protection. He has published over 250 refereed journal articles and another 100 government reports, book chapters and conference papers. Child Protection and the Care Continuum Theoretical, Empirical and Practice Insights Edited by Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro to be identi ﬁed as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identi ﬁcation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Fernandez, Elizabeth, 1942- editor. | Delfabbro, Paul H. (Paul Howard), editor. Title: Child protection and the care continuum : theoretical, empirical and practice insights / edited by Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro. Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identi ﬁers: LCCN 2020028420 (print) | LCCN 2020028421 (ebook) | ISBN 9781760529680 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367639174 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003121305 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Child welfare. | Children –Social conditions. | Children –Services for. Classiﬁ cation: LCC HV713 .C362628 2021 (print) | LCC HV713 (ebook) | DDC 362.7–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028420 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028421 ISBN: 978-0-367-63917-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-760-52968-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-12130-5 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Taylor & Francis Books Contents List of illustrations ix List of contributors x Foreword xv Acknowledgements xvii viii Contents PART 3 The protective care continuum 149 9 Prevention and early intervention with children, young people, and families CARMEL DEVANEY 151 10 Foster family care as a response to child maltreatment JUNE THOBURN 163 11 Kinship care in Australia and the United Kingdom MEREDITH KIRALY AND ELAINE FARMER 175 12 Therapeutic residential care KENNY KOR AND PATRICIA MCNAMARA 192 13 Educational interventions that improve the attainment and progress of children in out-of-home care JUDY SEBBA 209 14 Reuni ﬁcation in out-of-home care ELIZABETH FERNANDEZ AND PAUL DELFABBRO 223 15 Creating a family life for a child through adoption JOHN SIMMONDS 241 16 Beyond care: Identities, transitions and outcomes PHILIP MENDES AND JADE PURTELL 252 PART 4 Children, parents and carers as stakeholders 269 17 Child protection and child participation JAN MASON AND TOBIA FATTORE 271 18 The right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families to eﬀective child protection services CLARE TILBURY AND NATALIE LEWIS 289 19 Engaging ﬁrst mothers, fathers and grandparents in the care continuum ELIZABETH FERNANDEZ AND ROS THORPE 300 20 Responding to carers ’ needs JILL DUERR BERRICK 318 Index 332 Illustrations Figures 10.1 The special needs of children who are looked after by the local authority 169 14.1 North Carolina Family Assessment Scale 232 Tables 10.1 0–1 Percentages of those entering care by age group. Data for Australia, England and USA from 2016 to 2017 and for other countries from 2010 to 2013 164 10.2 0–2 Percentages of children in care in diﬀerent placement types. Data for Australia, England and USA from 2016 to 2017 and for other countries from 2010 to 2013 165 12.1 Key results of the pilot program group vs. the general residential care group in the Victorian Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) evaluation 196 12.2 Summary of the milieu-based models evaluated in the Northern Ireland study 198 Boxs 3.1 Supporting parents 58 3.2 Respecting children ’s participation rights in court proceedings 60 Contributors Elizabeth Fernandez is Professor of Social Work, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia. She teaches courses in Life Span Development, Child and Family Welfare Practice and Research. Her research focuses on child and family pov erty, early intervention and family support, pathways and outcomes for children in care, including reuni ﬁcation of separated children and outcomes of care leavers. She has led several Australian Research Council funded research studies focusing on these themes and published books, book chapters and journal articles from her research. She serves on the Boards of the International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI) and of the International Association for Outcome Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children ’s Services (IAOBERfcs). She is recipient of the 2019 International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI) Award in honour of Alfred J. Khan and Sheila Kamerman in recognition of outstanding contribution to the ﬁeld of child indicators research from an international perspective. Paul Delfabbro completed his PhD in Psychology in 1998 and has been employed by the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia, since 2001 in a com bined teaching and research position. He was appointed to Professor in 2014. His principal research areas are behavioural addictions, applied cognition and child pro tection. He has published over 250 refereed journal articles and another 100 govern ment reports, book chapters and conference papers. Jill Duerr Berrick serves as the Zellerbach Family Foundation Professor in the School of Social Welfare at U.C. Berkeley, USA. Berrick ’s research focuses on the relationship of the state to vulnerable families, particularly those touched by the child welfare system. She has written on topics relating to family poverty, child maltreatment and child welfare services. Berrick ’s research approach typically relies upon the voices of service system consumers to identify the impacts of social problems and social service solutions in family life. Carmel Devaney is Lecturer and Course Director of the Master ’s Degree in Family Sup port Studies at NUI Galway, Ireland. Carmel has a longstanding interest in and com mitment to supporting and protecting children and young people within their family context. Carmel was Principal Investigator on several research projects under the Partnership, Prevention and Family Support programme for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency and has recently completed an Irish Research Council funded feasibility List of contributors xi study on conducting a longitudinal study on children in care or leaving care in the Irish context. Jennifer Driscoll runs the MAs in Child Studies and International Child Studies at King ’s College London, UK, and was previously a Family Law barrister specialising in child protection. Her academic interests are at the intersection of children ’s rights and child protection, including child protection systems, outcomes for care leavers and ethics of research with young people. Current research includes an ESRC-funded project with the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King ’s on the role of schools in safe guarding and a Leverhulme-funded study of the interaction between formal and informal child protection arrangements in Uganda. Elaine Farmer is Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Studies in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, UK, prior to which she spent several years as a social worker in England and Australia. She has directed 11 major studies, most in programmes funded by the Department of Health or the Department for Education. She has researched and published widely on child protection, fostering, residential and kinship care, adoption and reuni ﬁcation. She is author or co-author of ten published books, six online books or reports and many articles and book chapters. Elaine is a Trustee for Grandparents Plus. Tobia Fattore is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Australia. His empirical research is in the broad areas of the sociology of childhood and sociology of work. This includes a sociological examination of children ’s well being, that analyses children ’s understandings of wellbeing and how this reﬂects pro cesses of modernisation; and understanding how the everyday politics of worker practices in out-of-home care institutions are informed by historically constructed understandings of childhood. Meredith Kiraly is a psychologist with over 30 years ’ experience specialising in child and family welfare, and particularly in kinship care. She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Social Work Department at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and has a small consultancy in human services. Her numerous research projects and con sultancies have covered a range of human service areas with a focus on vulnerable children and families, and out of home care. Kenny Kor is a social work educator, practitioner and researcher with over 17 years ’ frontline and management experience in child protection, out-of-home care, family violence and mental health. Specialised in prevention, response and treatment of child maltreatment in out-of-home care settings, Kenny ’s research examines young people ’s lived experience in residential care and therapeutic residential care development and implementation. Natalie Lewis is a descendant of the Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) Nation and is the Com missioner, Queensland Child and Family Commission. She was previously CEO of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak and served on the National Executive of SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, and co-chairs Family Matters: Strong Communities, Strong Culture, Stronger Children, the national campaign to eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in statutory child protection systems. For over 20 years, her experience has xii List of contributors been called upon in Australia and the USA in youth justice and child protection for Indigenous peoples, providing direct services, programme and policy development, and organisational leadership. Alice Loving is Curriculum Lead for the Parenting curriculum delivered by Frontline and honorary lecturer for the Centre for Child Protection at Kent University, UK. She also works independently, completing assessment and intervention work for local authority child protection teams and has ten years of experience working in this ﬁeld. Alice has recently completed her PhD within the Social Care department at Royal Holloway University, UK, focused on exploring inﬂuencing factors on the outcomes of interven tion, with a particular interest in the impact of childhood trauma on parenting capacity. Jan Mason is Emeritus Professor at Western Sydney University, Australia, where she was Foundation Professor of Social Work. She was also Foundation Director of the Childhood and Youth Policy Research Unit and then the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre. Jan ’s early career, in the state child welfare department, informs her academic work which focuses on linking theory, policy and practice on children ’s issues. She has published on child welfare and protection, child and family policy, child –adult relations, children ’s needs in care, kinship care, child wellbeing and researching with children. Patricia McNamara is an experienced teaching and research academic, currently based at the University of Melbourne as a Senior Fellow in Social Work (Hon). She worked for many years as a teacher, social worker and family therapist. Patricia is widely pub lished and has frequently been invited to present internationally. Her current research interests are therapeutic approaches to residential and foster care and education in out-of-home care. Philip Mendes is Director of the Social Inclusion and Social Policy Research Unit in the Social Work Department at Monash University, Australia. For the last 20 years, he has been engaged in ongoing research on young people transitioning from out-of-home care. He is a member of the Transitions to Adulthood for Young People Leaving Public Care International Research Group, and has completed a number of major leaving care studies pertaining to youth justice, disability, Indigenous care leavers, and mentoring and employment programs. Alexander Osborn holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Adelaide and com pleted a Master of Clinical Psychology. She has worked in clinical practice for almost a decade and specialises in the treatment of mood disorders, trauma and a range of other conditions. Her PhD and published research focused speci ﬁcally on the needs of children in out-of-home care, therapeutic approaches, services and supports. Jade Purtell is currently undertaking a PhD study in the Department of Social Work at Monash University on care leavers, family and early parenting. She is an Out-of-Home Care and Transitions from Care researcher as well as a Youth Participation con sultant. Jade has worked collaboratively with the Children, Youth and Families sector to promote young people ’s participation in research and increased involvement of young people in policy and key decision making by government and the community List of contributors xiii sector. Jade has assisted the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People in the development of their youth engagement framework and recent inquiries. Judy Sebba is at the Rees Centre for Research on Fostering and Education at the Uni versity of Oxford, UK. The Centre involves education professionals, carers and care experienced young people in setting priorities, undertaking research and dissemination. Her current role at the Rees Centre includes supporting others designing research and evaluations in children ’s services, mainly on education –social care linkage, mental health, fostering/adoption and UASC. She was awarded an OBE in 2018 in the New Year ’s Honours list. Rosemary Sheehan teaches mental health in the postgraduate social work programme and is Co-ordinator of the Higher Degrees by Research programme at the Department of Social Work at Monash University. She was previously a Dispute Resolution Convener in the Children’s Court of Victoria, dealing with disputes between families and the child protection service. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 2014 for services to children and the law. Her published research covers child welfare and the law, family violence, mental health, judicial and corrections responses to oﬀenders, with reference to women oﬀenders and ageing oﬀenders. David Shemmings is Emeritus Professor of Child Protection Research at the University of Kent, UK and Visiting Professor of Child Protection Research at Royal Holloway, University of London. David is the author of over 70 articles, books and chapters on relationally based theory, research and practice. Finally, he was co-Director, with Prof Jane Reeves, of the online International Centre for Child Protection at the University of Kent where they established a multidisciplinary and international distance-learning MA in Advanced Child Protection. John Simmonds is Director of Policy, Research and Development at CoramBAAF, for merly the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. Previously, John was head of the social work programmes at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is a quali ﬁed social worker and has substantial experience in child protection, family place ment and residential care settings. He is currently responsible for CoramBAAF ’s con tribution to the development of policy and practice in social work, health, the law and research. He was awarded an OBE in the New Year ’s Honours list 2015 and an hon orary doctorate in Education from the Tavistock NHS Foundation Trust/University of East London. June Thoburn is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of East Anglia, UK. She practiced as a child and family social worker in England and Canada before becoming a social work educator and researcher. She has practiced, lectured and researched and published across the whole area of child and family welfare services, including neighbourhood-based family support, intensive family casework, family court work, and services for children in care or placed for adoption. She was awarded a CBE for services to social work in 2002. Ros Thorpe is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at James Cook University, and, since her retirement at the end of 2010, she is President of and a volunteer community social worker with The Family Inclusion Network, a service user support and advocacy orga nisation in which families and supportive professionals work together to achieve greater xiv List of contributors social justice for children and families caught up in the child protection system. Ros has had signi ﬁcant practice experience in family casework and group-work in child welfare and has an international reputation for her research with children in out-of-home care, their parents, and their foster carers. Clare Tilbury is the Leneen Forde Chair of Child and Family Research and Professor in the School of Human Services and Social Work at Gri ﬃth University. Her research expertise relates to child protection systems, performance measurement, accountability and racial disparities. She has led signi ﬁcant national child protection research projects and publishes extensively about child protection and family support in Australian and international scholarly journals. Prior to entering academia in 2004, Clare worked for 20 years in child and family direct practice, policy, management and research roles. Dale Tolliday is NSW Health Senior Clinical Advisor on Sexual and Violent Behaviour and Clinical Advisor to NSW Health ’s New Street Services. New Street Services are an integrated network of health services for children who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour delivered across NSW. Dale is based at the Sydney Children ’s Hospitals Network and NSW Ministry of Health. Dale ’s work with people who have sexually harmed others spans over 30 years. Prior to this, Dale worked in a variety of child, adolescent and family mental health settings. Foreword This book oﬀers proof positive that the universe of international child welfare is at once expanding and contracting. Author/editors Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfab bro are seasoned and senior child welfare scholars and researchers well quali ﬁed to paint in broad strokes the complex and multidimensional landscape within which child protective services resides in contemporary Australian society. With their impressive and varied cohort of contributing authors, they have produced a work that holds great promise as a sourcebook in child welfare and child protection. I have little doubt that its varied and detailed twenty chapters will yield insights and valuable knowledge for beginning students in social work and related disciplines, as well as for seasoned prac titioners, senior administrators and child welfare researchers. The contents of this richly detailed compendium – Child Protection and the Care Continuum: Theoretical, Empirical and Practice Insights – draws equally from value, empirical and theoretical sources. The sca ﬀolding erected by the editors – policy, practice and research – allows for ﬂuid transmissions within and between these domains and illustrates both in broad themes and speci ﬁc exemplars the interpenetration within and between all three. International child welfare scholars will quickly discover familiar pathways and sign posts here, in lucid discussions of such familiar topics as “privacy ”, “setting a threshold for state intervention in family life ”, “permanency ”, “evidence-based practice ” and the “role of parents, children and carers as stakeholders ”. In fact, this last topic constitutes an entire section of the book and illustrates the central and continuing role of parents, children and caregivers in choosing, shaping and implementing both particular interven tions and broad policy initiatives. That the examples oﬀered here reﬂect sensitivity to both the challenges of multi-generational parenting and parenting needs and strengths within communities of color suggests both the value of richly textured indigenous initiatives and the folly of “one-size- ﬁts all ”. One ﬁnal note: Fernandez and colleagues contribute in a substantive and clear manner to a growing international conversation about the present function and future directions for child welfare in contemporary societies. If there is indeed an Australian template here, perhaps its ultimate bene ﬁt to those of us outside may be in identifying how a society examines values, data and circumstances similar in many ways to our own and comes up with diﬀerent policy, practice and research priorities. Rigorous, cross-national analyses xvi Foreword must constitute a key element in our future child welfare reform initiatives. This book serves as a stimulus and catalyst to just such an exercise. James K. Whittaker, PhD Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus School of Social Work The University of Washington, Seattle, USA Acknowledgements This work is the outcome of the generosity and commitment of many individuals who must be acknowledged. Special thanks are due to Professor James Whittaker for writing the foreword to this book, bringing to it insights based on his international understandings of research, policy and practice developments and challenges in this ﬁeld. Special thanks are due to Professor Paul Delfabbro for his collaboration as co-editor and his commentary on chapters. This collection has been made possible by the expertise of the contributing authors and their commitment to scholarship and the book ’s vision. Thanks go out to all authors who have provided unique cross-national perspectives on advancing the care and protection of children and the wellbeing of their caregivers. Their patience and cooperation with the editorial process are acknowledged. The themes presented in this book have bene ﬁted from collaboration and exchange. Conversations with colleagues in Australia and overseas have aﬀorded a wellspring of ideas. Students, practitioners, academics and researchers have enriched this work immeasurably over the years. It has been invaluable to exchange ideas with researchers at seminars hosted by the International Association of Outcome Based Evaluation and Research in child and family services (IAOBERfcs), and national conferences of the Association of Children ’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA). Thanks are due to Routledge UK for the opportunity to publish this volume, in particular, to Catherine Jones, Editorial Assistant, who has kept the book on track and steered it through the production process to completion, and Jane Fieldsend for her thorough copy- editing to ensure consistency in presentation. I would like to acknowledge Elizabeth Weiss who provided valuable editorial guidance in the early development of this volume. I would like to acknowledge P. Suyat and Dr Nicole Saintilan, Education Developer, UNSW for facilitating the development of the cover design. I thank Szilvia Kovacs for her research assistance and for formatting the manuscript with exceptional skill and care. A great deal of commitment and forbearance have been necessary in our respective families who have been a source of strength and support. I thank my husband, Carl, for his patience, understanding and nurture throughout the writing of this book. I express appreciation to my parents who rose above many adversities to support my education. Through their energy and curiosity, Sienna, Antonia and Quinn challenge my thinking about children and keep me critical. It is hoped this collection contributes in some mea sure to supporting the rights and wellbeing of children and families served by the child welfare system and makes a diﬀerence to outcomes. Elizabeth Fernandez 1 Part 1 The context of child and family welfare 3 Chapter 1 Policy and trends in child welfare in Australia and the global context Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Introduction Family and child welfare policy and practice reﬂect society ’s organised concern about the intrinsic worth of the child and the family, and the rights of the child as a developing person and citizen. The ﬁeld of family and child welfare is confronted with challenges to respond to complex problems, including the increased oﬃcial reporting of child abuse and neglect and the care and protection of children and young people. Evidence of com munity outrage at media accounts of children who have been abused physically, emo tionally and sexually, or neglected, and the inability of the child welfare system to prevent maltreatment or protect children either in their own families or in public care have inﬂuenced directions of child welfare policy and practice. However, the child pro tection system operates in a complex environment where decision making often requires interdisciplinary knowledge; legal understanding; psychological and sociological insights; analytical skills; and, reﬂective ethical practice. As will be shown in this book, the poli cies and services designed to protect children and support families are constantly evolving in response to these challenges and debates. Policymakers and practitioners are con fronted with diﬃcult decisions that have far reaching consequences for children and families. Safeguarding children who are maltreated and who need protective care is a central element of child welfare. For example, the deﬁnition and scope of maltreatment, its cause, and how it should be responded to are the subject of continuing international and national debate. At what point or threshold should care be considered inadequate or abusive? Some commentators have argued that the deﬁnitions of maltreatment applied to families are too broad, exposing families to unwarranted intrusion through investigative processes (Besharov 1985; Gibbons, Conroy & Bell 1995; Munro 2011), whereas others have argued that many families do receive adequate interventions. These dilemmas con front child protection systems internationally and are equally relevant to child protection policy and practice in Australia. The child welfare continuum Child welfare systems are often described as providing a ‘continuum ’ of services and supports for children aﬀected by child abuse and other related problems. The term con tinuum refers to the scope and intensity of the intervention or the degree to which the state is required to intervene to protect children from harm. The priority in this 4 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro continuum is the provision of family-based services to enable families and children to remain together. Interventions can range from the noti ﬁcation or recording of abuse incidents; to investigations and substantiations; to the provision of services that involve the state in the lives of children and families, including removal of children from their families and placement into other arrangements. Interventions often involve a range of parties including the court system, child welfare services, non-government organisations and those who provide the care itself (e.g. foster carers and kinship carers and adoptive parents). Even within these diﬀerent levels of the system there can be variations in what might be considered a ‘continuum ’ of service options. For example, in out-of-home care, children can be placed with their relatives or with strangers (foster care), but there are also more institutional forms of care (group homes, residential care) where the environ ment is less similar to the child ’s home or family environment. Services can also vary in terms of the level of resources applied to each case or intensity of intervention provided (Whittaker, del Valle & Holmes 2015). Some children may go into out-of-home care with few additional supports, whereas others may receive therapeutic interventions and a constellation of diﬀerent services. Child maltreatment In the last ﬁve decades of child welfare history and policy, child maltreatment has been a major focus of concern. The ‘discovery ’ and growth in concern about child abuse since the 1960s has been the subject of an expanding international literature which has docu mented the emergence of it as a social concern and how it might be addressed. In the 1960s Henry Kempe and his colleagues, focusing on extremely brutalised young children, drew attention to what was labelled the ‘battered child syndrome ’ (Krugman & Korbin 2013). Initial conceptualisations of the problem of maltreatment as ‘the battered child ’ syndrome in the 1960s reﬂected a narrow deﬁnition of child maltreatment. This deﬁnition has since expanded to include physical neglect, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and orga nised abuse. Constantly widening deﬁnitions of child abuse have seen the phenomenon of physical battery expand to include neglect, emotional abuse and sexual abuse (Cooper 1993) and a consequent expansion of the grounds on which the state may intervene. A further inﬂuential factor in the mobilisation of the child protection agenda was the rise of the ‘women ’s movement ’ in the late 1970s. This movement added political momentum to the recognition of the problem of sexual abuse (Finkelhor 1996) and resulted in greater recognition of the importance of family safety and domestic violence (Parton 1990). As women ’s representation in the government and higher status profes sions such as medicine, law and health increased, they brought with them their interest in children and sensitivity to child welfare concerns increased. The children ’s rights move ment of the 1980s gave further impetus to the child protection agenda. Other important developments have been the eﬀect of children ’s exposure to domestic violence and parental drug and alcohol misuse (Cleaver et al. 2007) as well as recognition of the simultaneous exposure of children to multiple forms of maltreatment or polyvictimisation (Clemmons et al. 2007). A large body of international research has shown that childhood exposure to physical, sexual and emotional abuse impacts developmental outcomes and contributes to impaired mental health in adulthood (Buckingham & Daniolos 2013; Fernandez & Lee 2017; Finkelhor et al. 2007; Gilbert et al. 2009; Nurius et al. 2007). Trauma from childhood Policy and trends in child welfare 5 maltreatment causes debilitating emotional and behavioural diﬃculties in children and can aﬀect their ability to cope while in care, and can lead to adverse outcomes for older youth transitioning out of the care system (McMillen et al. 2005). In support of this view, Australian research quantifying the burden of psychological disturbance attributable to multiple forms of maltreatment concludes that a signi ﬁcant proportion of depressive and anxiety disorders and intentional self-harm is attributable to maltreatment in childhood (Moore, McArthur & Noble-Carr 2015). All of these developments have occurred in the context of ongoing debate about the deﬁnitions and causes of abuse. The international child welfare literature is replete with deﬁnitions and typologies of speci ﬁc types of maltreatment (Corby et al. 2012). These deﬁnitions, often presented in statutes and in the literature, are usually descriptive of incidents constituting abuse. In a legal context, the deﬁnitions adopted can inﬂuence reporting requirements; decisions about state intervention involving removal of children to care; and, even the termination of parental rights. More broadly, the deﬁnitions and understanding of child abuse have expanded beyond the family to encompass internationally recognised problems such as child sexual exploitation, child pornography, child tra ﬃcking and institutional abuse. Meanwhile, at a basic practice level, child neglect continues to be the most frequently occurring form of abuse faced by child protection systems. The psychological and physi cal consequences of neglect are widely documented (Erickson & Egeland 2002). Neglect has had a low pro ﬁle in professional and public awareness relative to physical and sexual abuse, with neglect cases often being ﬁltered out of the system at various thresholds. Further, neglect has been portrayed as almost indistinguishable from the eﬀects of pov erty (Stevenson 1989). Research repeatedly highlights the association between maltreat ment and low-income families and neighbourhoods and the potential for social inequalities to have an impact on the incidence of maltreatment, and for service responses to reinforce and exacerbate such inequities for children and families (Bunting et al. 2018; Bywaters et al. 2015; Coulton et al. 2007; Donelan-McCall, Eckenrode & Olds 2009). The broad association of poverty with increased rates of neglect as well as other forms of abuse draw attention to the fundamental importance of understanding the extent to which abuse arises from structural or broader socio-economic factors as opposed to those which are attributable to individual characteristics of families: their decisions, choices, behaviours and disposition. For example, if abuse is seen to arise largely from structural factors, it implies that signi ﬁcant improvements might be achieved through preventive and supportive approaches. Accordingly, there have been calls for child protection sys tems to respond diﬀerentially to cases involving substantial risk and those situations where families are in need of services and family-based interventions. Such tensions are evident in the literature relating to the deﬁnition and causes of abuse. For example, early discussion of abuse favoured deﬁnitions that illuminate abuse at the institutional and structural levels as opposed to the exclusive legal focus on individual culpability. Abuse was deﬁned as ‘inﬂicted gaps or deﬁcits between circumstances of living which would facilitate the optimal development of children to which they should be entitled and their actual circumstances, irrespective of the sources or agents of the deﬁcit (Gil 1975: 346). Such a broader approach to deﬁnition highlights the structural bases of maltreatment and has the potential for intervention that enhances the quality of life for all children. The link between structural disadvantage and child maltreatment has been underscored. That child maltreatment occurs across the spectrum of family income and education, or that 6 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro some forms of child maltreatment are more explicitly linked to socio-economic stress is acknowledged (Pelton 2015; Welbourne 2012). However, through the 1990s commentators have aﬃrmed the need for a more comprehensive strategy which is child-centred, family- focused and neighbourhood-based (Berger & Slack 2014; Garbarino & Barry 1997; Melton & Barry 1994) and which involves a range of systems: physical and mental health, educa tion, justice, housing and income support, in achieving a broader safety net for all children. Historical context and trends in child protection In the mid-1970s there was a re-emergence of state and media interest in the incidence and severity of child maltreatment, and children at risk of abuse became a major focus of all Statutory Departments. In response to the increased identi ﬁcation of child abuse and well publicised cases of maltreatment, such as Colwell in Britain (Parton & Martin 1989) and Montcalm in Australia (Lawrence 1983), a strong interventionist stance re-emerged and there was a proliferation of directives and safeguards to ensure early detection and prompt action in dealing with child abuse and neglect. Despite the broader long-term trends, there can be signi ﬁcant variations between jurisdictions based upon the drawing of thresholds. Nevertheless, it is thought that there has been a lowering of thresholds for deﬁning abuse and sanctioning intervention over time; an outcome resulting from increasing emphasis on children ’s rights, the inﬂuence of the feminist theories about vic timisation and societal expectation and endorsement of state intervention in family life (Fernandez 2005). One of the particularly inﬂuential factors has been the adoption of the policy of mandatory reporting which has been an integral part of the child welfare agenda to further ensure children ’s safety and wellbeing. In support of this view, the pattern of reporting abuse and neglect reﬂects a striking increase over time. In Australia over 2017 –2018 396,000 noti ﬁcations or reports of child abuse were recorded. An estimated 245,000 children were the subject of these noti ﬁca tions (AIHW 2019). Children may be involved in multiple statutory noti ﬁcations in a year. During the period 2012 –2013, 272,980 noti ﬁcations were received involving 184, 216 children, and representing a 98% increase in reports over a decade (AIHW 2014). Of the noti ﬁcations in 2017 –2018, 37% (146,000) were judged to require further investigation, while 63% were referred to support services. The rate of children who were subject of noti ﬁcations rose from 37.8 per 1000 children in 2013 –2014 to 44.4 per 1000 children in 2017 –2018. Other statistics show that the rate of children who were subject of a sub stantiated noti ﬁcation rose from 7.2 per 1000 children in 2013 –2014 to 8.5 per 1000 chil dren in 2017 –2018 (AIHW 2019). Children who were subjects of substantiation were most likely to be from the lowest socio-economic areas (36% in contrast to 5% in the highest). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children are vastly overrepresented in substantiations at 42 per 1000 children compared with 6.5 per 1000 for non-Indigenous children, reﬂecting seven times the rate of non-Indigenous children. In 2017 –2018 emotional abuse was the most common primary type of abuse sub stantiated (59%), followed by neglect (17%), physical abuse (15%) and sexual abuse (9%). Variations are evident in the substantiations of diﬀerent types of abuse in diﬀerent states with diﬀerential policies across state jurisdictions accounting for variations. While these data point to a perceived escalation in the incidence of maltreatment, they are indicative of increasing professional and community awareness of the vulnerabilities of children and increased commitment to protect the rights of children. Policy and trends in child welfare 7 Regardless of jurisdictional diﬀerences between the states, in general in situations where the harm, or the risk of harm, is serious or when parents need relief for a period of time, the authorities may apply to the Children ’s Court for Care and Protection Orders. An overview of the structure and decision-making processes of Children ’s Courts in dif ferent states is available in Sheehan (Chapter 7). Care and Protection Orders may vary from highly interventionist orders involving transfer of legal guardianship to the State Department; to Third Party, Parental Responsibility Orders involving transfer of guar dianship to a relative or carer; to less interventionist orders such as supervisory orders where children continue to be under the custody and responsibility of parents with the State Department supervising and monitoring the quality of care (AIHW 2014). Place ment in out of home care is considered as an intervention of last resort. When children are placed in care the policy emphasis is on reuni ﬁcation. The number of Australian children on Care and Protection orders following substantiated abuse has been steadily rising. At June 2018, 56,400 children were on Care and Protection Orders. A rate of 10.1 per 1000 children (AIHW 2019), rising from 8.2 per 1000 in 2012 –2013 (AIHW 2014). Indigenous children are vastly overrepresented on Care and Protection Orders at 68.5 per 1000 children (AIHW 2019). In Australia, as is the case overseas, child protection systems are reviewed periodically. A major driver of policy change has been a series of child abuse tragedies and alleged negligent practice. Media archives document scandals, and errors in judgement and man agement that have exposed vulnerable children to extreme maltreatment and even death. While the development and reﬁnement of child protection systems have brought greater numbers of children and families to the attention of child protection authorities, there is a trend of ignoring vulnerable families of children in need, until there is demonstrated risk. Further, the unintended consequences have been an avalanche of child abuse reports transforming the nature of child welfare in that statutory child welfare systems have been consigned to receiving, investigating and substantiating child abuse reports as a restricted paradigm of responding to children and families (Fernandez 2014; Worley & Melton 2013). Particular discourses have emerged around the operation of child protection systems and their impact on children and families and the need to strike a balance between pro tection and prevention. There have been portrayals of the child protection system as being either under protective or overly intrusive (Ainsworth & Hansen 2005; Gibbons, Conroy & Bell 1995; Hutchinson 1990). Other commentators have drawn attention to the forensically dominated responses to child protection in recent years, where monitoring and surveillance have dominated and social work with children and families is increas ingly portrayed in legal and procedural terms (Parton 1997). The preoccupation with a child protection focus has had wide-ranging impacts on service delivery to families. The systems and practices developed to respond to the escalating noti ﬁcations of abuse had implications for responses to children and families generally and not only those who were abused or at risk of abuse. Many who met the threshold did not receive the appropriate service or received no service at all. Ensuring eﬀective protective and supportive responses to the needs of children, young people and their parents is an ongoing challenge in the design and delivery of child pro tection and welfare systems worldwide. The distinction between, and merits of a Child Protection or Family Support orientation (Gilbert, Parton & Skivenes 2011) are widely debated. An appraisal of the child protection orientation and protective care systems have identi ﬁed several deﬁcits and inadequacies including: 8 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro � Responses being incident focused, forensically driven, defensive and reactive and dominated by surveillance and monitoring (Buckley 2011; Parton 2006). � Inadequate responses to families experiencing diﬀerent vulnerabilities including entrenched poverty, isolation, family violence and physical and mental health chal lenges which are overlooked until there is demonstrated risk (Morris et al. 2018; Parton 2014; Pelton 2015; Welbourne 2012). � Preoccupation with investigation and validation of reports and failure to engage with families resulting in alienation of families and their reluctance to approach welfare and other services (Munro 2008; Waldfogel 2008). � The continued over presentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in child protection noti ﬁcations, substantiation and in care systems resulting from the slow recognition of Aboriginal self-determination and reluctance of welfare authorities to accept intrinsic diﬀerences in family structure and child rearing practices between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal societies and appreciation of the legacy of the Stolen Generations (Atkinson 2011; Blackstock, Trocme & Bennett 2004; Lavarch 1995; Tilbury 2015). � Paucity of ‘early ’ intervention and supportive services to prevent entry to protective care, and to facilitate reuni ﬁcation with families when care is needed (Delfabbro et al. 2013; Higgins & Katz 2008; Devaney 2016; Parton 1997). � Marginalisation of the views of young people and parents in decision making (Buckley, Carr & Whelan 2011; Thorpe 2008). � An overburdened system posing challenges in workforce retention and relational continuity for clientele (Healy & Oltedal 2010). � Lack of evaluative research to establish the eﬃcacy of child protection interventions relative to other modes of intervention (Price-Robertson, Brom ﬁeld & Lamont 2014). � System and service failures reﬂected in the revolving door of re reporting and re substantiation (AIHW 2019; Bentley et al. 2017; Fluke et al. 2008) highlighting inadequacies in assessment and/or inadequacies in response to ameliorating the circumstances of vulnerable children and families (Higgins et al. 2019). The current system mostly responds to allegations of risk and harm, rather than needs. The impact on children and families of being drawn into, and subsequently ﬁltered out of the child protection net when claims of abuse are dismissed has been noted. Large numbers of children and families noti ﬁed do not receive even the pretence of any service other than investigation (Cooper 1993; McCurdy & Daro 1993; Melton & Barry 1994; Thompson 1994). This investigative focus detracts from the more fundamental development of policy and practice to prevent initial or further harm. Preventative and supportive services for all children and families receive lower priority. Vulnerable families in need of services are likely to be caught in the net of child protec tion in order to access services. The preoccupation with investigation and validation and failure to engage with families to address their needs had the eﬀect of alienating and deterring families from approaching welfare services (Fernandez 2005; Munro 2008; Waldfogel 2008). The eﬀectiveness and impact of child protection interventions have also been called into question by researchers including (Campbell et al. 2010) who found no improvement in risk factors experienced by investigated families. Issues of family func tioning, lack of social supports, poverty and children ’s emotional and behavioural problems persisted and were comparable to families who were not investigated. Policy and trends in child welfare 9 For the most part, child maltreatment has been attributed to parental inadequacies compounded by pitfalls in child protection systems, but the causes are often more com plex and arise from a combination of personal, social and broader structural factors. Despite developments in public health and preventative approaches, much of the focus of child protection policy has been on the residual, protective and coercive dimensions of statutory social work at the expense of family support services. Such approaches position practitioners in child protection as agents of social control, with intervention being focused at the tertiary level after abuse has occurred. Pelton (1989), critical of the residual focus of child protection interventions, advocates rethinking our collective responsibility for children by addressing wider social and economic problems which families face. In a similar vein, Frost and Stein (1989) advocate policies of ‘structural prevention ’ and a child welfare practice that acknowledges and responds to divisions of class, ethnicity and gender (Lee & Fernandez 2019). Over the past 15 years several state or territory public inquiries into the operation of child protection systems have been undertaken in a number of jurisdictions reﬂecting strong public interest in child protection outcomes for children (AIHW 2012; Commission for Public Administration 2004; Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland 1999; Crime and Misconduct Commission 2004; Ford 2007; Mulligan 2008; Northern Territory Government 2010; Nyland Royal Commission (SA) 2016; Wood 2008). In calling for a paradigm shift in the operation of child protection systems to generate better responses to, and outcomes for vulnerable children and families, these inquiries have triggered major changes in policy and practice in the respective jurisdictions. Dif ferent states have responded to the acknowledged need for major system-wide reform in diﬀerent ways. Some states have embarked on large-scale reform of legislation and policy following major Inquiries, in order to strengthen child protection and/or strengthen family-based services (Wise 2019). One example has been the recommendation to intro duce more early intervention strategies as based on a more public health approach to child welfare. Early intervention and family support programs are designed to enable parents to provide a nurturing environment for children and reduce the likelihood of children entering public care. Family-based, early intervention is particularly important in promoting a safe and stable environment for children exposed to issues of parental drug and alcohol misuse, domestic violence, mental health concerns, and who are in general at imminent risk of abuse and neglect and removal to care (Fernandez & Atwool 2013). At a Federal level, in Australia, an overarching child protection national policy is represented in a National Framework for Protecting Australia ’s Children 2009 –2020 (Council of Australian Governments, (COAG) 2009) developed through a consultative process with states and territories and signi ﬁcant stakeholders including children and young people. This framework, grounded in the principles of the UN Convention on Rights of the Child and endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (AIHW 2013) reﬂects national leadership in the sphere of safeguarding children and provides impetus for changes across systems. Discussion is also directed towards the value of public health approaches to child protection, with an emphasis on primary prevention. Central to this model is a focus on intervening early in children ’s lives to identify needs and problems to ensure they do not escalate and responding to families in supportive ways. The emphasis is on reducing risk factors and optimising children ’s developmental outcomes through universal primary preventive services delivered to all families, with additional services targeted to those in special need (Tomison 2004; Wulczyn et al. 2005). 10 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Instead of focusing on children at risk, a public health approach would entail reorienting universal and secondary services towards working at the community level to proactively nurture and support children and families in their everyday lives (Melton 2014. This shift in thinking has prompted discourses about ‘balancing ’ and ‘refocusing ’ services and rede ﬁning concerns from ‘child protection ’ to ‘safe guarding ’ (Daro & Benedetti 2014; James & James 2008; Parton 2006). Public health approaches underscore the importance of extending the focus of child protection responses from detection of cases and removal to out-of-home care to pre vention. This paradigm argues that resources can be more eﬀectively allocated to the pri mary strategies that examine the underlying causes of child protection involvement (e.g., social disadvantage, the number of children, sources, and the availability of services and supports). Such approaches encourage practices that look to support families at times of vulnerability to reduce the likelihood of abuse occurring and to provide more supportive, rather than punitive service responses. Approaches favoured under this paradigm include intensive family preservation services; home-visiting services; community support pro grammes; mentoring and other interventions that are directed towards the communities and families at greatest risk of child protection involvement. Such approaches are not, however, without challenges. Daro and Karter (2019) draw attention to the challenges and requisites for transitioning from targeting prevention services to a universal platform for all parents and children, while Parton (2019: 76) introduces a note of caution suggesting that ‘at a time when many of the long term universal welfare services are being cut back and withdrawn altogether we need to be careful about what we do in the name of public health and prevention ’. Out-of-home care Increasing use of Care and Protection Orders coincides with increases in out-of-home care. Integral to Australian child protection is out-of-home care provision for children, where reports of abuse and neglect are substantiated and where children cannot live safely with their families. At June 2018, nationally approximately 45,800 children were in out-of-home care, a rate 82.2 per 1000 children; 93% of children were in home-based care (kinship care and non-relative foster care) and about 6% in residential care. The pattern of disproportionality is further evident in the rate of Indigenous children in out- of-home care, 59.4 per 1000 children, 11 times the rate for non-Indigenous children (AIHW 2019) and showing steady increases since 2009 from 44.8 per 1000 children. The reasons for this increase are likely to reﬂect changes in the broader child protec tion system, but also reﬂect broader issues in society including increasing drug and alco hol use by parents, increasing exposure of children to domestic violence and abuse, implementation of policies of mandatory noti ﬁcation, and increasing levels of poverty and deprivation in families. In response, there are a range of options available for children who are unable to be cared for by their parents temporarily or permanently. These include formal and informal care arrangements. Formal care options include foster care with non-relatives, kinship care, adoption and residential care, the latter comprising institutions, boarding schools, small group homes, and youth hostels and shelters. Family-based foster care remains the domi nant form of out-of-home care for maltreated and dependent children in most developed countries. Other increasingly important forms of care are kinship foster care placements Policy and trends in child welfare 11 (which now comprise around 50% of all placements) and more intensive approaches to care, including treatment foster care placements. Such new ‘professionalised ’ or intensive forms of care have emerged to replace more institutional or congregate forms of care that have declined over the last few decades due to concerns about quality, child abuse allega tions and links to the ‘Stolen Generation ’ policies. Placement of this nature are often more expensive and are frequently provided by external organisations in the form of ‘care packages ’ that often involved signi ﬁcantly increased levels of resourcing (Delfabbro, Osborn & Barber 2005). The organisation and outcomes of these initiatives will be of substantial interest to readers in Australia and across the world as will the outcomes that are being achieved. Principal issues in out-of-home care Outcomes The system of out-of-home care has been subject to research scrutiny to identify out comes experienced by children, and the practices and policies that underpin its opera tion (Fernandez & Atwool 2013). Internationally, studies allude to the serious diﬃculties children in care experience (Doyle 2007), exacerbated by the instability they experience through breakdown of placements (McDowall 2013; Oosterman et al. 2007; Sinclair et al. 2004; Wulczyn 2003). A number of studies have demonstrated the low priority out-of-home care systems give to education and schooling and the barriers to educational attainment that children in care experience as a result of changes of place ment and schools, and low expectations by teachers and carers (Sebba et al. 2015; Townsend 2012) and children ’s vulnerability to mental health concerns (Fernandez 2008; Tarren-Sweeney & Hazell 2006). The goals of out-of-home care interventions There have also been debates about the broader ideological goals of child protection, particularly in relation to the debate concerning the goals of family preservation, child protection and permanency and stability. In recent years child welfare policy has exten ded its focus from child safety to child permanency (Maluccio, Fein & Olmstead 1986). Such approaches involve early intervention and family support to prevent entry to care as a priority, and when care is essential to the child ’s safety to facilitate reuni ﬁcation with families from care. When reuni ﬁcation is not considered a viable pathway, a care plan must propose a suitable long-term placement or adoption. The goals of safety, stability and permanence have dominated out-of-home care systems. While these are acknowl edged as important and laudable goals they are limited in their reach. Though there has been some emphasis on broadening child welfare policy to incorporate child wellbeing as a central goal policy, specifying child wellbeing as an explicit outcome has not been stressed. A broader focus is needed that targets overall wellbeing of children (Wulczyn et al. 2005) encompassing education, health, emotional, social and relational outcomes as part of the metrics by which out-of-home care is evaluated. An integrated and holistic approach to children ’s wellbeing in care enhances the prospects of safety and perma nence, and their later wellbeing (Courtney 2009). 12 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Leaving care The challenges experienced by young people leaving the care system have received wide attention in research and policy. Evidence from research suggests they confront major diﬃculties in securing educational, vocational, housing, employment and other opportu nities integral to their transition out of care. Australian studies have documented their severely reduced life chances, noting they are more prone to experiencing substance abuse and mental health problems, marginal educational and employment outcomes, home lessness and becoming parents at an early age (Cashmore & Paxman 2007; McDowall 2013; Okpych & Courtney 2014; Pecora et al. 2006). Inter-generational abuse Another signi ﬁcant issue is the historic abuse experienced by adults who as children lived in institutional and other forms of care during the twentieth century and experienced harsh punishment and sexual abuse that were reported to be common experiences impacting on their current mental health (CLAN 2008; Fernandez et al. 2016; McKenzie 2003; Penglase 2005). Currently national concern about how children were treated whilst in ‘care ’ instigated the Australian Government ’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse particularly in relation to organisations with responsibility for children in their care. In addition to the public acknowledgement of ‘wrongs ’ perpetrated against children, the evi dence emerging from proceedings should inform policy and practice to enhance the safety of contemporary systems, a theme addressed in this book in Chapter 5 by Tolliday. Policy and practice issues Recognition of child rights and listening to children There is increasing recognition of the need to enhance participation of children in the ser vices they receive. The discourse of child welfare has shifted internationally in the last cen tury from one of child rescue, in which the child is viewed as vulnerable and dependent and in need of adult protection, to that of children ’s rights, focusing on the child ’s capabilities, strengths and agency, and recognising the child as an active participant in decisions aﬀecting them (Mayall 2002). This raises implications for privileging children ’s rights in the operation of the protective care continuum. Participation by children in matters which aﬀect them is a reﬂection that children as individuals have views and opinions which cannot be represented by parents or professionals. The past decade has seen changes to legislation which place speci ﬁc statutory duty on Community Service Departments to ascertain the wishes and feelings of the child and to take these into account when making decisions. Children ’spar ticipatory rights have been enhanced by the establishment in Australia of the CREATE Foundation (www.create.org.au ) and a national Commissioner for Children to engage and empower young people in participating actively in decisions which aﬀect their lives. Indigenous children The overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child welfare system is a major policy challenge for many countries with colonised indigenous Policy and trends in child welfare 13 populations. In Australia the legacy of colonisation is evident in large gaps between indi genous and non-indigenous wellbeing on several social and economic indices. These inequities are also evident in the child welfare system with indigenous families much more likely to be subject to child protection interventions and removals to care. Earlier in Aus tralia ’s history, processes of colonisation involved regulation of family life and childhood through forcible separation of children from their families, institutional care, assimilation and denial of cultural identity, stolen childhoods and intergenerational trauma. Entrenched problems of poverty, social exclusion, lack of resources and reluctance of main-stream welfare authorities to accept diﬀerences in family structure and child rearing practices between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal societies contributed to an over-representation of Aboriginal children in care. This pattern of over-representation and disadvantage continues today even after formal recognition of the tragic mistakes of previous policies and prac tices. The trauma associated with the severance of parental and family relationships, the added alienation from culture and the attempted erasure of Aboriginality has had a severe and long-lasting impact on the ‘stolen generations ’ and their descendants. The legacies that created the policies of the stolen generations continue to be felt by Aboriginal communities across Australia. This history compels critical analysis of the dimensions of indigenous disproportionality in the child welfare system and the need for alternative models of service delivery which respond to the wellbeing of indigenous children and families and support their cultural identity. The need for special attention to policy and practice in relation to Indigenous children is reﬂected in the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, now entren ched in legislation. It emphasises a preference for the placement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with their indigenous people who may include the child ’sextended family, its Indigenous community or other Indigenous people in that order of preference. Structure of the book The book will examine research, policy and practice in the area of family and child wel fare. It is designed to acquaint practitioners and students with key policy and practice issues in relation to working with children and families in special need and their underlying assumptions. The impact of theoretical orientations, contemporary debates, policy initia tives and research ﬁndings on policy and practice will be examined, in addition to the ethics and values that underpin child welfare interventions. Emphasis will be on critical analysis of the context, issues and constraints that shape policy and practice. For the purpose of this book, child welfare denotes services provided to children and families whose needs arise from con ﬁrmed abuse and neglect or the vulnerability to its occurrence. A focus is given to the spectrum of services that are conceptualised as being on a continuum of prevention, early intervention and family support at the front end, and protective care through foster ing, group care and adoption as indicated by the child ’s need for safety and permanency. The core knowledge, skills and values of family-centred and child-focused practice will be explored in this book, engaging with core areas of knowledge, policy and practice related to families and children, including: � Theories and research on the causes and consequences of child maltreatment; � Legal and political structure of child welfare and the extent to which child welfare systems provide a continuum of care and prevent, or perpetuate, the oppression of children, women and disadvantaged groups; 14 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro � Preventative and supportive interventions to strengthen and support families, pro mote the healthy development of children and reduce risks, and maintain connections with community institutions and neighbourhood; � Protective interventions focused on families whose children have experienced physi cal, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect. Interventions including investigation, risk assessment, and thresholds for socio-legal interventions; � Protective care for children whose families are unable to maintain an adequate and safe environment in the home. Out-of-home care with non-related foster parents, relatives or kinship care and residential care as integral aspects of protective care, and adoption for children in need of permanency. Many of these topics will be explored from an international perspective, with some chapters providing comparative analyses of how speci ﬁc policies and practices vary across countries, while others involve case studies based on individual countries. What should become clear to readers is that, despite variations in policy and legislative environments, there are many commonalities that can be observed. These include: the prevailing concern about the prevalence of child maltreatment and the complex factors that are contributing to its occurrence; the growing interest in how child protections are positioned in relation to other government service areas; and the emergence of a public health perspective that balances reactive interventions against the need to prevent the occurrence of abuse or to minimise harm through early interventions. Readers will observe that these themes are emerging, despite diﬀerences in the administrative structures prevailing in diﬀerent countries (e.g., whether child protection is centrally administered as is the case in some European countries) and more state and province based as would be observed in Australia, the United States and Canada. This volume is organised in four sections addressing core areas of policy and practice. Part 1: The context of child and family welfare This section provides a contextual introduction exploring the history of child welfare, theories underpinning childhood and development. It introduces key policy developments that are central to understanding the position and needs of children and young people, and how policy and practice have been inﬂuenced by signi ﬁcant developments, including the children ’s rights agenda. Having outlined policy and trends in child welfare in Australia and the global context in this chapter, Chapter 2 discusses key theoretical and value orientations underpinning work with children and families. It is essential for anyone undertaking work with chil dren to understand developmental processes and factors in the family and social envir onment which promote or inhibit children ’s development. Such a perspective provides a way to focus interventions and to target services to enhance children ’s developmental outcomes. In this chapter Fernandez and Delfabbro address the theoretical and ideologi cal foundations of child welfare policy and practice as a context for understanding the diverse areas addressed in this volume. A number of important areas of conceptual understanding are discussed, drawing upon multi-disciplinary knowledge arising from psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social work and other allied areas. The chapter underscores the importance of taking a ‘developmental perspective ’ when working with children. Important developmental theories and perspectives are discussed to show how understanding of key milestones and developmental capacity are often important Policy and trends in child welfare 15 considerations in determining how service responses can meet the changing needs of children. Other important themes discussed in this chapter include the importance of a social ecological perspective that provides a multi-level analysis of how children ’s out comes are inﬂuenced by individual, family, neighbourhood, community and broader social factors, the importance of cultural sensitivity; the study of trauma and risk and protective factors; the nature and importance of resilience; and strengths vs deﬁcits approaches. Finally, the concept of the ‘best interest of the child ’, a crucial standard to be operationalised in child welfare decision making, is critically examined. In Chapter 3 Driscoll outlines the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the range of rights it assures to children in relation to the operation of the protective care continuum, and illustrates the signi ﬁcance of a rights-based approach through consideration of three areas of Australian policy and practice. First, the state ’s duty under the UNCRC to support the care of children within their family is considered in the context of recent political inﬂuences on Australian family support and early intervention services. Second, the way in which the UNCRC ’s guiding principles support decision making in the protective care continuum is discussed with particular reference to the importance of children ’s views in ascertaining their best inter ests. Third, a rights-based approach to alternative care provision highlights the poor life outcomes of care leavers and tensions arising in relation to preservation of culture in care placements. Recent theoretical work drawing on the capabilities approach and notions of relational autonomy are used to address concerns that a rights-based approach accords insu ﬃcient attention to the importance of personal relationships in the care and welfare of children. Part 2: Child abuse and neglect: causes and consequences This section explores the most signi ﬁcant issue in child welfare, the experience of mal treatment by children, the methods and challenges of risk assessment, the systems of child protection to safeguard them and the wide range of policy and therapeutic interventions to respond to their needs. The challenges arising from the dominance of child protection interventions and the need for prevention and early intervention strategies to support parenting capacity and child and family wellbeing are canvassed. Working with cases of emotional abuse and neglect is the focus of the ﬁrst of the chapters in this section. Loving and Shemmings begin by deﬁning neglect and emotional abuse within the context of child protection, acknowledging the existence of this type of abuse within non-familial settings such as online and within-gang grooming and cases of sexual exploitation. A ‘trauma-informed ’perspective is proposed in order to provide a deeper understanding of the key pathways and mechanisms that can contribute to neglect and/or emotional abuse, supported by the relevant research in these areas. Two key concepts are discussed in relation to factors that may impact directly on caregiving behaviour. The ﬁrst is ‘unresolved ’attachment-based trauma, alluding to the parent ’s inability to process and make sense of their own childhood traumatic relational experi ences that leaves them vulnerable to being triggered when caring for their own child. The second factor is the parental ‘capacity to mentalize ’– a parent ’s ability accurately to consider what the child is thinking and feeling and how this may be inﬂuencing their child ’s behaviour. The chapter concludes with a look at current evidence-based interven tions for families aimed at helping to resolve previous trauma as well as increasing mentalising capacity. The authors discuss issues such as the deﬁnition of abuse; chronic 16 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro vs. acute episodes of abuse; cultural issues to do with deﬁnition of neglect and links with social disadvantage; co-morbid risk factors such as domestic violence, substance use and mental health issues; demographic correlates, cumulative eﬀects of abuse and the longer- term consequences of speci ﬁc types of abuse on children. In the next chapter Tolliday introduces the reader to the sexual abuse of children. In recognition of the high prevalence rate of this form of abuse, attention is therefore directed towards questions such as: Where is the risk? Are there some children more vulnerable to others? Who sexually abuses children? How do they do it? Answers to these questions include identifying child sexual abuse as being most commonly perpetrated by people closely related or well known to the child and surprising to some, in a substantial proportion of cases, possibly 50% or more, by children and young people who are under 18 years old. In focusing on children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour, their own developmental histories, including whether they have experienced trauma is considered, as well as challenges young people face in sexual development through new technologies, social media and access to pornography. The work of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is referenced as well as noting some of its limitations. The chapter concludes with a focus on promising developments in the Australian context. In Chapter 6 Fernandez examines how child protection systems assess and respond to needs and risk and how decisions are made concerning case management and intervention. Discussion focuses on the issue of reporting systems, the prioritisation of cases, the range of child protection decisions and service responses and how these decisions are made. It explores the role of practice-based decision making, develop ments in assessment frameworks and actuarial models that allow identi ﬁcation of vulnerable areas of families. The chapter also considers the complexity of family need and how this can be assessed in an ecological context and directed towards timely decisions about family-based interventions, placement in care and permanency, including family reuni ﬁcation and adoption. Chapter 7 then focuses on the socio-legal context of child protection decision making. This chapter highlights the extent to which the legal systems inﬂuence the child protec tion system in Australia and examines how legislation and legal process speci ﬁcally direct system and service responses. Sheehan highlights the diﬀerences between legal and child welfare systems across Australia, combined with the complexity and uncertainty of child protection work and the absence of shared frameworks, frustrate the development of agreed approaches about risks and consequences of maltreatment. She advocates a more holistic and collaborative approach that oﬀers a more eﬀective response to families where children are referred to the Children ’s Court. It is argued that approaches that rely solely on legal and rights-based approaches to child protection fail to accommodate the broader understanding needed to deal with the social concerns and speci ﬁc issues confronting children and families in the child protection system. The chapter concludes that child protection legislation and the legal process must be better grounded in understanding factors that inﬂuence children ’s outcomes and work collaboratively to improve the living circumstances of vulnerable children. The principal focus in Chapter 8 is on evidence informed ‘therapeutic ’ methods which encourage healthier psychological and social functioning in children, while also helping to foster the development of skills in parents that enhance parental ability to have produc tive and healthy interactions with their children. Delfabbro and Osborn elaborate on Policy and trends in child welfare 17 commonly used psychological approaches (e.g., cognitive-behavioural therapy); Multi- Dimensional Treatment Foster Care or social skills training which focus on addressing the immediate behavioural, psychological, and social needs of children are discussed, followed by elaboration of approaches that attempt to address the experience of trauma and harm often arising from exposure to abuse. Important areas discussed include trauma-based therapies, play and activity therapies and those informed by an attachment perspective. Focusing more speci ﬁcally on the needs and skills of parents and carers, approaches such as Parent Child Interaction Therapy, Positive Parenting Programs, The Incredible Years , Multi-systemic therapy are examined for their potential value in enhancing the ability of parents and caregivers to maintain stable and nurturing home environments. Part 3: The protective care continuum Family-based services as core policy and practice in the continuum of supports in pro moting children ’s wellbeing will be addressed in this section as a prelude to considering provision for children and young people who are unable to live with their families and who are looked after in out-of-home care. Pathways into care, the various care types children might experience, and the processes that are integral to good practice in care are explored, including the engagement with health and educational needs and attainment of children and the challenges and opportunities in facilitating optimal outcomes for chil dren. Leaving care trajectories and the policies and services available to young people transitioning out of care are examined. The chapter also examines concepts of open and closed adoption and the socio-legal context of good practice. In Chapter 9, Devaney highlights the need to ensure supportive services are available to children and young people as early as possible in the genesis of a diﬃculty they may be experiencing, as risk factors for child maltreatment can be cumulative in nature. Drawing on the Irish context where formal Family Support is an accepted policy and practice choice in the continuum of available services and supports, Devaney details a national programme for Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS) within the statutory child protection and welfare context. This chapter considers the potential of a Family Support approach to support children and young people who are at risk of involvement in the child protection and welfare system. In doing so it draws on the evidence under pinning the Meitheal model of prevention and early intervention located within the PPFS programme. The impact of this model on the outcomes of children, young people and parents and their associated experiences is exempli ﬁed to highlight the possibilities in supporting parenting capacity and child and family wellbeing. Central to the Meitheal model are core features of Family Support; a focus on individual strengths, participatory practices with family members, the provision of accessible supports through the colla boration of a range of services and a pool of multi-disciplinary practitioners. This chap ter also considers the position of Family Support and the PPFS programme within a public health approach and advocates greater population-wide awareness and responsibility with regard to responding to families who are in need of support and assistance. Turning to foster care as a response to maltreatment, Chapter 10 provides an overview of the cross-national knowledge base on family foster care. Thoburn describes the dif ferent ways in which foster family care may contribute to the service to maltreated chil dren and their families. It examines broad trends in the provision of foster care services, including the prevalence of foster care in diﬀerent countries relative to other forms of 18 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro care describing the diﬀerent types of roles of foster care. It outlines what is known about the foster care recruitment, monitoring, matching and support processes in diﬀerent jur isdictions, but with a particular focus on England. It provides information on the num bers and ages of children entering care and placed in foster family care in a sample of countries with developed welfare policies. The chapter shows that the rates of those entering care (whether voluntary or court-mandated), and rates in care at any one time, vary considerably as does the age range of those entering care and the types of care. Australia, like the USA and UK nations, is a low user of residential care, with the result that foster carers provide short- or long-term homes for children with a wide range of needs. Thoburn cautions that while we can learn much from the international trends, an understanding of context is essential when considering whether approaches and methods from one country can be transferred across national boundaries. In Chapter 11 Kiraly and Farmer document the increasingly important role of kin ship care in the continuum of protective care in Australia and elsewhere, providing deﬁnitions of statutory and informal kinship care. They discuss the prevalence of this form of care, demographic characteristics of carers, and the diﬀerent types of kinship placement (e.g. family care or community kinship). Important topics addressed include diﬀerences in child outcomes associated with kinship care, including stability and quality of care, prospects for reuni ﬁcation with parents, family contact, and risk of re- exposure to traumatic experiences within children ’s families. They draw attention to challenging issues relating to kinship care, including the vulnerability and resourcing of kinship carers, the level of recognition and support given to kinship carers and children; assessment and care planning; and the complexities for carers associated with having both a familial as well as a statutory carer role in relation to children and the children ’sparents. Therapeutic residential care is a recent development on the Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) service landscape both in Australia and internationally. In Chapter 12, Kor and McNamara review the research evidence on therapeutic residential care for children and young people in OOHC. In response to persistent concerns regarding inconsistent service quality and outcomes in general residential care, therapeutic residential care aims to move away from basic support and accommodation to specialised models of care under pinned by trauma-informed principles. The authors identify three main approaches to therapeutic residential care: a home-grown therapeutic residential care program in Aus tralia, milieu-based models in Europe and mental health treatment approaches in the USA. Key ﬁndings related to the eﬀectiveness of these three approaches are reviewed in this chapter, showcasing the promise they hold and outlining their limitations. Implica tions for practice and policy are discussed. Given the dearth of robust evaluations of educational interventions for children and young people in out-of-home care, Sebba ’s chapter provides a review of the research evidence on the eﬀectiveness of educational interventions aimed at improving the out comes of children in care. The emphasis is limited to educational interventions during the school years, focused speci ﬁcally on children in OOHC. It draws on previous analyses which has shown that children in OOHC do better in those schools that are higher per forming for children in general, while some research suggests they are over-represented in under-achieving schools. Re ﬂecting this potential role of schools in outcomes, the chapter looks ﬁrst at systemic interventions involving whole-school approaches before consider ing the individual interventions targeting children in OOHC speci ﬁcally, and then those Policy and trends in child welfare 19 interventions targeting their foster carers. Finally, the implications from the evidence reviewed for policy and practice are drawn out. In Chapter 14 Fernandez and Delfabbro examine the importance of reuni ﬁcation in out-of-home care: how this is deﬁned, measured and researched. Positioned within the context of policy concern relating to the increasing number of children coming into care and the slower reuni ﬁcation rates being observed, the chapter examines the nature of reuni ﬁcation and the methodological and conceptual factors that underpin reuni ﬁcation trajectories, including the active or passive nature of reuni ﬁcation and the legal status and duration. Predictors of reuni ﬁcation such as the severity of the factors associated with the entry into care; the length of time children have been in care; and, the quality and frequency of family contact, as well as the child ’s ethnicity or cultural background arediscussed. Thechapter emphasises theimportanceof clear base-lineassessments; the importance of building relationships between diﬀerent parties in the care system (e. g., families, case-workers and carers); the role of trust and collaboration; and, the importance of speci ﬁc services and supports during the reuni ﬁcation process. The chapter concludes with the observation that there are relatively few internationally recognised services available to facilitate reuni ﬁcation for children who have been in long-term out-of-home care. In Chapter 15 Simmonds traces the development of adoption policy and practice as it has evolved signi ﬁcantly over decades and the wide range of needs and issues it seeks to address. While these issues have evolved over time, the focus of adoption has changed as well, with international adoption highly signi ﬁcant but falling in numbers, children placed for adoption where their birth mother decides that they cannot care for them and children who have been abused and/or neglected. Simmonds notes that adoption is a contested area that reﬂects a wide range of views about its appropriateness, eﬀectiveness and outcomes. In his chapter he explores the various factors that have come to inﬂuence these issues with a speci ﬁc focus on the child – their rights, needs, circumstances and developmental outcomes. The argument made is that for legislators, policymakers and practitioners, the child must be the key concern – both in the immediate present and for the rest of their lives. In Chapter 16, Mendes and Purtell examine the policy and practice challenges associated with leaving out-of-home care. It is recognised that many young people are not well prepared to leave care and that eﬀective preparation, transition and ongoing support services are essential to facilitate better life outcomes. Studies have shown that many young people experience diﬃculties in accessing stable housing, partici pating in ongoing education or employment, and developing supportive social con nections. This chapter draws on a recent evaluation of the Berry Street Stand by Me leaving care program in the State of Victoria to highlight principles for eﬀective leaving care policy and practice. Part 4: Children, parents and carers as stakeholders The ﬁnal section turns to best practice in relation to communicating and working with children and young people drawing on participatory, rights-oriented and resilience-based approaches to enable children to participate in current and future plans. It explores the key issues in working with children and families from diverse backgrounds and models for culturally competent practice. It also addresses the complex needs of foster carers and birth parents and strategies to support them. 20 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro The focus of Chapter 17 is on the conjunction between the protection and participation rights enshrined in the UNCRC and the tensions inherent in this conjunction when translated into child protection policy. Mason and Fattore analyse the meanings of pro tection and participation of children as codi ﬁed in the Convention and how participation and protection principles intersect in child protection legislation and practice. This ana lysis provides a starting point for identifying diﬀerent constructions of the child and associated discourses that characterise advocacy for the protection and participation of children, with particular attention directed to issues of risk, vulnerability and agency. Some of the practice strategies and issues that are at the centre of discourses relating to children ’s participation in child protection are identi ﬁed. Framing participation around the concepts of relational participation, advocacy coalitions and deliberative democracy, the extended analysis takes account of the role of power in the relationship between participation and protection in child protection processes, while also alerting readers to the signi ﬁcance of the third principle in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, that of provision , as inherent in service and policy-level practices. The entrenched and increasing over-representation of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system shows that government strategies aiming to address this structural social inequality have failed. In Chapter 18 Tilbury and Lewis ﬁrstly provide an overview of the scale and nature of over-repre sentation in Australia, using administrative data. They go on to propose a rights-oriented theoretical framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child wellbeing to replace the current child protection orientation, whereby families are more likely to be investigated than helped or supported. Advocating a commitment to self-determination that is the foundation for change, they reiterate the importance of applying the ﬁve ele ments of the Child Placement Principle – prevention, partnership, placement, participa tion, connection – in legislation, policy, programs, processes and practice across the child protection continuum. Investment in both universal (e.g., early childhood education, child and maternal health) and targeted (e.g., housing, mental health) measures are stressed to enhance access to needed services. The authors make the case for expansion of commu nity-led Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services and a reconceptualised child pro tection framework to ensure the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities to have children brought up safe and cared for within their own family, community and culture. In the context of the current risk aversive child protection approach in which biologi cal or ﬁrst parents experience marginalisation in decision-making processes, Chapter 19 presents the case for building bridges with parents of children on the edge of care or in care. Fernandez and Thorpe describe the pro ﬁles of parents of children in public care, highlighting that a disproportionate number of them come from disadvantaged socio economic backgrounds, with single-parent female-headed households and materially unfavourable environments. They often have signi ﬁcant health problems, confront threatened or actual violence and lack social and emotional supports. Consigned to the position of having their children removed to care, they confront challenges to their parental identity and experience a sense of loss, powerlessness and exclusion. The authors emphasise the need for case planning that balances the child ’s need for perma nency with preservation of links with parents through meaningful contact. The impor tance for case workers to develop trusting and supportive relationships with parents, explore strategies and services that enable children to be looked after in their families Policy and trends in child welfare 21 where possible and safe to do so, and stay connected to their families, culture and community when in out-of-home care is stressed. For children in out-of-home care who cannot be raised by parents or extended family, non- relative foster carers are central to their experience. Foster carers serve as the backbone of most nations ’ child welfare systems. These individuals provide daily support to children during the days, months or sometimes years that they live away from their parents. Children in foster care have especially high needs and many of them have experienced trauma in their home of origin. Identifying and supporting caregivers who can be responsive to these children on an everyday basis is one of the highest priorities for any child welfare system. In Chapter 20 Berrick lays out a ‘roadmap ’ to get there, ensuring that foster carers are selected carefully, comprehensively trained, and thoughtfully supported. This chapter draws upon international literature to showcase research evidence about the characteristics of carers and their needs. The chapter describes the types of support caregivers need in order to thrive, outlining some of the unique challenges associated with this responsibility. 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Wulczyn, F., 2003, ‘Closing the gap: Are changing exit patterns aﬀecting the time African American children spend in foster care relative to Caucasian children ’, Children & Youth Services Review , vol. 25, no. 5/6, pp. 431 –462. Wulczyn, F., Harden, B., Barth, R.P. & Landsverk, J. (eds), 2005, Beyond common sense: Child welfare, child well-being, and the evidence for policy reform , Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 27 Chapter 2 Theoretical and value frameworks underpinning work with children and families Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro In this chapter some of the theoretical concepts and frameworks relevant to interventions with children and families will be reviewed. In undertaking work with children and families it is important to understand children ’s development and the factors in the child ’s environment that promote or inhibit their developmental potential. Such a knowledge base is essential to plan interventions based on targeting factors that are sig niﬁcant. Howe (1995) maintains that all practice is inescapably theoretical and that dif ferent theories lead to diﬀerent explanations about individuals and society. The range of theory discussed will include theories for practice including psychological and socio logical perspectives and practice theory. The chapter will provide an overview of theories that illuminate psychosocial development of children and oﬀer insights into their socio emotional, cognitive and social development. It will address developmental approaches, concepts of attachment and bonding, trauma, and social ecological theories which emphasise a multi-interactional view of needs and problems and the interaction of indi viduals and their environments. The population of children who come into contact with the child welfare system is highly diverse. They diﬀer in age, gender, cultural background and also in terms of their family background. As a result, the type of services and practice approaches appropriate for each child may diﬀer signi ﬁcantly. The needs of a teenager, for example, are likely to diﬀer signi ﬁcantly from younger children. Similarly, those children who come into out-of home care because of abuse, who have disabilities or other complex problems, may face diﬀerent challenges from those who do not have these characteristics. For these reasons, one of the most important elements of working eﬀectively with children in a way that best assists them is to adopt a developmental approach. In essence, this means that workers should be mindful of the development status and history of the child or young person under their care. In our view, this has three important elements. The ﬁrst is recognition of the critical importance of the pre-natal, neonatal and early childhood years in inﬂuencing subsequent development and psychosocial functioning. The second is to understand the normative course of human development so as to understand what is expected at each age. The third is to understand that children ’s development needs change over time, so that what might appear to be a less important development need at a particular age might become more important when the child grows older. We will dis cuss each of these in turn. An important trend in the developmental literature concerns the concept of ‘stage ’ and its signi ﬁcance in conceptualising developmental processes of personality and thinking. There are a number of proponents of stages of development including Piaget (1963), 28 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Freud (1932 cited in Ho ﬀnung et al. 2019) and Erikson (1965). (Detailed overviews of these theories can be found in Ho ﬀnung et al. 2019; Nicholson 2014; O’Brien 2016; Peterson 2014). Freud identi ﬁed personality traits associated with either excessive frustration or overly indulged grati ﬁcation at each of various psychosexual stages, suggesting children become ‘ﬁxated ’ at one or other stage with residues of this process reﬂected in the adult person ality (Peterson 2014). Piaget ’s stage theory concerns the development of intelligence from birth to maturity based on the interrelated processes of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation entails the child ’s adaptation of the environment to the self, while accommodation involves the impact of the environment on the child. The Piagetian description of a complex schematic structure implies the child ’s cognitive development depends on a range of environmental stimuli for the child to assimilate and which correspondingly induces accommodation (Fernandez 2013; Peterson 2014). Piaget proposed identi ﬁable stages of cognitive development and introduced the notion of readiness – the outcome of a combination of brain development and exposure to new experiences. His four key stages of cognitive development include: � Sensorimotor development: birth to 2 years, focusing on developing gross and ﬁne motor skills � Preoperational: 3 to 7 years, when the ability to reason begins to surface � Concrete operations: 7 to 11 years, marking emergent ability for logical thinking � Formal operations: 12 years to adulthood, reﬂecting developing capacity for compe tence in abstract thinking. Piaget ’s theories, built on assumptions that children make mistakes and experiment as they form their ideas, reminds us that the emotionally abused child who is responded to negatively, humiliated and labelled by adults will be inhibited in experimenting with ideas or behaviours and be stiﬂed in their cognitive development. A neglected child who is oﬀered little stimulation and encouragement is unlikely to develop age appropriate thinking or motor skills. The main points to draw from the theory is that children ’s capacities need to be understood relative to their age and in the context of any delays. Younger children are typically more concrete in their thinking, have less ability to consider the motives and feelings of others, and often have a more transactional sense of morality (i.e., what is punished vs what is not). As a result, they often do not understand the bounds of appropriate or socially acceptable behaviour. When these children are exposed to abuse or other developmental trauma, their development will be delayed so that workers cannot assume that children who have a given chronological age are necessarily at this develop mental level. Erikson ’s developmental theory sets out further developmental tasks. In Erikson ’s (1963) eight epigenetic stages of development, the individual is confronted with a poten tial crisis or con ﬂict between opposite poles to be resolved through reciprocity between self and others. Illustratively, in the ﬁrst four years Erikson suggests that the child needs to develop a sense of trust as opposed to distrust, and later, a sense of autonomy and independence as opposed to self-doubt and inadequacy; the acquisition of these develop mental tasks being based upon feeling loved and accepted and experiencing continuity of Theoretical and value frameworks 29 care giving and responsiveness to their needs. Threats to the child ’s perception of security and personal adequacy can evolve from experiencing neglect, abuse, inconsistency and instability in caregiving environments. Consistent with the predictions of Erikson ’s developmental theory, children under 12 are generally more preoccupied with building con ﬁdence and competencies. A fuller account of Erikson ’s life stages is available in Fer nandez (2016) Ho ﬀnung et al. (2019) and Peterson (2014). Erikson ’s core messages from the theory are that children who experience trustful relationships with their carers will explore their environments, con ﬁdently display initia tive in learning and acquire the skills to build a positive identity. They will transition to adolescence and adulthood to form and sustain close relationships and nurture the next generation. Erikson ’s theorising on identity resonates with practitioners who work with young people in care for whom issues of identity are compounded by the experience of abuse and neglect or prejudice and stigmatising attitudes towards their care status. For example, children who might have previously been very stable in care, could start to show greater interest in re-establishing ties with their families and communities. In Aus tralia, such needs may be particularly strong in Aboriginal young people who have been removed from their ‘country ’ or community of origin (Fernandez, Lee & McNamara 2018; HREOC 1997). In addition to understanding how children ’s developmental needs change over time, it is also important to understand points of transition and opportunities for intervention. While there is general agreement that the ﬁrst few years of life can have a critical inﬂu ence on subsequent development, there are other important points of intervention or transition that may also provide opportunities to provide services and supports. These important points include the transition to school (age 5–6), the transition to adolescence (age 10–12) as well as the transition to adulthood (age 15–17). The age of 5–6 is generally the age at which children with development delays or problems ﬁrst start to display diﬃculties with school tasks and socialisation. This age, therefore, pro vides the ﬁrst opportunities for workers to engage with educators and psychologists to iden tify more common developmental disorders (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech delays, Sensory integration problems, Attachment diﬃculties and Attention-De ﬁcit problems). Early intervention and support at this age is important for assisting workers in working out what type of placement, schooling environment or services will be needed for the child. Similar issues apply at age 10–12, but this age also is the age where children are at risk of more serious behavioural problems that may have longer-term consequences. Problems with socialisation or behaviour, including engagement in early oﬀending behaviour or substance use can often emerge during this period, so that interventions directed at this point can be bene ﬁcial for preventing more serious problems emerging and becoming more serious and entrenched during the teenage years. Finally, the age of 15–17 is the period when young people are close to making a transition to independent living (whether they are in care or living at home). At this point in their lives, much more focus therefore needs to be given to life skills, the availability of social supports and networks, and greater consideration given to education and employment opportunities and the capacity to live independently. Attachment and bonding An important perspective on development emerges from research into early child parent attachment and bonding. The theories of maternal infant attachment of the 1940s and the 30 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro subsequent concept of maternal bonding of the 1970s and 1980s have attracted consider able theoretical and research attention and exerted major inﬂuence on intervention with children and families (Corby 2006) and the care of separated children (Aldgate 1988). They have also been subject to reappraisal in the context of contemporary thinking (Aldgate et al. 2006; Bretherton 1992; Rutter 1999; Sroufe 1989). Bowlby (1951) formulated his controversial maternal deprivation thesis based on WHO sponsored research into the psychological outcomes of homeless children. He proposed infants need the consistent care of their mother during early months and that the absence of such constant care would result in long-term negative eﬀects. Bowlby ’s early work on maternal deprivation emphasised the primacy of the child ’s early experience for his/her later development, identifying diﬀerent forms of maternal deprivation: failure to make bonds (inadequacy of care); disruption of bonds (discontinuity of care); distortion of bonds (distorted relationships); dispersal of bonds (multiple caretaking) (Fernandez 1996). Clarke and Clarke (1976), critical of the treatment of maternal deprivation as an all- encompassing concept subsuming discrete elements of separation, attachment and depri vation, concluded from their studies that there was no evidence to support the view that attachment of the child to one person is essential to optimum development. Anthro pological evidence indicates that multiple attachments can develop, given that children in many non-Western cultures are raised in the context of multiple caregiving (Werner 1979). Rutter (1972) concluded after studying various types and lengths of parental separation that young children can be separated from their parents with minimal long-term eﬀects. He suggested that factors associated with the negative eﬀects of separation relate to the age of the child at separation and the quality of caregiving relationships experienced before and after separation. Implied here, for instance in the context of care, is that insu ﬃciency and instability of care may be more signi ﬁcantly associated with deleterious eﬀects rather than the separation itself. Attachment refers to the enduring bond that develops between an infant and caregiver during the ﬁrst year of life that the child uses as a secure base to explore the environment. Attachment patterns are claimed to be long term, being reﬂected in successive generations of parents and children. As Bowlby used the term in the 1950s and 1960s, it referred to a process which generally became apparent when the infant was around six months of age, the height of attachment occurring around nine months as evidenced typically by high stranger anxiety at this time. There has been much theorising about the purpose and process of development of attachment in infancy and beyond. From these eﬀorts have emerged four schools of thought: ethological, psychodynamic, cognitive and learning theory. Ethologists such as Bowlby suggest that the ability to form an attachment bond with the mother increases the infant ’s prospects of survival and protection, providing a secure base to explore the physical and social environment. The psychoanalytic approach emphasises instincts and maintains that, as children ’s instinctual needs are met by the mother in the early stages of infancy, bonds of attachment with the mother strengthen and provide the foundation for ensuing relationships. Cognitive theories view attachment and proximity seeking beha viours as the outcome of cognitive awareness of the perceptual diﬀerences between the mother and others in the environment. It is claimed that attachment is strengthened because of the child ’s ability to construct a mental image of the mother ’s distinguishing Theoretical and value frameworks 31 characteristics and understand the notion of person permanence, a concept closely related to object permanence. Learning theorists see attachment as a learned rather than innate process, the mother being associated with dispensing the primary reinforcers of tactile stimulation, warmth and responding to the infants needs. Researchers have observed that infants reach out actively to their environment for social contact. In turn the mother/caregiver inﬂuences the child by encouraging responses, and in subtle ways her behaviour is also shaped by the child. This two-way transaction has led developmentalists to portray the mother and child as an ‘attachment system ’. Attachments develop in a series of phases including indiscriminate sociability to focused attachments at two years with increased memory and representational skills. Also noted are intervening phases such as: separation anxiety – the infant ’s discomfort at being separated from their caregiver at 9–18 months; stranger anxiety – wariness and avoidance of strangers at 6–9 months, the strength of these reactions depending on familiarities of the environment. Sha ﬀer and Emerson (1964) identify speci ﬁc stages of attachment: an ‘asocial period ’ when infants respond to a variety of human and inani mate social stimuli followed by a stage of indiscriminate attachment characterised by tendencies to generalise their attachment to all humans in their environment. In a third stage of ‘speci ﬁc attachment ’ between 6–12 months infants ’ preferred attachment is directed to a speci ﬁc person, usually the mother and will display signs of protest and distress when separated. Attachments to other persons in the environment are also in evidence and cross-cultural variations in age approximations and patterns of attachment are to be noted. Indications of attachment are also described. Among other manifestations of attach ment, such as ‘selective social smiling ’, ‘stranger anxiety ’ is evident at six months when the infant sees noticeable diﬀerences in the stranger compared with the mental image of the mother ’s features stored in its developing mind. ‘Separation anxiety ’ another indi cator of attachment evident at 12 months when separation from the attachment ﬁgure is accompanied by protest and distress. A widely used method for studying attachment involves the ‘Strange Situation ’ devel oped by Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth 1979) which presents the child with a series of controlled separations; namely, being separated from a caregiver and meeting a stranger. The reactions of infants in the experiment formed the basis of Ainsworth ’s classi ﬁcation of attachment styles: secure attachment; anxious resistant attachment or ambivalence; anxious avoidant attachment; disorganised disoriented attachment. These conceptualisa tions of attachment have been researched internationally, 60–65% of children being assessed as securely attached, whereas patterns of insecure attachment are variable (Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonberg 1988). Research using the Strange Situation framework in dif ferent countries reﬂects marked diﬀerences in the distribution of attachment classi ﬁca tions across cultures (Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg 1988). Wilkins, Shemmings and Shemmings (2015) highlight the complexity of attachment behaviours that is captured by this simplistic dichotomy and cautions that, while secure attachment patterns are associated with positive outcomes, neither of the insecure pat terns should be regarded as pathological. Further cross-cultural research draws our attention to cultural implications of applying attachment theory to cultures that have diverse ways of parenting and achieving attachment. 32 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Ryan (2011) discusses the key tenets of this theory in relation to Aboriginal parenting. Ryan ’s review of the relevance of Bowlby ’s theory of attachment to Aboriginal parenting draws attention to caregiving practices in Aboriginal Communities that are at odds with key concepts of the theory. For example, the theory asserts that children who develop a secure attachment develop competence reﬂected in values of autonomy, independence, problem solving and resilience. In contrast to a Western orientation, Aboriginal people espouse values of interdependence, group cohesion and spiritual connectedness, with the notion that the primary caregiver is a base for the securely attached child in exploring its environment. In the Aboriginal culture, young children are carried and in the process restricted from exploration away from the caregiver (Ryan 2011). Particular parenting interventions predicated on attachment theory, such as ‘Circle of Security ’ which focuses on the relationship between infant and mother are perceived to be ine ﬀective for indi genous families as they fail to take into account the other caretaking relationships and supportive networks (Mildon & Polimeni 2012). Bowlby ’s conceptualisations of attachment broadened in subsequent work as he described attachment as ‘the propensity of human beings to make strong aﬀectional bonds to particular others and of explaining the many forms of emotional distress …. which unwilling separation and loss gives rise to’ (Bowlby 1984: 87). Attachment has been dominant in theorising of early relationships and continues to be inﬂuential in child welfare. As has been evaluated and revaluated, greater appreciation has been gained of the role and contribution of fathers, siblings and grandparents (AIFS 2015; Garbarino 2014; Grossman et al. 2002). Attachment theory has been through diﬀerent iterations and continues to be inﬂuential in multiple disciplines including social work practice where it underpins decisions about child protection and with children in care and vulnerable families. The early relationship formed with primary caregivers acts as a template for later relationships and it is critical that attachment is nurtured and supported. The importance of nurturing and supporting this critical relationship is reﬂected in early intervention programmes where parenting is a signi ﬁcant component, recognising that secure attachment is associated with optimal outcomes later in life. This framework also has relevance to child protection practice and children in care. In child protection decisions, assessments may focus on the nature of the bond with the caregiver. Decisions about contact and visitation may rest on the practi tioner ’s assessment as to whether attachment and bonding is evident and is adequate justi ﬁcation for continuation of the relationship. The potential for reuni ﬁcation is also premised on the strengths or deﬁcits in this relationship (Fernandez 2013). The situation confronted by practitioners is one where established aﬀectional bonds are disrupted at removal of children to protective care. Further challenges emerge when children experience changes in placement resulting in feelings of rejection and self-blame which often lead to children resisting the prospect of forming attachments with new caregivers (Aldgate 1991). Adcock, Lake and Small (1988) suggest that separating children from attachment ﬁgures engenders in them acute fear and the most frightening experience for children is simultaneously to be afraid and separated from attachment ﬁgures. Fre quent moves in care exacerbate such fears. This points to the importance in practice of handling the early stages of the relationship sensitively when placing children with foster and adoptive parents, arranging contact and reunifying children with birth parents, and paying due attention to the impact of separation on children. Theoretical and value frameworks 33 Closely related to attachment are notions of separation and loss (Bowlby 1969) encountered during the lifespan in diﬀerent contexts. Several writers have drawn atten tion to the signi ﬁcance of loss in the experience of children entering care (Aldgate 1988, 1991; Scho ﬁeld & Beek 2014). Children in care may grieve for the absence of their birth parents and siblings and for the loss of their previous family life and sense of normalcy. Consistent with theoretical perspectives on grief and loss they may display feelings of shock, denial, guilt and despair (Kubler-Ross, 1970; Marris 1986) and may require help from their caseworkers and new carers to express their feelings and come to terms with the experiences of separation and loss. There are also grief reactions associated with what Boss (2007) refers to as ambiguous loss which is illustrative of the experience of children and young people in care whose families are physically absent but very present in their minds. There has been increasing interest in using an attachment perspective to understand adult responses to trauma and loss which has led to the development of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) (Main 1995). Designed to enable individuals to understand their lives in the context of vulnerabilities in their early relationships, Bifulco et al. (2008) have developed a suite of attachment-style interviews to capture current adult attachment style with respect to an individual ’s ability to access and utilise social support. These include an AAI designed for practice needs of fostering and adoption in Children ’s Ser vices (Nicholson 2014). Theorising bonding Theories of bonding which emerged in the 1970s through the work of Klaus and Kennell (1972) have also been inﬂuential among professionals in child welfare including social workers, paediatricians, obstetricians, psychologists and nurses. Klaus and Kennell (1972) theorised the bonding process between mothers and new-born infants, claiming there was a critical period soon after birth for the formation of a bond between mother and infant. The concept holds some parallels with attachment though the two concepts are con ceptually distinct. Bonding refers to the special relationship held to develop between mother and child, speci ﬁcally from the mother to the child. In the initial formulation of Klaus and Kennell (1972), this bonding is believed to occur when there is close skin to skin contact between infant and mother immediately after birth and was dependant on the presence of a sensitive period in the mother for its development. It was proposed that during the ﬁrst hours after birth the mother should engage in bonding with her baby through tactile and visual stimulation, and interruption of this bonding process could have negative long-term eﬀects. This bleak view is no longer held, though the notion of maternal bonding still holds interest in child welfare. Attachment, as noted earlier is conceptualised as a two-way process, predominantly an interactional relationship between mother and child. It diﬀers from bonding which is seen essentially as a one-way tie of mother to child that occurs immediately after birth. However, in practice and lit erature, it is not uncommon for the two terms to be used interchangeably and to assume their functional equivalence. Nevertheless, there are similarities to be noted. Both are seen as essential to the optimal development of the child. A further similarity derives from the long-term outcomes claimed by both proponents. For Bowlby, attachment is seen as the prototype on which all other aﬀectional relationships are based. Klaus and Kennell stressed the centrality of the mother and that early extended contact enhances reciprocity 34 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro in mother –infant interactions, ensuring positive maternal infant relationships and redu cing the potential for abuse and neglect. The empirical and sociological bases of the bonding theories have been questioned. The theory claimed the presence of a critical period for the development of the mother –infant bond, implying that if this did not occur in the speci ﬁed time frame the child ’s subsequent attachment would be aﬀected. The notion of a ‘sensitive period ’ for the formation of a mother to infant bond has not been supported empirically, and later attachments can develop (Clarke & Clarke 1976; James & Fernandez 1986). In response to criticism of genderisation and ethnocentric bias, adjustments were made to the theory to reﬂect a focus on parent –infant bonding rather than maternal infant bonding. Klaus and Kennell ’s original study involved an experimental study of 14 mothers of full-term babies who were followed up for ﬁve years to test the impact of early and extended contact on the bonding process. The experimental group received early and extended contact with their babies after birth (skin to skin contact within two hours after birth and extra exposure to their infants for the next three days) compared with routine exposure of the control group (glance at birth, visit 6–12 hours late and 20–30 minutes feed every four hours during the day). The ﬁndings of this study and a series of replica tion studies that followed were found to yield little support for the bonding concept due to the lack of statistical sophistication and ambiguity in the conceptual and empirical deﬁnition. For instance, a study by Cater and Easton found that separation at birth was a common experience in their sample of 80 children who experienced abuse, combination of other stresses and circumstances including family instability, domestic violence, psy chiatric disturbance and parental immaturity, making it not possible to attribute causality to any one event, including maternal –infant separation. Reviews of the evidence from various studies can be found in Sluckin, Herbert and Sluckin (1984). In the light of the foregoing, the evidence for supporting a connection between exten ded contact and bonding or later attachment for mother and infant or for subsequent marginal mothering or child abuse has been regarded as scant and weak. These critical comments are not intended as an argument against infant parent contact as soon as practicable. The argument advanced is that humanising the natal and neonatal experience is a desirable goal and a right of parents and children to settings which are conducive to forging such relationships. At issue is the deterministic claims of the theory and the potential attribution that early relationships are unalterable. With almost one half of mothers in the workforce and practical issues of child care it would be crucial to promote the concept of parent –child bonds. Child protection assessments underpinned by the theory inﬂuence strategies for inter vention. However, a narrow focus on bonding and attachment to the exclusion of sig niﬁcant inﬂuential factors including environmental factors, the child ’s behaviour, the lack of formal supports, inadequacy of mental health and drug and alcohol services and structural inequalities that place parents under stress may well be overlooked and restrict the scope of assessments and interventions (Featherstone, White & Morris 2014; Fer nandez, Lee & McNamara 2018). Theoretical and value frameworks 35 Sociology of childhood The developmental theories that portray childhood in universalistic terms have been challenged for their Eurocentric bias and failure to capture the diversities and complex ities of childhood. Developments in the Sociology of Childhood and the discourses on the political and social context of positioning children (James & Prout 1997; Mayall 2000; Qvortrup 2004) have challenged explanations of childhood that focus on children in terms of stages they progress through in the journey towards becoming an adult (well becoming) under-emphasising understanding children ’s present lives (well being). The importance of understanding children in terms of the present as both being and becoming is highlighted in this paradigm (Huebner 2004; Stainton Rogers & Stainton Rogers 1992; Walkerdine 2009). In this reframing, the conception of children as vulnerable and dependent on adults to have their needs met is contrasted with understandings of children as experts in their own lives, shifting the needs discourse to one of rights that treats children as social actors acknowledging their agency and entitlement to have a voice and participate in decisions about them (Mayall 2000; Wyse 2004). James and Prout (1997) maintain that children are not just a ‘bundle of needs ’ that are to be met but their rights and aspirations as citizens must be recognised. These changing discourses on childhood are reﬂected in the child rights movement and the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC 1989) with its emphasis on ‘provision of services ’, ‘protection ’ from abuse and exploita tion and ‘participation ’ in decisions that aﬀect them. Its core principles call for respecting the views of the child (article 12), acknowledging children ’s right to have their views heard. These changing conceptualisations of children and childhood have been extended to the recognition of the signi ﬁcance of the child ’s perspective in research, of respecting children ’s ability to interpret their current lives to others and counter adults ’ monopoly in research (Fernandez 2006; Wyse 2004). There is a rich international literature on the methodological and ethical challenges in child-centred and child-inclusive research (Christensen & James 2000; Alderson 2000) The imperative to recognise children and young people as eﬀective communicators of the reality of their lived experience and cap able of informing policies that aﬀect them resonates through individual chapters in this collection. Contextual theories Psychological theories have had a major inﬂuence on child welfare practice with little attention paid to systems surrounding individuals that inﬂuence their responses. The need to widen practitioners ’ conceptual lenses to include the inﬂuence of environmental factors on family functioning and address the interface between people and their environments has been advocated (Howe 2009; Laird 1979; Maluccio 1986). An important consideration for eﬀective practice is to understand the complex contextual factors that often underlie families who come into contact with child welfare systems. In most cases, it is rare to ﬁnd families who are aﬀected by only single problems. Instead, as shown in many studies (e.g., Delfabbro et al. 2009, 2013; Fernandez 2006, 2013), children who receive noti ﬁca tions or substantiations for one type of abuse, very often have reports of other types. Abuse will frequently coincide with domestic violence, parental mental illness or 36 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro substance misuse and all of these factors will be statistically more likely to occur in households where there are multiple children and entrenched poverty (ﬁnancial problems or housing diﬃculties). Thus, when one is confronted with a child with complex needs, workers should not assume that the problems observed are entirely due to the individual characteristics of the children (e.g., their temperament or cognitive ability). In most cases, children will have experienced prolonged periods of living in diﬃcult living circumstances in lower socio-economic areas that are often less safe, have fewer services or amenities and less well resourced schools. In recognition of this, many researchers understand child and family needs within the context of sociological frameworks that recognise the mul tiple levels of inﬂuence on children ’s outcomes. There are a number of contextual approaches that have broadened our perspective on developmental inﬂuences. One inﬂuential framework is Bronfenbrenner ’s (1979) socio logical approach that positions the individual within broader spheres of inﬂuence that range from the immediate family to include peers, school and the wider community, contributing to our understanding of how contextual relationships inﬂuence a child ’s development. Bronfenbrenner views the child as developing within a complex system of inter relationships that are impacted by the surrounding environment. He portrays the envir onment as a series of nested structures, proposing a person ’s development is inﬂuenced by four overlapping and interactive levels: � The microsystem level – interactions children have with parents, grandparents, sib lings, carers, teachers, caseworkers. � The mesosystem level – connections and relationships among the child ’s microsystems. � The exosystem – the settings and systems that indirectly inﬂuence the child, e.g. parents ’ place of employment, school administration, statutory department. � The macrosystem – prevailing ideologies, beliefs, values of society, cultural contexts including poverty/ethnicity and social policies that inﬂuence the individual directly or indirectly through their impact on micro- and mesosystems. � Chronosystem – the experience of events, transitions and socio-historical occurrences over the lifespan. Each system has an inﬂuential impact on development. The environment is regarded as a dynamic and ever-changing system where critical events, e.g. parental separation, addition of a sibling, removal to a care placement, modify relationships between individuals and their environments. This perspective enables a dual focus on the child and his/her environment, recognising that children are in constant interaction with various individual and institutional systems and intervention can be eﬀected through any of these systems (Fernandez 1996). Bronfenbrenner ’s ecological thinking has been inﬂuential on social work theory and practice, prompting recognition that children aﬀect and are aﬀected by parents, peers, school and service systems. In turn, parents and the quality of their parenting is inﬂu enced by their histories, relationships, support systems, work lives, income, housing and neighbourhoods as well as social policies (Bronfenbrenner & Morris 2007; Howe 2009) and provision of services needed to take into account larger ecosystems. The ecological approach oﬀers us a framework which enables us to understand the many layers of inﬂuence from immediate to distal. Theoretical and value frameworks 37 Maluccio (1986) has identi ﬁed several ecological principles that are relevant in thinking about interventions. These include: interactionism, which emphasises that emotional and behavioural responses are not solely the function of personality or of environmental inﬂuences but are the outcome of the complex interaction of between person and envir onment; transactionism, which recognises individuals ’ agency and views them as active participants in transactions with their environments; a growth orientation that focuses on individual strengths rather than merely on deﬁcits. Approaches of this nature are important because they encourage workers, Courts and other decision makers to look beyond the immediate ﬂaws of the individual and to con sider the broader context. Complex behaviour is placed into a context and this serves to provide a motivation for looking for strategies that might: (a) identify risk and protective factors that either exacerbate or improve the circumstances of children and families, (b) consider services that are multi-faceted and multi-level in approach and (c) to avoid making the attribution that complex families are immutable to change. Such perspectives have been central to the development of ‘wraparound ’ frameworks that look for oppor tunities to ﬁnd service responses that deal with more than one problem at a time or programmes such as Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) (Henggeler et al. 1997). Programmes therefore may include a combination of child therapy, parental support and training, community engagement as well as interventions involving schools. Resilience and strengths-based approaches Recently there has been developing support for resilience-led perspectives in child welfare practice to provide a balancing focus against the background of deﬁcit-based approaches and risk assessment models that have predominated (Gilligan 1997; Luthar & Zigler 1991; Rutter 1999; Walsh 1998). A focus on strengths is central to a broader literature relating to resilience in the context of child welfare. Resilience refers to positive patterns of development or functioning in children that emerge in the face of adversity (Masten 2006). Elaborating on the concept of resilience further, Gilligan (1997) emphasises the ‘qualities which cushion a vul nerable child from the worst eﬀects of adversity … and which helps a child or young person to cope, survive, and even thrive in the face of great hurt and disadvantage ’.It has been found that many people appear to be able to achieve good outcomes in life, despite having faced very diﬃcult circumstances, which can include exposure to trauma and abuse (Werner & Smith 1982). Res ilience is thought to arise from a range of diﬀerent factors, including individual diﬀerences (intelligence, good self-regulation skills, positive outlook and appealing qualities, good socialisation skills); relationships (e.g., either good parenting or good rela tionships with certain key adults who inﬂuence the trajectory of the young person ’slife); and community/ structural factors including access to good schools, opportunities to develop important talents and good social/career-relevant connections (Masten 2006). None of the factors on their own are usually suﬃcient in that any child with the capacity to do well will struggle to do well if they do not have the appropriate supports from adults and opportu nities to build upon their strengths. It is for this reason that some writers (e.g., Lalonde 2006) have emphasised the importance of avoiding what is sometimes called the ‘trait trap ’ in which it is assumed some children possess a natural ‘hardiness ’ or ‘invulnerability ’.If this logic is interpreted too narrowly, it can sometimes lead to unjusti ﬁable inferences. The ﬁrst is that some children will have the ability to deal with adversity no matter what life throws at them and so need less help. Alternatively, there might be the view that, just because young 38 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro people appear super ﬁcially to be still functioning after abuse and trauma, it does not always follow that they are doing well in many other aspects of their life. A retreat to resilience logic can, therefore, lead to the belief that the main source of change should be in the individual rather than the environment or that certain children ‘just cannot be helped ’ because they do not appear to have the qualities necessary for success. Aligned with this perspective is Rutter ’s (1990) work on risk and protective factors aﬀect ing child development which demonstrates that, although the eﬀects of risk factors may be signi ﬁcant, cumulative protective factors can have substantial positive eﬀects. This highlights the valuable role that foster/adoptive carers can play in enhancing protective factors for children in order to promote an improved sense of self-esteem and self-e ﬃcacy through con sistency, nurturance and predictability to diminish the traumatic impact of children ’searly experiences, and promote resilience (Fernandez 2006; Hughes 1997). Strengths-based practice Much of the research that involves vulnerable families and children adopts a child pro tection approach. Although broader legislative statements will refer to the ‘best interests of the child ’ and the importance of enhancing the lives of young people, the process of child protection is often about risk management, wherein workers are often asked to use standardised decision-making tools that might require them to rate the severity of abuse; its likelihood of occurring again; or, the strengths and weaknesses of the household environment when deciding whether children can live there. In situations of this nature, where risk aversion is often elevated to the highest importance, much of the focus of the work with families and any associated research can tend to be very focused on the deﬁcits or weaknesses of the families and the problems experienced by the children. There is nothing inherently wrong with identifying risk factors in child welfare con texts. Such approaches can allow for the early detection of families who may need extra supports; it can help to identify the factors that reduce the chance of children of being able to go home; and, it can also be a way of identifying the children who are most likely to experience diﬃculties when they are placed into care. As discussed earlier in this chapter, one of the striking features of child welfare populations is that families often experience multiple problems (Delfabbro et al. 2009; 2013; Fernandez et al. 2019). At the same time, it is recognised that eﬀective practice should not solely be about deﬁcits. Children in care have many strengths and so do their families. The identi ﬁcation of these factors also plays an important role in understanding what areas might provide the basis for helping families overcome their diﬃculties and help children develop better lives. Strengths-based approaches (Oliver 2017; Saleeby 2002) direct attention away from the labels applied to service users and clients and the negative identities and defects ascribed to them. The emphasis is on identifying and recognising strengths, experience, skills and supports the parent or young person draws on to cope with the challenges they face. Saleeby describes the strengths approach thus: the strengths perspective is about discerning those resources and respecting them and the potential they have for reversing misfortune, countering illness, easing pain and reaching goals … clients want you to believe they can surmount adversity and begin to climb towards transformation and growth. (Saleeby 2002: 14) Theoretical and value frameworks 39 Howe (2009) oﬀers a useful summary of Saleeby ’s approach to eliciting client strengths and enabling them to recognise and value their competencies and resourcefulness through speci ﬁc strategic questions: survival questions to explore who and what helped them in the past; exception questions inviting service users to reﬂect on what their experience was when things went well; possibility questions which enable them to explore the hopes and qualities that helped them move forward to realise their hopes; esteem questions which help them reﬂect on assets or aspects of themselves they feel proud of. In summary, the approach encourages practitioners to see service users – parents and or young people – as more than their problems, identify their capacities and bolster their resilience. Some of the areas that might be considered include building social support networks, engaging young people in community activities, developing hobbies and inter ests, or providing training and education in relation to parenting or cultural activities (Fernandez, 2006). Trauma and neurobiological perspectives People who work with children in child welfare contexts frequently encounter complex behaviour. Children may experience diﬃculties forming eﬀective social relationships; they may display aggressive, sexualised or destructive behaviours; or they may be highly anxious or depressed. Others may show clear deﬁcits in some areas of cognitive or behavioural functioning. Although it sometimes may be tempting to merely attach a label to these children (e.g., ‘complex ’, ‘high needs ’ or ‘diﬃcult to place ’), good practice involves trying to understand the causes of this behaviour and how it might be addressed. Extensive neurophysiological research now shows that children who were exposed to signi ﬁcant trauma in the early years often experience neurological harm which can aﬀect their subsequent behaviour (Beers & DeBellis 2002; McLean 2016; Mo ﬃtt 2013; Perry 2006, 2009; Sunderland 2006). Common problems include diﬃculties with memory, language problems, hyperactivity, executive functioning (the inability to organise tasks and stay focused), or diﬃculties in emotional regulation and sensory processing. Various neurologists have scrutinised the role of early experiences and their impact on brain development. Perry and Szalavit (2008) establish links between the brain and how attachments develop, asserting that the brain is shaped positively or negatively by our childhood relationships with caregivers. Along similar lines, Sunderland (2006) argues that if children are not met with responsive and nurturing relationships in early life they may remain poorly equipped to deal with stressful feelings in later life. Sunderland (2006), based on her work with children who have been traumatised, oﬀers important insights into the eﬀects of stressful early experiences on the developing brain and long- term consequences for the child. Brie ﬂy, Sunderland highlights the particular brain regions associated with stress managing functions such as the amygdala which establishes the emotional meaning of experiences and communicates with the hypothalamus, the region of the brain which triggers release of stress hormones which prepares the body for ﬁght or ﬂight responses. If children are not met with sensitive responses and attuned relationships in early life which prime them to deal with emotions and feelings, ine ﬀective stress responsive systems become ingrained in the brain. Perry and Szalavitz (2008) link the brain to processes of attachment, describing how attachment templates develop through parenting and brain development. 40 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Loving caregivers provide the template that you use for human relationships. Attachment, then, is a memory template for human to human bonds. This template serves as your primary world view on human relationships. It is profoundly inﬂu enced by whether you experience kind, attuned parenting or whether you received inconsistent, frequently disrupted, abusive or neglected care. In sum, this biological explanation suggests the brain is shaped positively or negatively by our relationships in childhood with caregivers whose responses can aﬀect brain structures or chemistry which, in turn, can aﬀect interactions with others in later life. In the context of trauma, stimuli such as a loud noise can trigger a stored memory and the amygdala may resultantly elicit fearful reaction in the child (Perry 2006). When mal treatment occurs, children are overwhelmed with stressful stimuli that impair or com promise the development of particular brain regions and aﬀect their psychosocial outcomes. Further, Perry (2006) argues that children ’s emotional and behavioural devel opment is nurtured by exchanges with their caregivers, strengthening their neural path ways and enabling them to regulate stress. Children who are subject to insensitive and punitive responses fail to develop eﬀective stress responsive systems that manifest in emotional withdrawal, persistent states of anxiety, hyper arousal and lack of enthusiasm and engagement. As with attachment theorising, the emphasis is on children ’s relational experiences with caregivers. Some children experience caregiving that places them at risk of poor psychological development and wellbeing. The term childhood adversity is used to describe a range of incidents that pose a threat to a child ’s physical and psychological wellbeing. Child abuse and neglect, parental rejection, parental separation, domestic violence, bullying, and extreme poverty are examples of childhood adversity. Such experiences are per ceived to have deleterious consequences, particularly when they occur early in life, are severe and are repetitive or accumulate over time. Trauma is the potential outcome of exposure to adversity. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has drawn attention to the critical issue of childhood adversity and cumulative harm and its developmental impacts. It is claimed that the eﬀects of childhood adversity can become embedded in the early sensitive periods of brain development. Howe (2009), commenting on the impact of neglect, notes that brain cells in the young child that do not get exposed to expected sensory stimulation during those early sensitive periods of brain development are unlikely to develop the required neurological connections to achieve optimal development. On an optimistic note, recovery is seen as possible. With warm, sensitive and skilled caretakers the brain remains ‘plastic ’, retaining the ability to ‘neurologically organise and reorganise itself throughout the lifespan ’ (Howe 2009: 184). This introduces some caution in allow ing ourselves to become deterministic in our thinking. The similar study of Felitti et al. (1998) uses the term Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to describe various adver sities including emotional and physical neglect, abuse, divorce and separation and social disadvantage. Researchers found that the more ACEs adults reported from their child hoods the worse their physical and mental outcomes. Trauma is the outcome of exposure to adversity and occurs when an individual experiences an incident or set of circum stances as threatening, emotionally or physically. A child ’s experience of trauma is likely to be accompanied by fear and helplessness and physiological symptoms which may continue beyond the initial exposure (Bartlett & Sacks 2019). Theoretical and value frameworks 41 While childhood trauma can impact diﬀerent domains of development, its eﬀects on each child varies depending on individual family and environmental risk and protective factors and each child is likely to respond in distinctive ways to the same type of adversity and correspondingly requires diﬀerent responses. Caution, however, is needed to avoid exclu sive focus on ACEs to the exclusion of the full range of children ’s needs and the variation in children ’s responses to adversity. Knowledge of childhood adversity and trauma has underpinned the development of interventive approaches including trauma-informed care. While the neurobiological perspective has been inﬂuential in child protection decision making, concern is levelled against the uncritical acceptance of this perspective on trauma (Bruer 1999; Munro & Musholt 2014; Teicher & Samson 2016; Wastell & White 2012), drawing attention to methodological ﬂaws, over simpli ﬁcation, selective reporting and inadequate contextual interpretation. There have been some concerns about misapplication of the theory in child welfare contexts (Grandquist et al. 2017). Bruer (1999) alludes to contradictory and inconclusive ﬁndings, indicating they are to be applied with caution and, further, expresses concern that the narrow focus on speci ﬁc regions of the brain limits the potential for inferences and generalisations about the overall functioning of the brain to be drawn. Causes are multifactorial with socio-economic risks playing a key role. Teicher and Sampson (2016) draw attention to the contradictory ﬁndings reported with respect to the relationship between brain alterations and child abuse and highlight that, while some neglected children showed increased amygdala volume, contradictory ﬁndings were evident in other studies. Perry ’s published work portraying the juxtaposed images of a smaller brain of a neglected child and the normal-sized brain of the child who is not neglected has also attracted critical comment on the basis of the lack of methodological details and contextual formation on the nature of their care environ ments. The neurobiological perspective has been inﬂuential and remains a dominant theoretical approach in child welfare decision making. The empirical and scienti ﬁc work underpinning the conceptualisation and the controversies around the work have been less conspicuous. In summary, the neurobiological perspective oﬀers a useful con tribution to understanding child adversity and trauma when used in conjunction with social science perspectives which point to the multifactorial circumstances including socio-economic risks that are at play. Value frameworks underpinning child welfare decision making Although there is usually legislation and training that governs speci ﬁc areas of practice involving children and families, the way in which practitioners understand and approach their work is also likely to be strongly inﬂuenced by their broader knowledge and values (Trevithick 2008). Such understanding acts as a ﬁlter for how situations might be inter preted. For example, it can inﬂuence a worker ’s attitude towards families, what decisions are made, how the situation is interpreted and what service options are considered. These values can sometimes arise explicitly from education, training or life experience and are known to the worker. Other values may be implicit and only evident with reﬂection or from the standpoint of others. Some of these values or areas of knowledge can enhance the quality of practice by making workers more reﬂective, insightful and well informed, whereas others can have the opposite eﬀect. Some workers may have well-established views that make it diﬃcult for them to appraise each case on its merits or consider broader perspectives or approaches that might be relevant to the family. 42 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro Statutory child welfare interventions are informed by particular value orientations that point to diﬀerent policy and practice directions. To examine the diﬀerent values under pinning the state ’s relationship with families and children and interventions in child welfare it is instructive to draw on Fox Harding ’s (1991) fourfold classi ﬁcation of value positions reﬂected in child welfare policy: laissez faire, state paternalism and child pro tection, defence of the birth family and parent rights, and child liberation and children rights. A review and elaboration of these is available in Fernandez (1996). The laissez-faire value position emphasises minimal intervention and intrusion into the child family relationship. Authors supporting minimalism in state intervention (Mnookin 1973; Goldstein, Freud & Solnit 1979; Wald 1982) express concerns about the limits of prediction, the quality and instability of out of home care and the issues of unlimited discretionary decision making. Goldstein, Freud and Solnit (1979: 136), emphasising continuity and constancy maintain that: By failing to keep families together, by failing to restrict foster care to children who have a real chance of being returned to their absent parents in a ‘short time ’, and by failing to regard long time foster parents as autonomous, the authorities prevent feelings of security developing in either child or adult. By moving children from placement to placement in the interests of absent parents the state interferes with attachments that are essential for an individual ’s growth. In contrast with the laissez-faire value position, the state paternalism and child protection position envisages a strong role for the state, intervening coercively in families to protect children from inadequate care or maltreatment. Fox Harding summarises this position: in the paternalist and child protection value perspective, those birth parents who do not bring up their children ‘well ’ cannot expect to keep them. When they fail state power should be readily and extensively used to provide something better for the children. (Fox Harding 1991: 62) The work of Dingwall, Eekelaar and Murray (1983), aligned with the state paternalist, concluded from their empirical work that social workers tended to resort to the ‘rule of optimism ’ and display a preoccupation with parental rights. Emphasising children ’s rights and parental duties they argue: The parent child relationship is an unequal contract which children do not enter freely. At the same time both children and society as a whole have a vital interest in the success of that relationship in cultivating the capacity for responsible moral action. (Dingwall et al. 1983: 220) This position has attracted criticism on the grounds of focusing on culpability of parents while overlooking wider structural factors aﬀecting parenting environments (Featherstone et al. 2014; Pelton 2015). For example, Frost (1990) comments: In a divided society we cannot understand child protection work as simply being about the protection of children. Child protection practice in an environment of Theoretical and value frameworks 43 inequality and marginalisation becomes a process of judging and disciplining house holds deﬁned as outside the mainstream. (Frost 1990: 39) The defence of the birth family and parent rights value position summarised by Fox Harding acknowledges the notion that optimum parenting requires a materially favour- able environment and inadequate care is associated with deprivation and oppression. This position favours extensive state intervention but not of the coercive kind. Birth families should be supported in their caring role; children should not enter substitute care except as a last resort or on a ‘shared care ’ basis, having entered care, most of them should be kept in touch with their original family and should wherever possible return to it. The state in its child care role pays insu ﬃcient attention to upholding birth families; it also operated in a discriminatory way on the basis of social class. Most of the child care problems to which the state responds are attri butable to poverty and deprivation. (Fox Harding 1991: 107) The views represented in this position are espoused by Holman (1988), Lindsey (1994), Parton (1990) and Pelton (1989), who advocate a proactive approach to preventive and supportive work with families and children. For example, Holman ’s case for prevention rests on arguments for the child ’s right to remain with their families and their neigh bourhood or wider social environment, and in relation to children placed in care advo cates strongly for contact between children and their separated families, drawing a distinction between ‘exclusive fostering ’ (excluding the child ’s family and kinship con nections) and ‘inclusive fostering ’ (openness to encouraging children to maintain links with parents and kinship networks). While in the ﬁrst three value positions the needs and interests of children and young persons are deﬁned by parents/carers or state agents, the emphasis in the children ’s rights and child liberation position is the child ’s viewpoint, acknowledging the child as a separate identity. Fox Harding summarises: The distinguishing characteristics of this perspective …. is that the emphasis is on the child ’s own viewpoint, feelings, wishes, deﬁnition, freedom, choices rather than attribution by adults of what is best for the child … Decisions should not (on the whole) be made over the child ’s head. Thus, the child ’s welfare is (at least partly) for the child herself to deﬁne. (Fox Harding 1991: 139) Several conceptual orientations towards the rights of children exemplify this position (Eekalaar 1994; Franklin 1986; Lavery 1986; Rogers & Wrightsman 1978) and concur on the need to advance children ’s rights, and some acknowledge the dependence of child hood, the diﬀerences in capacities between adults and children and younger children and older children. For example, Freeman (1987: 300) asserts Children have not been accorded either dignity or respect. They have been rei ﬁed, denied the status of participants in a social system, labelled as a problem population, 44 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro reduced to being seen as property. Think of our attitudes towards the closure of children ’s homes, the criminal justice process for children, the custody decision- making process after divorce, the punishment of children and their abuse, child bene ﬁt. The list is endless. In summary, each of these positions articulates a particular model of state/family rela tionship and reﬂects particular value stances that underpin child welfare policy and practice. While all of them can be credited with concern for children and their wellbeing, there are divergences in how the child ’s best interests are to be deﬁned and operationalised. Best interests of the child In making decisions about child protection and protective care, professionals oper ationalise the values expressed in the best interests of the child standard. This standard has become signi ﬁcant in decision making and policy development nationally and inter nationally. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child notes that ‘In all actions concerning children whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administration authorities or legislative bodies the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration ’ (Article 3 (1). Mnookin (1973) commends the principle stating ‘it focuses principally on the child rather than on arbitrary legal rights of parents. It implicitly recognises that each child is unique, and that paternal conduct and home environments may have substantially dif ferent eﬀects on diﬀerent children ’ (Mnookin 1973: 202). However, the complexities of this standard and the constraints in operationalising it are highlighted in the legal and social work literature (Fernandez 1996; Goldstein, Freud & Solnit 1979; Mnookin 1973; Parker 1994). Among the complexities identi ﬁed are the open-endedness and indeterminacy of the concept and the lack of speci ﬁc guidelines as to what set of values should be used to determine what is in a child ’s best interests. The issue of giving content to this standard is highlighted thus: ‘it is a rationalisation by decision makers, justifying their judgements about a child ’s future, like an empty vessel into which adult perceptions and prejudices are poured. It does not oﬀer guidelines about how adult powers should be exercised ’ (Rodham 1973: 513). The concern is that judges and social workers predominantly from higher socio-eco nomic groups are likely to be inﬂuenced by their own values in determining the child ’s best interest and, in this respect, it has the potential to provide a screen for bias and paternalism (Parker 1994), most frequently in cases involving social minorities, poor, non-white and non-conventional families (Rodham 1973). The impact of pluralistic beliefs about child rearing and parenting on the interpretation of ‘best interests ’ is highlighted in the experience of the Stolen Generations. Lack of understanding of the role of Aboriginal extended family networks, Aboriginal poverty and biases about Aboriginal lifestyles inﬂuenced the transfer of Aboriginal children into white care as a result of culturally based discriminatory decision making by state agents (Burns, Burns & Menzies 2004; Chisholm 1985; Fernandez et al. 2018). The indeterminacy of the best interest principle is also related to the speculation involved in identifying probabilities and potential outcomes of decisions and attaching values to possible outcomes (Parker 1994). In this context Hubbell notes: Theoretical and value frameworks 45 each child ’s experience in foster care is unknown and unpredictable; it cannot be neatly plotted on a graph, it cannot be guaranteed to be loving, nurturing and to increase his (her) IQ by ten points. Lost to chance are quality of the foster home, the length of a child ’s tenure in that home, the number of moves a child makes from home to home, the number of diﬀerent case workers a child may have while in foster care. (Hubbell 1981: 34) Further complexities raised are whether the child should be the only object of concern and whether parents, siblings and kin are to remain peripheral, and should rights, strengths and needs of all family members be considered. Given the tensions articulated, alternative approaches to implementation of this standard are proposed. Wald (1982) proposes the focus of decision should be on ‘speci ﬁc harms ’ to the child that justify intervention rather than ‘parental fault ’. Goldstein, Freud and Solnit (1979) propose in the place of the best interest standard, ‘that which is the least detrimental alternative among available alternatives for the child ’, a reframing which introduces the notion of ‘available alternatives ’ and has the potential to evaluate the pros and cons of each decision without getting enmeshed in the hope and magic of ‘best ’ in a way which misleads decision makers to believe they have more power for good than for bad in what they decide (Goldstein, Freud and Solnit 1979: 25). The conceptualisation is also linked with children ’s rights. Accordingly, maximising children ’s opportunities to develop their own perceptions of their wellbeing and increas ing their capacities for choice and self determination must also be considered. In summary, the divergent views examined introduce a note of caution and realism into the operationalisation of the best interest standard and the need for awareness of the ways in which diﬀerent perceptions of the child ’s interest are reached and diﬀerentiated from other interests. While this formulation appears defensible and unimpeachable it is seen as vague and malleable and subject to the personal value orientations of practitioners and decision makers (Fernandez 1996). Balancing perspectives and the triangulation of knowledge An important issue relates to how practitioners in the child welfare area come to under stand what constitutes best practice or what sources of knowledge they should draw upon when making decisions. Although many people who work in this area receive formal university education in child welfare and child development, a question arises as to what sources of information they draw upon in their ongoing practice. To what extent do they use research evidence or principles derived from theory or frameworks (e.g., psychological theory or social work theory) as opposed to their own experience or practice ‘wisdom ’. There is very likely to be no single or clear answer to these questions. Most likely the truth is that decision making is best guided by a combination of diﬀerent perspectives (Trevithick 2008), and that each type of knowledge has both strengths and weaknesses when taken in isolation. For example, the adoption of broader theoretical perspectives can help to draw upon existing knowledge and frameworks and help to organise ideas. Good theories are those which help explain why certain things might occur and can be 46 Elizabeth Fernandez and Paul Delfabbro used to advance propositions or ideas that can be tested in practice. Not all people agree about the same theory and some theories can oﬀer competing explanations. Styles of decision making where one tries to generalise from higher level propositions to particular situations are often called ‘top-down ’ or deductive. By contrast, there is the view that a lot of knowledge can be gained from merely working with children and families and developing a store of knowledge based on experience. Such knowledge is often called ‘practice wisdom ’ and is more inductive or ‘bottom up ’ in nature (one builds up a store of knowledge and may not reach any conclusions until one has observed many instances of a situation or outcome). Knowledge of this nature can be valuable in that it can be practically focused, understand the diversity of families and children and how there can be exceptions to general rules. The limitation of practice experience, however, is that individual experiences can be highly variable and it may be harder to see ‘the bigger picture ’. There can be a tendency for recent or highly inﬂuential cases to colour how individual workers interpret situations. Di ﬀerences in perspective may also occur if people work in particular oﬃces, or come from diﬀerent countries with diﬀerent policies and practice philosophies (Khoo & Nygren 2006). Another important debate in social work decision making relates to how evidence is used. Good practice is thought to arise from approaches that are ‘reﬂective ’ (i.e., people think about what they did correctly or incorrectly and how they might do things diﬀerently) (Gardner 2014) or which proac tively take the perspectives of diﬀerent parties (e.g., children and families) into account. Conclusion In sum, good child welfare practice is best informed by balanced approaches that take advantage of all available evidence and which are not unduly inﬂuenced by preconceived ideas or misconceptions. The aim is to appraise needs and risk, and to be mindful of strengths and opportunities for growth and resilience without relinquishing the respon sibility of practitioners to facilitate changes. Good practice should be mindful of the changes that occur in children ’s development and that many children in child welfare contexts may not often present in the same way as other children of their age. Although workers will often encounter children after they have already been subjected to a great deal of early harm, there are opportunities to improve children ’s lives by working with other professional people to provide timely assessments and interventions and to take advantage of the multiple critical phases that children pass through on their way to adulthood. Discussion questions � What does it mean to adopt a ‘developmental approach ’ to child welfare? � What are ‘ecological approaches ’ and why are they often applied in child welfare contexts? � In what ways can cultural biases and value judgements come into play when dealing with Indigenous or Aboriginal families? � What is resilience? What are the strengths and limitations of adopting this approach in the child welfare context? � What are the strengths and limitations of using practice wisdom as the basis for child welfare decision making? Theoretical and value frameworks 47 References Adcock, M., Lake, R. & Small, A., 1988, ‘Assessing children ’s needs ’, in J. Aldgate and J. Sim monds (eds), Direct work with children: A guide for social work practitioners , London: Basford, pp. 25–35. Ainsworth, M., 1979, ‘Infant –mother attachment ’, American Psychologist , vol. 34, pp. 932 –937. Alderson, P., 2000, Young children ’s rights , London: Jessica Kingsley. 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This international treaty accords a wide-ranging assortment of rights to children, on a spectrum from protection to autonomy, and has cemented a shift in our perceptions of children from passive recipients of adult protection to active participants in decisions aﬀecting them. This chapter starts by explaining the background to the children ’s rights movement and the development of the UNCRC. Next, it considers the implications of respect for children ’s rights as expressed in the UNCRC in general terms. Three areas of the protective care continuum in Australia are then reviewed through the lens of children ’s rights: ﬁrst, the state ’s duties to support the care of children within their family; second, how the interaction of the guiding principles of the UNCRC can provide insight into decision making within diﬀerent cultural con texts; and third, alternative care arrangements for children unable to be brought up within their birth families. Finally, the implications of commitment to the full realisation of children ’s rights under the UNCRC for policy and practice in the protective care continuum are discussed. Context: Children ’s rights and the UNCRC Child protection systems in advanced economies have their roots in philanthropic ‘child saving ’ organisations founded in the nineteenth century in response to the appalling conditions of poverty and exploitation endured by many children in the newly indus trialised cities, immortalised in the case of London by the works of Charles Dickens. Early notions of child protection were therefore embedded in a patriarchal view of society which considered women and children alike as weak and vulnerable and in need of care and protection. But the civil rights movements claiming equal rights for women and racial and/or ethnic minorities led to some claims for self-determination on behalf of children, particularly in relation to the closing down of some forms of independence for older children with the newly appropriated label of adolescence (Minow 1986). In the 1970s, a group of ‘children ’s liberationists ’ in the US claimed controversial rights and freedoms for children on the basis that they were an oppressed group facing similar dis crimination to that of other minorities (see, for example, John Holt ’s Escape from Childhood (Holt 1974)). While the more unrealistic and potentially harmful claims of this Children ’s rights 53 group for children ’s equality of treatment compared with adults were rejected, by the time Poland proposed an internationally binding Convention on the Rights of the Child to commemorate the International Year of the Child in 1979, the twin perspectives of the protection of children as vulnerable innocents and promotion of respect for children as entitled to human rights were both well established. The resulting Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely endorsed treaty in history, having been rati ﬁed by all nations except for the USA. It combines both the afore-mentioned perspectives on children, including, arguably, some claims for children ’s autonomy rights. As a consequence, the rights aﬀorded to children by the Convention cannot be viewed in isolation but must be considered as interdependent. The Committee on the Rights of the Child have identi ﬁed four General Principles (United Nations Com mittee on the Rights of the Child 1991) which are regarded as central to the operation of the Convention as a whole, namely: Article 2: Non-discrimination Article 3: Best interests of the child Article 6: The right to life, survival and development Article 12: Respect for the views of the child. In addition, the UNCRC provides a wide range of rights covering all aspects of children ’s lives, including support for children ’s upbringing within their family (articles 9, 16, 18, 26 and 27); enjoyment of minority cultural and religious practices in community with others from their minority group (article 30); the protection of children from maltreatment within the family (articles 9 and 19); and provision of alternative care for children who cannot grow up within their birth family (articles 20, 21 (adoption) and 25). Policy and practice focus: Do children ’s rights make a diﬀerence? The signi ﬁcance of actively awarding rights to children is twofold. First, it recognises children as people entitled to the same respect and dignity that we would accord to adults, a status not enjoyed by children as a group historically. Adopting a ‘rights-based ’ approach to issues aﬀecting children means, in general terms, taking their concerns and feelings seriously and acknowledging the value of children ’s insights and of children themselves as members of society. Second, the elevation of an identi ﬁed moral interest – such as protection from violence – to the status of a right enables the imposition of legal duties on state or other parties for its ful ﬁlment, thereby facilitating enforcement of the duty. Most nations have not directly incorporated the UNCRC into their domestic law and therefore the provisions are not directly enforceable by or on behalf of children. In a review of 12 developed nations, including Australia, Lundy, Kilkelly and Byrne (2013) found that article 3 was most commonly directly incorporated, followed by article 12, reﬂecting a primary focus on the welfare of children, but one which is tempered by recognition of the role of children ’s own feelings in solutions to problems that they face, a balance considered in greater detail later in the chapter. In Australia, the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 requires all proposed legislation to carry a statement of compatibility with all seven human rights treaties that Australia has rati ﬁed, helping to ensure that new law does not contravene the principles of children ’s rights under the 54 Jennifer Driscoll UNCRC. However, there is no obligation for legislation to be amended to rectify iden tiﬁed concerns and the Australian Children ’s Commissioner has called for Australian domestic legislation to provide full conformity with its obligations under the UNCRC and impact assessments on proposed legislation aﬀecting children ’s rights (Australian Human Rights Commission 2018). But even where the provisions have not been incorporated into law, the Convention has nonetheless ‘exercised an extraordinarily pervasive and signi ﬁcant inﬂuence on the way in which law- and policy-makers think about the status of children ’ (Archard 2014: 107). Davidson (2014), in an article arguing for US rati ﬁcation of the UNCRC, concludes that it has not only provided the impetus for wide-ranging reforms in all areas aﬀecting children ’s lives but is also ‘helping countries make a collective diﬀerence in the lives of their most vulnerable children ’ (p. 529). One of the ways through which change is eﬀec ted is the reporting mechanism established under article 44. States Parties are required to report on the progress they have made in assuring the Convention rights to children in their jurisdiction within two years of the Convention entering into force and thereafter every ﬁve years. Following further evidence gathering, the Committee on the Rights of the Child issues commentary on the reports submitted, including acknowledgement of progress made, identi ﬁcation of key areas of concern and recommendations for further work. The Committee published the Concluding Observations in relation to Australia ’s fourth periodic report in August 2012 (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2012). Australia ’s joint ﬁfth and sixth report was submitted to the Committee in January 2018 (Government of Australia 2108), and the Concluding Observations fol lowed in September 2019. The three areas considered in greater detail in the following sections are chosen as being of particular pertinence to Australian policy and practice at the current time. The state ’s duties to support the care of children within their family The preamble to the UNCRC sets out the ‘conviction ’ of States Parties that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be aﬀorded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community. This conviction is backed up by a number of articles in the Convention, in particular article 18, which declares that primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child lies with parents or legal guardians and that ‘[t]he best interests of the child shall be their primary concern ’. Article 9 limits the circumstances in which children may be separated from their parents against their will, requiring the proper exercise of national law and procedures and a determination that separation is ‘necessary in the best interests of the child ’. These are generic requirements and it is for national governments to ensure that they have robust processes in place to protect children from unlawful or unnecessary removal from their parents ’ care. Such processes will have been instituted in Western nations in the form of child pro tection laws since before the UNCRC came into force. However, these articles must be read in conjunction with others, which together make for rather more uncomfortable Children ’s rights 55 reading for many ‘advanced ’ wealthy countries. In particular, article 26 requires recogni tion of every child ’s ‘right to bene ﬁt from social security, including social insurance ’ and article 27 refers to the ‘right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child ’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development ’. While parents have the pri mary responsibility to ensure living conditions suﬃcient for the child ’s development, the UNCRC imposes a duty on governments to ‘take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing ’ (article 27–3). Article 18–2 is wider: For the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights set out in the present Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate assistance to parents in the per formance of their child-rearing responsibilities and shall ensure the development of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children. This duty is to be ful ﬁlled by nations ‘in accordance with national conditions and within their means ’, placing greater expectations on wealthier nations to support parents in the ful ﬁlment of their parenting duties than might be expected of less aﬄuent countries. This approach is con ﬁrmed in article 4, which eﬀectively requires national governments to prioritize children in their allocation of resources: States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measure for the implementation of the rights recognised in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources. Political considerations are likely to determine the extent to which governments embrace the principles set out in article 4. Esping-Andersen (1990) identi ﬁed three models of social policy systems. The ﬁrst, the liberal model, he associated initially with Australia, Canada and the US, with Denmark, Sweden and the UK approximating to the model. In this model, market forces are allowed to operate and the role of the state is reduced, with a tendency for services to be privatised. The second, known as the corporativist or con servative model, adopts a somewhat paternalistic approach, with considerable state investment in social welfare policies and support for traditional family structures such as the nuclear family. Esping-Andersen originally identi ﬁed Austria, France, Germany and Italy as conforming to this model, which is characterised by considerable investment in social welfare on the part of the state (Scruggs & Allan 2008). Potential weaknesses of the model include a tendency for services to be provided by religious or voluntary orga nisations (Katz & Hetherington 2006), running the risk that clear common standards are lacking (Spratt et al. 2015, referring to Germany). The third model, originally identi ﬁed in Norway and Sweden and to some degree in Finland and Denmark (Esping-Andersen 1990), is the social democratic welfare model. The goal of equal opportunities drives high investment in state institutions for the direct delivery of social services under this model, although neoliberal policy has been seen to erode its operation in Nordic countries in the last decade or so (Healy & Oltedal 2010). As a result of changes in Australian policy consequent upon neoliberal inﬂuences, Australia was later considered to represent a fourth model of social policy, not included 56 Jennifer Driscoll in Esping-Anderson ’s original categories, but more recently still has adopted what Deeming and Smyth (2015: 307) refer to as the Australian ‘social investment state’. Although in some ways the model is broadly in line with the social democratic tradition, policies badged as family-friendly are driven by economic aims such as enabling both parents to work. In addition, and in common with English-speaking Western nations more generally, Australian neoliberal inﬂuences have resulted in an increase in quasi-market policies involving public–private partnerships, competitive tendering and contracting out (Deeming 2017; Deeming & Smyth 2015). Commentators suggest that neoliberal and market-oriented policies which encourage privatisation and reduce the role of the state tend to reinforce patterns of inequality (Scruggs & Allan 2008) through reduced investment in welfare promotion and prevention work in favour of risk reduction (Katz & Hetherington 2006; Healy & Oltedal 2010). The focus on individual responsibility translates into atti tudes of blame towards struggling parents and inadequate attention to structural stressors such as poverty. Lonne et al. (2009) argue that these features are responsible to some extent at least for what they consider to be systemic failures in child protection systems in Anglophone countries. In the Concluding Observations on Australia of 2012, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (‘the Committee ’) expressed concern that the ‘availability and quality of childcare remains inadequate’ (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2012, Para. 49) and recommended ‘implementation of appropriate measures to strengthen current programmes of family support, including ensuring the availability and aﬀ ordability of quality childcare facilities, the adequacy of family assistance pay ments and of the recently approved paid parental leave entitlement ’ (Para. 50). At Para. 56 it also recommended prioritization of ‘early intervention approaches, including at the antenatal period, to provide support to families in situations of heightened vulner ability and prevent or mitigate abuse and neglect of children and violence in the home ’. The Australian Government responded to these concerns in the ﬁfth and sixth joint report (Government of Australia 2018) through reference to the Third Action Plan (2015 –2018) created under the National Framework for Protecting Australia’sChildren 2009– 2020 (Council of Australian Governments 2009). The National Framework’ ssix supporting outcomes include: children live in safe and supportive families and commu nities; children and families access adequate support to promote safety and intervene early; risk factors for child abuse and neglect are addressed; and Indigenous children are supported and safe in their families and communities. As well as citing the Paid Parental Leave scheme, assistance with childcare costs, and the Child Care Safety Net scheme to support the most vulnerable children, the Government also pointed to its ParentsNext initiative as a programme designed to support parents. However, this programme, which aims to address child poverty and welfare dependency by sup porting parents (expected to be overwhelmingly mothers) into work, conforms to a neoliberal ‘welfare to work ’ model. It has been criticized by campaigners for adopting punitive measures to force some parents into work, devaluing parenting by expecting parents to return to work while their children are still very young and failing to address the structural barriers facing mothers who do wish to return to the workforce (McLaren 2017). In contrast to ‘workfare ’ type initiatives primarily intended to get parents into work, Box 3.1 describes an evidence-based peer-led parenting interven tion available in Australia which more directly addresses the goals of the National Framework. Children ’s rights 57 The Committee in its Concluding Observations (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2012) also called upon the Australian Government to ‘take urgent measures to address disparities in access to services by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and their families ’ (Para. 30), in accordance with article 2–1 of the Convention, which reads: States parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespec tive of the child ’s or his or her parent ’s or legal guardian ’s race, colour, sex, lan guage, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. There have been some further measures to address this issue through initiatives to pro mote family-led decision-making trials, in which the Family Group Conferencing model, originally developed from Maori cultural practices in New Zealand, is used to engage community leaders and wider family groups to solve child safety problems at the com munity level (Niddrie & Brosnan 2017). Petrie and Kruger (2014) argue that much greater use should be made of the Family Group Conference model in the Northern Territory to improve outcomes for children and to increase a sense of empowerment in indigenous communities. In the absence of longitudinal evaluations, it is diﬃcult to assess the long- term success of such programmes in promoting child safety. However, the UN Commit tee appears not to have been convinced by the Australian Government ’s approach to provision and access to family support services, urging strong investment in preventative measures, particularly for indigenous families, in 2019 (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2019, para. 32). Failures in government support to vulnerable families and lack of attention to struc tural and economic factors aﬀecting the upbringing of children are likely to manifest in high numbers of children being removed from parental care and placed in the care of the state. In the Concluding Observations (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2012), the Committee expressed concern that the number of children in care in Australia was rising. In 2018, the Government acknowledged ‘ongoing issues ’ in relation to high numbers of children in the child protection system and entering out of home care (Government of Australia 2108: 17). Government statistics (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018) (AIHW) show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were seven times more likely to receive child protection services and ten times as likely to enter out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children in 2016 –17. Although the reasons for this are complex and include the legacy of historical policies, inﬂuential factors include the greater likelihood of indigenous children living in remote areas, suﬀering poor health and growing up in low socio-economic backgrounds compared with their non-indigenous peers. Particularly worrying is the fact that while the proportion of children receiving child protection services rose in indigenous and non-indigenous populations from 2012/13 to 2016/17, the increase was faster among indigenous children (AIHW 2018). This despite the fact that all states and territories have endorsed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle since 1986 and a range of initiatives intended to reduce the gap between wellbeing outcomes for indigenous children and their non-indigenous peers have been implemented. In 2019 the Committee stated that it ‘remains seriously concerned about ’ [inter alia ] ‘The continuing over-representation of Aboriginal and 58 Jennifer Driscoll Torres Strait Islander children in alternative care, often outside their communities ’ (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2019, para. 33). Box 3.1 Supporting parents Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC) is an evidence-based, peer- led parenting intervention designed to improve access and reduce barriers to eﬀec tive parenting support, particularly aimed at families from excluded communities and those experiencing disadvantage. Local parents, especially those who have bene ﬁted from the scheme themselves, are trained to deliver the programme in order to provide low-cost, high-quality parenting support that is readily accepted by families. The three core programmes focus on ‘Our Baby and Us ’ (0–1 year), ‘Being a Parent ’ (2–11 years) and ‘Living with Teenagers ’ (11 –16 years). EPEC has trained over 400 peer facilitators in the UK and Australia from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Evaluations have shown the programme to be extremely eﬀective in improving parenting practices and children ’s behaviour. Questions for reﬂection: What is or should be the relationship between programmes such as EPEC and formal child protection processes? What issues may arise as a consequence of the interaction between voluntary interventions and the statutory system? The interaction of the guiding principles in decision making in the protective care continuum One contributing factor to the over-representation of children from indigenous popula tions in Australia – and from minority communities across the world more generally – derives from the fact that norms and values in parenting practices vary across cultures. Article 3–1 of the UNCRC requires that ‘[i]n all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary con sideration ’. In Australian law, although child protection legislation is enacted at state or territory level, the ﬁrst principle of the National Framework for Protecting Australia ’s Children (Council of Australian Governments 2009) includes the statement that children ’s ‘best interests are paramount in all matters aﬀecting them ’. But the concept of the ‘best interests ’ of the child is ambiguous and subjective and liable to be interpreted according to the norms of the dominant culture, which may change over time. For example, male circumcision and female circumcision (known as female genital mutilation) are practices which have been regarded diﬀerently in diﬀerent cultures and at diﬀerent times and modern Western attitudes demonstrate some degree of inconsistency in societies ’ respon ses to cultural child-rearing practices. There is no deﬁnition of what is meant by the child ’s best interests in the Convention. In its General Comment No. 14, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN Com mittee on the Rights of the Child 2013) indicated that determination of best interests is to Children ’s rights 59 be made on a case-by-case basis. The other general principles (i.e. non-discrimination, maximum survival and development and respect for the child ’s views) are all to be taken into account in the determination of a child ’s best interests (Hodgkin & Newell 2007). The requirement not to discriminate against children by reason of their ethnic or social background under article 2 implies the need for cultural competence and sensitivity in assessing parenting practices, but it is equally important that all children are entitled to the same level of protection and that respect for cultural diﬀerence is not used as an excuse not to intervene to protect children from minority ethnic backgrounds. The Australian Family Law Act 1975 provides a lengthy and helpful list of factors that must be taken into account when a court is determining the best interests of a child in relation to parenting orders. These include ‘any views expressed by the child and any factors (such as the child ’s maturity or level of understanding) that the court thinks are relevant to the weight it should give to the child ’s views ’. This provision reﬂects article 12–1 of the UNCRC, which requires that States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters aﬀecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. The second principle of the National Framework for Protecting Australia ’s Children similarly aﬃrms that ‘[c]hildren and their families have a right to participate in all deci sions aﬀecting them ’. Examination of serious case reviews (inquiries into the operation of the child protection system in cases in which children have died or suﬀered serious harm) reveals ‘the invisible child ’, whose perspective is not gathered or not taken into account, to be a signi ﬁcant contributor to professionals ’ failure to take appropriate action (Side botham 2012 in the English context). Listening to children ’s wishes and feelings is important at all stages of the protective care continuum, from identi ﬁcation of welfare concerns or maltreatment right through to placement in alternative care and leaving care arrangements. Article 12–2of the UNCRC provides for children to be given ‘the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings aﬀecting the child, either directly, or through a repre sentative or appropriate body ’. This is important for two key reasons. First, children ’s views and feelings are, as set out above, a crucial part of the assessment of their best interests in all decisions aﬀecting them. Second, research involving 3,700 children in 25 European countries con ﬁrms that feeling that their voice has been heard and respected is integral to children ’s sense of justice (Kilkelly 2010). For older children in particular, understanding why a decision has been made and feeling that their views have been considered and taken seriously is likely to be inﬂuential in their ability to come to terms with and accept a decision which is contrary to their wishes. With the increasing use of out-of-court resolutions of family problems, such as Family Group Conferences, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019) has called on the Aus tralian Government to ensure that all children have the opportunity to express their views in non-court-based fora (para 22(a)). Within formal proceedings, research in New South Wales (Ross 2013) suggests that notwithstanding provisions in legislation and guidance designed to facilitate children ’s participation in court through their legal representative, there is often no independent report of children ’s wishes and feelings 60 Jennifer Driscoll and lawyers tend to adopt a protective approach to vulnerable child clients in relation to interviewing them for the purposes of care proceedings. In its Concluding Observa tions of 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended training and support for children ’s lawyers to ensure that they make direct contact with the children they represent in family courts (para. 22(c)). Furthermore, children may struggle to understand the outcome of court proceedings and many do not feel they have been listened to in the process (Fernandez et al. 2013). A response to this dilemma from the English context is the provision of child-friendly versions of the judgement. An example taken from private law proceedings is set out in Box 3.2 (Re A (Letter to a Young Person) [2017] EWFC 48). Box 3.2 Respecting children’s participation rights in court proceedings The Hon. Mr Justice Peter Jackson 13 July 2017 Dear Sam, It was a pleasure to meet you on Monday and I hope your camp this week went well. This case is about you and your future, so I am writing this letter as a way of giving my decision to you and to your parents. When a case like this comes before the court, the judge has to apply the law as found in the Children Act 1989, and particularly in Section 1. You may have looked at this already, but if you Google it, you will see that when making my decision, your welfare is my paramount consideration – more important than anything else. If you look at s.1(3), there is also a list of factors I have to consider, to make sure that everything is taken into account. … Sam, I realise that this order is not the one that you said you wanted me to make, but I am con ﬁdent that it is the right order for you in the long run. Whatever each of your parents might think about it, I hope they have the dignity not to impose their views on you, so that you can work things out for yourself. I know that as you get older, you will do this increasingly and I hope that you will come to see why I have made these decisions. I wish you every success with your future and if you want to reply to this letter, I know that your solicitor will make sure that your reply reaches me. Lastly, I wanted to tell you that your dad and I enjoyed ﬁnding out that we both love the ﬁlm My Cousin Vinny, even if it might be for diﬀerent reasons. He men tioned it as an example of a miscarriage of justice, while I remember it for the best courtroom scenes in any ﬁlm, and the fact that justice was done in the end. Kind regards Mr Justice Peter Jackson Children ’s rights 61 The rights of children in and leaving care Once children are taken into state care, their wishes and feelings should continue to be an important factor in decisions aﬀecting them. Article 39 requires States Parties to address physical and psychological treatment for maltreated children, but care leavers are at much greater risk of mental health problems than their peers in the general population (Harris et al. 2010 in the US context). Young people leaving care continue to experience signi ﬁcantly poorer outcomes than their peers in a wide range of measures of dis advantage across the Western world (e.g. Jackson & Cameron 2010 in relation to Europe; Okpych & Courtney 2014 in the US). Liebenberg, Ungar and Ikeda (2015) drawing on research in Canada, conclude that neoliberal discourses of responsibilisation of the indi vidual ignore the complexity of contextual factors in young people ’s lives and may oper ate to encourage the withdrawal of services from care leavers who are non-compliant. The 2019 Concluding Observations (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2019) speci ﬁcally urged the Australian Government to ensure adequate access to mental health and therapeutic services for children in alternative care (para. 34(f)). The 2012 Concluding Observations (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2012) expressed ‘serious ’ concern about the poor outcomes for care leavers in Australia, and contributing factors including inappropriate placements, poor support for carers, a shortage of options, abuse and neglect of children in care, inadequate preparation for leaving care, and placement of indigenous children outside their communities. The Committee ’s recommenda tions included ensuring compliance with article 25 of the UNCRC in relation to the periodical review of placements, establishing child-friendly arrangements for the report of maltreatment by carers, early involvement of young people in planning and preparation for leaving care, and intensi ﬁcation of collaboration with indigenous communities to increase available placements within indigenous families. These were recalled and enlarged in 2019, including serious con cerns being cited as to ‘badly trained and poorly supported sta ﬀ’ (para. 33(d)(i)) and recom mendations for investment in support for indigenous children in care and for their reintegration into families and communities. The Government ’s report in 2018 stressed that all states and territories are committed to implementing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle and this is reﬂected in statistics demonstrating that over half of Indigenous children in out-of-home care were placed in kinship care or with other Indigenous carers or in Indigenous residential care (Government of Australia 2018, para. 153). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle includes a commitment to ensuring that Indigenous children in out-of-home care are supported to maintain connections with their family, community and culture. The right to enjoy their culture with others from that culture is also one of the factors that a court must consider in assessing the child ’sbest interests under the Family Law Act 1975 and reﬂects article 30 of the UNCRC (‘In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origins exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to pro fess and practise his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language ’). Where minority cultures are signi ﬁcantly disadvantaged compared with mainstream communities, however, balancing the right to culture and community against the paramount need to ensure the safety of thechild may bea very diﬃcult exercise for professionals, and one which can only be addressed by attention to structural inequality and signi ﬁcant investment in support for carers, as discussed in relation to support for families (see pp. 56–57). 62 Jennifer Driscoll Policy implications The current political environment in many Western democracies is one in which large and increasing populations of elderly people coupled with neoliberal economic policies have tended to result in the withdrawal of the state from some social care functions in favour of market-led responses, combined with a transfer of political attention from the young to the old. Reduction in support for families, discourses of responsibilisation and high levels of inequality place pressure on child welfare services, resulting in a shift from early help to child protection and higher numbers of children in care. Advocates for children ’s welfare should not be slow to remind policy-makers of the commitment to children ’srightsthat rati ﬁcation of the UNCRC represents, nor of the implications of article 4 of the UNCRC in prioritising budgetary allocations. Evidence strongly suggests that family support and child welfare ser vices are an excellent investment in ﬁnancial terms, not to mention the strong moral imperative to prevent maltreatment or to limit the ongoing emotional and physical impact of maltreatment. The UNCRC places clear duties on ratifying states to uphold children ’srights and the reporting mechanism provides regular opportunities for governments to be held to account. It should also be borne in mind that the Convention applies to all children within the jurisdiction, regardless of their national identity and the rights must be accorded to all children without discrimination under article 2. Practice Implications For professionals, the primacy of children ’s voice as one of the guiding principles of the UNCRC is central to good practice in child welfare. In the Australian context, where services are delivered to a large extent by non-pro ﬁt and for-pro ﬁt organisations under contract, there is a risk, as described on p. 55 in relation to the corporativist model of social welfare policies, of widely varying models and standards of practice. A children ’s rights approach may help professionals hold fast to fundamental principles that place the child at the centre of decision-making processes and negotiate the quagmire of cultural diversity in assessing the best interests of the child. It is also at the heart of facilitating strong and trusting relationships with children, through recognition of children not merely as objects of professional concern but as experts in their own lives and individuals worthy of dignity and respect. Discussion questions 1 The state ’s duty to support children ’s upbringing within their family: What are the implications of article 2 (non-discrimination) for family policies at national and local level? What practical steps can professionals working with children take to help par ents and carers who are struggling to meet the needs of children? 2 Children ’s involvement in proceedings aﬀecting them: How can child welfare profes sionals support children through child protection proceedings and help them under stand and accept the decisions that are made? 3 Alternative care: Article 9–3 requires States Parties to respect the right of a child sepa rated from his/her parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with them, unless it is not in the child ’s best interests. Why is this important and when might it not be in the child ’s interests to have an ongoing relationship with his/her parents? Children ’s rights 63 References Archard, D., 2014, Children: Rights and childhood (3rd edn). London: Routledge. Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018, Information relating to Australia ’s joint ﬁfth and sixth report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, second report on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and second report on the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed con ﬂict. Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/p ublications/report-un-committee-rights-child-2018 , accessed 15 October 2019. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018, Child protection Australia 2016 –17: Child welfare series no. 68. Cat. no. CWS 63. Canberra: AIHW. Council of Australian Governments, 2009, Protecting children is everyone ’s business: National Framework for Protecting Australia ’s Children. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Davidson, H., 2014, ‘Does the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child make a diﬀerence? ’, Michigan State International Law Review, vol . 22, no. 2, pp. 497 –530. Deeming, C., 2017, ‘The lost and the new ‘liberal world ’ of welfare capitalism: A critical assess ment of Gøsta Esping-Andersen ’s The three worlds of welfare capitalism a quarter century later ’, Social Policy and Society , vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 405 –422. Deeming, C. & Smyth, P., 2015, ‘Social investment after neoliberalism: Policy paradigms and poli tical platforms ’, Journal of Social Policy , vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 297 –318. Esping-Andersen, G., 1990, ‘The three political economies of the welfare state ’, International Journal of Sociology , vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 92–123. Fernandez, E., Bolitho, J., Hansen, P. & Hudson, M., 2013, ‘The children ’s court in New South Wales ’, in R. Sheehan, & A. Borowski (eds), Australia ’s children ’s courts today and tomorrow , Dordrecht: Springer. Government of Australia, 2018, Australia ’s joint ﬁfth and sixth report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, second report on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child pros titution and child pornography and second report on the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed con ﬂict. For the reporting period June 2012 –15 Jan 2018. Canberra: Gov ernment of Australia. Harris, S., Jackson, L., O’Brien, K. & Pecora, P., 2010, ‘Ethnic group comparisons in mental health outcomes of adult alumni of foster care ’, Children & Youth Services Review ,vol.32, no. 2, pp. 171 –177. Healy, K. & Oltedal, S., 2010, ‘An institutional comparison of child protection systems in Australia and Norway focused on workforce retention ’, Journal of Social Policy , vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 255 –274. Hodgkin, R. & Newell, P., 2007, Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (3rd edn). Geneva: United Nations Children ’s Fund. Holt, J., 1974, Escape from childhood , New York: E.P. Dutton. Jackson, S. & Cameron, C., 2010, Young people from a public care background: Establishing a baseline of attainment and progression beyond compulsory schooling in ﬁve EU countries . London: Institute of Education, University of London. Katz, I. & Hetherington, R., 2006, ‘Co-operating and communicating: A European perspective on integrating services for children ’, Child Abuse Review , vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 429 –439. Kilkelly, U., 2010, Listening to children about justice: Report of the Council of Europe consultation with children on child-friendly justice. CJ-S-CH (2010) 14 rev. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Liebenberg, L., Ungar, M. & Ikeda, J., 2015, ‘Neo-liberalism and responsibilisation on the dis course of social service workers ’, British Journal of Social Work , vol. 45, pp. 1006 –1021. Lonne, B., Parton, N., Thomson, J. & Harries, M., 2009, Reforming child protection , Abingdon: Routledge. Lundy, L., Kilkelly, U. & Byrne, B., 2013, ‘Incorporation of the UNCRC: A comparative review ’, International Journal of Children ’s Rights , vol. 21, pp. 442 –463. 64 Jennifer Driscoll McLaren, J.M., 2017, Parents vexed? ParentsNext is poorly designed to support mothers into work, www.powertopersuade.org.au/blog/parents-vexed-parentsnext-is-poorly-designed-to-support mothers-into-work/18/10/2017 , accessed 18 October 2018. Minow, M., 1986, ‘Rights for the next generation: A feminist approach to children ’s rights ’, Har vard Women ’s Law Journal , vol. 9, pp. 1–24. Niddrie, N. & Brosnan, K., 2017, Evaluation: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family led decision making trial . Winangali/Ipsos, https://apo.org.au/node/174101 . Okpych, N. & Courtney, M., 2014, ‘Does education pay for youth formerly in foster care? Com parison of employment outcomes with a national sample ’, Children and Youth Services Review , vol. 43, pp. 18–28. Petrie, N. & Kruger, L., 2014, Child protection matters in the northern territory, http://ssrn.com/a bstract=2473466 , accessed 10 October 2019. Ross, N., 2013, ‘Diﬀerent views? Children ’s lawyers and children ’s participation in protective pro ceedings in New South Wales, Australia ’, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family , vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 332 –358. Scruggs, L. & Allan, J., 2008, ‘Social strati ﬁcation and welfare regimes for the twenty- ﬁrst century: Revisiting the three worlds of welfare capitalism ’, World Policy , vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 642 –664. Sidebotham, P., 2012, ‘What do serious case reviews achieve? ’, Arch Dis Ch , vol. 97, no. 3, pp. 189 –192. Spratt, T., Nett, J., Brom ﬁeld, L., Hietamäki, J. & Kindler, H.P., 2015, ‘Child protection in Europe: Development of an international cross-comparison model to inform national policies and practices ’, British Journal of Social Work , vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 1508 –1525. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 1991, General Guidelines regarding the form and content of initial reports to be submitted by states Parties under article 44, paragraph 1(a) of the Convention. CRC/C/5. Geneva: United Nations. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2012, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 44 of the Convention: Concluding observations: Australia. CRC/C/ AUS/CO/4. Geneva: United Nations. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2013, General comment No. 14 on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration (art. 3, para. 1), CRC /C/GC/14, Geneva: United Nations. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2019, Advanced Unedited Version: Con cluding observations on the combined ﬁfth and sixth periodic reports of Australia. CRC/C/AUS/ CO/5 –6. Geneva: United Nations. United Nations General Assembly, 1989, Convention on the Rights of the Child. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3. www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/ , accessed 10 October 2019. Useful websites/links Australian Children ’s Commissioner www.humanrights.gov.au/about/commissioners/ms-megan-mitchell-national-childrens-comm issioner . Australian Human Rights Commission on Children ’s Rights in Australia www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/about-childrens-rights . UNICEF ’s information on the UNCRC www.unicef.org/crc/index_30225.html . 65 Part 2 Child abuse and neglect 67 Chapter 4 Working with cases of neglect and emotional abuse Alice Loving and David Shemmings Overview/Introduction In this chapter, we consider what contemporary research tells us about emotional abuse and neglect. We will consider the key pathways and mechanisms surrounding both forms of maltreatment, as well as some of the most recent evidence-based interventions to help families and children. We consider emotional abuse and neglect from a ‘trauma informed ’ perspective. We will also include in the chapter a discussion of how emotional abuse and neglect tend to occur both in families as well as in non-familial settings such as online abuse, and child sexual exploitation. We have included a series of short, practice-related vignettes. They have been anon ymized and are taken from the working notes of one of us (Alice) who has drawn out a number of relevant points on emotional abuse or neglect. De ﬁnitions Single deﬁnitions of neglect are rare, perhaps because neglect relates to an absence of a behaviour, unlike the other categories of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) that focus on the presence of a speci ﬁc behaviour. The parameters of neglect therefore appear more open and varied. Even within the four countries of the United Kingdom, the deﬁnitions of neglect are not identical. However, there are shared similarities (Gardner & Cuthbert 2016). The common areas referenced within the literature are: 1 Parents persistently not meeting their child ’s basic needs, physically and/or emotionally. 2 Not protecting a child from harm and/or providing inappropriate levels of supervision. 3 Not seeking medical advice or correctly administering medication. 4 Environmental neglect: the conditions in which the child is living. Treisman (2017: 2), a clinical psychologist with expertise in trauma, notes that neglect can also be referred to as ‘invisible trauma ’, as it may not always have the same notice able indicators as other forms of abuse, such as physical maltreatment. It may also be characterized by an ‘absent presence ’, meaning a lack of availability from caregivers. In addition, she also notes how neglect can encompass ‘relational poverty ’, due to the potential absence of a caregiver providing a sense of love, care and interconnectedness. 68 Alice Loving and David Shemmings Emotional abuse is also noted within the literature to be diﬃcult to deﬁne and, similar to neglect, this is due to the wide range of behaviours that it can encompass, and in some cases it may not be as easily observable. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE 2017) guidelines list the following behaviours under their deﬁnition of emotional abuse that speci ﬁcally relate to the parent –child interaction. 1 Negativity or hostility towards a child or young person. 2 Rejection or scapegoating of a child or young person. 3 Developmentally inappropriate expectations of/or interactions with a child, including inappropriate threats or methods of disciplining. 4 Exposure to frightening or traumatic experiences. 5 Using the child for the ful ﬁlment of the adult ’s needs (for example in marital disputes). 6 Failure to promote the child ’s appropriate socialization (for example involving chil dren in unlawful activities, isolation, not providing stimulation or education). The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC 2014) refers to emotional abuse as behaviour that causes the child to feel worthless, unloved or inade quate. They also note how emotional abuse can be connected with all of the domains of abuse but can also occur in isolation. In terms of prevalence, the Department for Education published statistics stating that during 2016 –2017, in the UK, 48% of child protection plans detailed neglect as the main concern. Emo tional abuse is listed as the second most common form of known abuse, featured in 33.8% of cases. Therefore, focusing this chapter on both forms of abuse and the potential parental mechanisms that may contribute to its presence, as well as the potential useful forms of inter vention, appears both relevant and meaningful for current social work practice. Others (for example, Bilson 2018; Tickle 2018) seriously question whether the notion of ‘future risk of emo tional harm ’ can be ‘justi ﬁed grounds to remove children ’ (Bilson 2018). The charity Action for Children (2018) reported on the underpinning legislation connected to both neglect and emotional abuse. In relation to neglect, they note that the legal frame work surrounding it dates back as far as the 19th-century Poor Law Amendment Act of 1868 when it became illegal not to provide a child with adequate clothes, food, medical support or a home. The current law used for the prosecution of neglect in the UK is the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. They note that our understanding of the impact of neglect has dramatically increased and emotional neglect is another dimension to consider. As mentioned previously, the fact that neglect relates to an absence of parental behaviour can cause some diﬃculty when it comes to the criminal conviction of an individual. This is predominantly due to the fact that The Children and Young person ’s act states that cruelty to a child must be ‘wilful ’ in order to be regarded as a criminal oﬀence. In relation to emotional abuse, Action for Children played a signi ﬁcant role in cam paigning for four years alongside British politicians in updating the child cruelty oﬀence to include sustained emotional abuse. Police oﬃcers have informed the charity that they anticipate this new change will aid them in responding to emotional abuse and increase their own understanding of it. When it comes to every day social work practice, the burgeoning of research focusing on neglect and its impact over the past 10 to 15 years is likely to have contributed to a positive movement away from what has been famously termed in the literature as ‘the neglect Cases of neglect and emotional abuse 69 of neglect ’ (Wolock & Harowitz 1984). Social work practitioners can draw upon a plethora of studies to demonstrate the potential likely outcome for a child who continues to experi ence neglect. However, an awareness of such research is unlikely to be enough to make a signi ﬁcant diﬀerence to practice. Many social workers ﬁnd themselves in a stalemate situation with neglect cases, whereby they are waiting for a ‘signi ﬁcant event ’ to help move things forward and in some cases provide greater evidence for removal. Common issues documented in reviews of neglect cases are high caseloads within child protection contributing to social workers having suﬃciently less time to spend on neglect allegations with priority being given to emergency cases, court cases and cases where the child is coming up to two years on a child protection plan. This can inﬂuence how social workers respond to immediate positive changes by removing services despite there being evidence to suggest that neglectful behaviour could return without this provision. This approach can contribute to a ‘cyclical situation ’, and may also lead to an increase in re- referrals of neglect cases, which can be common practice. Findings reported by Troncoso (2017) suggest that the re-referral rate of cases in the UK is particularly high, with 54.5% of cases that were worked during 2010 –2011 returning during 2015 –2016. The fact that neglectful parenting relates to the parent not doing something, rather than a deliberate act such as physical abuse, has most likely contributed to the diﬃculties that social workers can experience when working on neglect cases. Case example 1 A few years ago, I worked with a mother with a baby who was eight months old. The concerns centred on chronic neglect and she had been diagnosed as ‘failure to thrive ’. During an unannounced evening visit at 9pm, the mother was found having a cigarette outside her ﬂat. She greeted me and let me know the baby was inside and that I could go in. I went inside the ﬂat and I walked through the living room and popped my head into the bedroom but couldn ’t see the baby there. I went back to ask the mother where she was and she told me she was in the living room in her high chair. I hadn ’t seen her when I went into the living room because she was in her highchair, which was facing the wall. She appeared distant and shut down, whilst staring blankly at the wall. The mother then joined us and explained that the baby had just had her dinner, which was why she was in there. When I left and got back into my car, I was struck by the fact that, had that baby had a visible injury, my response would likely to have been diﬀerent; although there was no physical damage that could escalate this case into court, the internal eﬀects of this continuous level of neglect were likely to be signi ﬁcant. Two additional siblings in the home also had signi ﬁcant developmental delay, with concerns raised throughout the years of physical and emotional neglect. Daniel (2015) believes that the planning, assessment and intervention of neglect cases has become ‘mired in bureaucracy ’. He urges practitioners to ﬁrst simply consider these questions: � What does this child need? � What does this child need me to think? � What does this child need me to do? 70 Alice Loving and David Shemmings Many practitioners speak to us about the sense of frustration they experience that the legislative and court processes in the UK do not necessarily reﬂect what has been emer ging from the research. Gardner and Cuthbert (2016) note that despite the ‘media glare ’ that surrounds high pro ﬁle neglect cases featured within serious case reviews, policies surrounding neglect have not progressed to where they need to be. One of the con sequences of this is that it is sometimes diﬃcult to help the family if the presenting con cerns don ’t ‘tick the right boxes ’. Where professionals are forced to operate within highly proceduralized and bureaucratic ‘risk audit ’ systems – for example in the UK and else where ‘tari ﬀs’ and ‘thresholds ’ often determine access to help and support – options to support the family to change can become limited as the next example illustrates. Case example 2 A few years ago, I did a visit with an assistant team manager to a three-year-old boy who had been in and out of social care involvement since he was born. We were aware that in the mornings the mother would take her son out of the cot and let him roam around the ﬂat while she went back to bed. On this particular visit, there was food, clothes and paper all over the ﬂoor, a tub of Sudocreme that he had spread across the living room and a number of nappies, one of which was heavily soiled. The family had recently got a puppy and the puppy had clearly been urinating and defecating around the ﬂat. At one point, the little boy picked up a small clump of faeces and squished it into his palm. Proceedings for his removal from her care had been initiated, but social services had not been granted an Interim Care Order (ICO) at the initial hearing and so they had to wait for the ﬁnal hearing to apply for this. In light of this and most likely with a mindset of needing the weight of signi ﬁcant events behind this case, the assistant team manager requested that the police conduct a joint visit and she was hopeful that given the conditions in the ﬂat they may consider issuing a police protection order. Unfortunately, the police oﬃcer involved did not feel that the conditions of the ﬂat reﬂected ‘imminent risk of harm ’. She agreed that he was clearly not being supervised but stated that she needed to have seen something like a coal ﬁre burning in the corner for the level of risk to be signi ﬁcant enough for an order. Despite the concerns surrounding policy and procedure, research has also highlighted certain practice-based issues that may be impacting on the success of neglect cases. Howarth and Tarr (2015) present four themes to emerge from research that explored ‘child visibility in cases of chronic neglect ’. 1 ‘Generalised assessments and the neglect of identity ’. The lived experience of the child and the impact of these experiences appeared to be missing. When it came to identity, this tended to be focused around their nationality rather than their ‘internal working model ’ of themselves and others. The internal working model of self and other refers to one ’s thoughts and feelings about who they are as a person and their understanding and expectations of others. This model starts to formulate in early childhood and derives from our relational interactions and experiences. The researchers question how it is possible to meet the child ’s individual needs without conveying a true sense of who they are. 2 ‘Super ﬁcial engagement by social workers with children ’. They noted ‘generalised comments ’ when it came to detailing the wishes and feelings of the child such as, ‘X would like mother to stop drinking ’ and ‘J wants dad to stop hitting mum ’. Cases of neglect and emotional abuse 71 Therefore, there was limited evidence of what it was like for X to experience a mother who drank heavily. 3 ‘A lack of awareness of the diﬀerent needs of children in the family ’. They stated that when there was a number of children in the family, they could be viewed more as a ‘sibling group ’. Despite each child having a separate report for the child pro tection conference, often the same statements were used in relation to descriptions of the impact of parental behaviour on the child. The example given to demonstrate this was a statement such as ‘child is dirty and unkempt ’under the heading of ‘social presentation ’. The authors discuss how this term was regularly used with all siblings and that it was then seen as the responsibility of the conference panel to reﬂect on how this might aﬀect a teenager diﬀerently from (say) a two-year-old. 4 ‘Parenting in a vacuum ’. Of participants surveyed, 50% felt that some child protec tion plans consisted of lists of actions for the parent to address with an absence of ‘child-focused outcomes ’. They note that ‘generalised statements ’were being used to discuss the progress of the family such as, ‘everything going well; drinking at an acceptable level; no issues arising; engaged with services ’. Progress indicators were predominantly based on ‘measurable actions ’, such as ‘better home conditions, improved school attendance, keeping health appointments, parents engaging with services and attending parenting course ’. Therefore, there was a lack of connection with the lived experience of the child. It would appear that the broad nature of neglect and the complexity of many cases being intertwined with additional concerns has perhaps contributed to a lack of clear guidance on successfully assessing and intervening. When considering emotional abuse, the limited research in this area is likely to be responsible for the same level of uncertainty when it comes to how to intervene successfully. Gardener and Cuthbert (2016) attribute this uncertainty to a lack of longitudinal research that focuses on outcomes. They concluded that, ‘we still know disappointingly little about what works with whom ’. Currently, we also are witnessing diﬀerent forms of emotional abuse which are not usually perpetrated by family members. Strangers, in the form of sexual exploitation gangs, tra ﬃckers, online groomers and radicalization groups, nowadays deploy methods to entrap children and young people that are sinister, and ultimately long-lasting or even fatal. In sexual exploitation gangs and during radicalization processes, children and young people are given a safe haven and secure base where they experience people who appear to care for them. This is especially true of online grooming, where adults pose as other children and then use their knowledge of the pressures of childhood –such as ‘pushy, helicopter parents ’, jealousy within friendship groups, fashion consciousness, anxiety over academic performance, peer-to-peer sexual relationships etc. –to insinuate themselves into the core of their intended victim ’s personality and being. They gain their trust in order subsequently to abuse it. The adult intends over time to dominate the child for the purposes of direct sexual abuse or to force them into performing sexual acts with strangers. There are now a growing number of examples of sexual exploitation gangs who have lured young people into their circle by oﬀering clothes, alcohol, drugs and other tempta tions for young people; often, little or nothing is asked of the young person until later on. Gangs regularly deploy ‘spotters ’– individuals whose job is to ‘recruit ’new victims – 72 Alice Loving and David Shemmings whose job is to gain the trust of a young person by ﬂattery, seduction, acting as a ‘role model ’, or by protecting them against a rival gang member (who is actually a member of the spotter ’s gang but unknown to the young person being groomed). Adults sometimes use threats or actual violence to force the child to obey them but often they use psycho logical techniques aimed at undermining the child ’s con ﬁdence in themselves, their right to an opinion, or even their right to exist, without the permission of the adults controlling them. There is also growing evidence of gangs and individuals using brainwashing and mind- control techniques deliberately to create multiple personalities –‘ alters ’– each of which is unknown to the ‘others ’(Epstein, Schwartz & Schwartz 2011). The aim behind these methods is ﬁrstly to subjugate and then to force a young person to perform sexual acts or to commit oﬀences, including acts of terrorism. The methods are pernicious and dama ging precisely because they are aimed at undermining the child ’s con ﬁdence about their identity and worthiness. They are similar to the kinds of emotional abuse outlined earlier in this chapter but they are more likely to have long-lasting eﬀects and the young people who fall victim may require expert help to recover. In one recent example, a 15-year-old girl was enticed into a gang in the ways described above by a 17-year-old boy. They went out on a few dates and she soon became infa tuated with him (which was his sole aim). He said he wanted to take a couple of (expli cit) photos and a short (explicit) ﬁlm. He told her that he loved and respected her and that, if she loved him, she would do this because ‘it was cool to do it; and everyone he knew did it’. She never saw him again. The gang he belonged to told her she was going to have to meet diﬀerent men in a local park once or twice a week for oral sex. She was told that if she did not comply, or if she told anyone, two things would happen: the ﬁlm and photos would be posted on the internet and then her mother would be raped. It took a lot of skilled and well-timed police work along with help from friends, family and social workers experienced in child sexual explication gangs to help her survive this emotional abuse. The following section of this chapter will detail why we believe that using an ‘attach ment and trauma lens ’is likely to be most bene ﬁcial when conducting assessments and intervening in cases of neglect and/or emotional abuse. The two key areas that need to be explored when using this lens is the parent ’s attachment trauma history and their capa city to mentalize. It is now relatively well evidenced that traumatic childhood abuse where a key attachment ﬁgure is the main perpetrator can have a signi ﬁcant impact on all aspects of a child ’s development, sense of self and psychological wellbeing. It would be incorrect to assume, though, that all children who have been abused are likely to go on to abuse their own children. The transmission rate is in fact estimated to be around 18–30%. However, Widom et al. (2015) highlight a number of issues with transmission rate research, such as a lack of prospective longitudinal studies following children into adulthood, as well as inﬂated rates of transmission within studies with a population who had all been abused and had subsequently become abusive. Therefore, participants who have been abused and who didn ’t become abusive are often not represented in the data. They also note that the majority of cases have focussed on transmission rates relating to cases of physical abuse. Therefore, neglect and emotional abuse are underrepresented. Within the last 30 years, the ﬁelds of attachment and trauma have produced theoretical concepts and evidence-based ﬁndings that suggest that one mechanism likely to impact on Cases of neglect and emotional abuse 73 transmission rates of emotional abuse and neglect is the extent to which somebody has been able to make sense of, process and reﬂect on the abusive experiences they were exposed to during their childhood. The term ‘unresolved ’is often attributed to the trau matic memories that have not been processed and as such these memories may not be sitting in the optimal place in the brain. This is because when the brain is engaged in trauma, it can do little but focus on surviving; its functioning quickly shifts to the use of our more primitive parts, such as the brain stem and limbic area which are responsible for our ‘ﬂight, ﬁght or freeze ’responses. The fact that during a traumatic event the brain is diverted away from its higher order pre frontal functioning most likely contributes to the fact that it has not been able to ﬁle and process these traumatic memories when they happen, as it is simply trying to ensure survival. This can result in these memories ﬂoating around in the mind, which increases someone ’s vulnerability to experiencing PTSD-type symptoms, such as ﬂashbacks. These can be trig gered by certain sights, sounds, and smells that the brain connects to the original traumatic incident. Van Der Kolk (2014), a leading trauma expert, notes that for some people, the trig ger can be so powerful that the brain and body react and respond in the same way as if the original incident were happening to the person again. As he puts it, ‘the body keeps the score ’. For those parents who have not processed and reﬂected on earlier abusive or neglectful emotional experiences, their own child, or a child they are taking care of, can soon become their trauma trigger. In young babies, it is often the vulnerability and depend ability witnessed in them when they cry that can be enough to trigger, on an unconscious level, feelings of vulnerability that they themselves experienced during the abuse they suﬀered. This can result in the parent becoming overwhelmed by associated feelings of anger or fear, which may then lead to aggressive or emotionally abusive behaviour towards the child. When explosive outbursts like this occur, the parent ’s brain is likely to have switched to what is termed the ‘low road ’– and not the ‘high road ’– and that, furthermore, a more rational and appropriate response to the child displaying their needs is not possible due to the fact the pre-frontal cortex is ‘oﬄine ’(Siegel 2011). The connection between their child and their childhood self as the victim can be so powerful that the parent may in fact ‘see ’the face of an emotionally abusive or neglectful parent in their child, a term referred to as experiencing ‘Ghosts in the nursery ’(Fraiberg, Adelson & Shapiro 1975). One example of this is a mother whose own mother had been emotionally and physically abusive towards her, so when her baby would cry in the night, she would go to her but the mother quickly became overwhelmed by fear, as she saw her mother ’s eyes in those of her baby. It is understandably distressing and dysre gulating for a baby to be met by a fearful response towards them at the point at which their attachment system is activated and signalling a need. Case example 3 A young mother with whom I worked in a mother and baby assessment unit told me, whilst doing a session on why babies cry, that when her son cries, all she can see is her father ’s mouth, and she stated ‘it’s like I’m looking right at him ’. Her own mother left her in the care of her father when she was two years old and she had been subjected to diﬀerent kinds of abuse. She was removed from his care and placed in foster care when she was 11. This is a powerful example of how the ‘ghosts ’can interfere signi ﬁcantly with the developing attachment relationship as, in essence, if at the point when he is 74 Alice Loving and David Shemmings communicating that he needs her the most in her mind she sees her abusive father, then this will likely determine the level of sensitivity she is able to muster in that moment. This is also then likely to aﬀect the extent to which he views her as an available attach ment ﬁgure. It is important to consider how a parent ’s own defence mechanisms resulting from any attachment-based trauma could account for the types of abusive behaviour they are dis playing. In cases of physical and emotional abuse, this response pattern is likely to be connected to a state of ‘hyper arousal ’,a ‘ﬁght response ’. However, the brain can also respond to traumatic triggers by assuming a ‘hypo aroused ’ state, whereby the brain shuts down and disconnects, resulting in a ‘freeze ’ response and potential momentary absences termed ‘dissociation ’. This disconnect may be more likely to lead to neglectful parental behaviour. My (Alice ’s) PhD research found that, for those parents who had their child removed from them due to concerns around neglect (including emotional neglect), they appeared to be in constant state of ‘hypo arousal ’. Their defence mechanism to cope with the abuse they had experienced in their childhood had most likely been to shut down, which resulted in them becoming shut down to all aspects of connecting with emotions in themselves, those of others, but most importantly their child ’s (Loving 2018). This ‘disconnect ’ unfortunately impacted on a range of aspects of their care, including feeding the baby on time, regulating feed tem peratures, responses to their baby when crying, and the amount of interaction and stimula tion they provided their babies. Although this description relates to the care of young babies, it’s not hard to imagine how these types of potential neglectful behaviours could continue to play out for the developing toddler and child. A complementary mechanism to account for this disconnect as well additional neglectful and emotionally abusive behaviour is the parent ’s capacity to mentalize. Men talization refers to one ’s ability to reﬂect upon the ‘intentional states ’ of others. It involves accurately making links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This includes being able to mentalize for oneself: e.g. ‘I was thinking I hate my job, I was feeling so unhappy, and so I was really distant and quiet with my husband when I got home. ’ The emotional landscape and quality of our relationships are also dependant on our ability to mentalize others: i.e. ‘My husband told me he had an equally bad day and seemed fru strated with a colleague, which is probably why he seemed to get more angry than usual when our dog wouldn ’t let him give her a bath. ’ The capacity to mentalize for one ’s child is believed to be central to developing a secure attachment relationship. Parents who are able to view their children as an ‘autonomous ’ being, with their own set of interlinked thoughts, feelings and behaviours confer a number of developmental advantages to them. The ability to respond sensitively and appropriately to a child ’s behaviour, especially a young baby, is almost entirely dependent on the ability to connect with what is perceived to be in their mind: what are they signalling, what do they need/want? Therefore, when abusive and neglectful behaviour does occur, it is likely that the parent is struggling to mentalize; for example, in the case of a parent whose toddler is in a nappy that is visibly full from which urine has started to leak. What would drive us to want to change the nappy is our connection with how it may be feeling for him, the fact that it may be getting sore and that he might develop a rash. Cases of neglect and emotional abuse 75 Case example 4 One mother with whom I worked in a mother and baby unit found the intimacy of feeding her baby uncomfortable and often appeared bored and impatient as her baby was a slow feeder. This was thought to be as a result of her own trauma history in childhood. She was therefore keen for feeds to be quicker and as such she used her teeth to make larger holes in the teats of the bottles so that the milk would come out quicker. What she hadn ’t connected with was how this would feel for the baby who was, I imagine, feeling a sense of drowning in milk as it came out too fast for her to drink. The majority of the feed was also often spilling out and down her neck. This was most likely contributing to the baby not gaining as much weight as she needed to. Case example 5 This example concerns emotional abuse towards the eldest child and neglect of all three children. The parent struggled to mentalize her nine-year-old who had been supervising his younger siblings in the morning. He attempted to make porridge and burnt himself. When his mother discovered what had happened, she started shouting and swearing at him, telling him he needed to be more careful. Attachment-based trauma and the capacity to mentalize are interlinked because we become interested in the mind of another person when we experience our attachment ﬁgure doing this for us. However, when subjected to abuse and or neglect, this process may fail. Instead the child is exposed to a caregiver who demonstrably doesn ’t seem to understand what is in their mind; and what ’s more appears uninterested anyway. Peter Fonagy, a leading expert in mentalization, believes that not developing the capacity to mentalize can actually be viewed as a defence mechanism. The deactivation of mentalization is a defence available to the abused child or any individual suﬀering from trauma where the aim is the reduction of the psychic experience of pain, terror or other overwhelmingly negative aﬀect. (Fonagy 2011) A number of intervention programmes have been designed aimed at enhancing the par ent ’s capacity to mentalize. These include programmes such as ‘Circle of Security ’ (Powell et al. 2013). ‘Minding the baby ’ (Sadler et al. 2013) and ‘Attachment and Bio behavioural Catch up ’ (ABC) (Dozier et al. 2018). Programmes that make use of video feedback such as ‘Video Interaction Guidance ’ (VIG) (Kennedy, Landor & Todd 2010) and ‘Video-feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting ’ (VIPP) (Ju ﬀer et al. 2017) have been recommended by NICE (2017) to be used for cases of abuse and neglect in children under the age of ﬁve. Case example 6 I am trained in VIPP and used it most recently when working with a single mother (Kate) and her eight-year-old daughter (Jodie). The concerns were based around emotional abuse and sensory neglect. Kate had experienced emotional abuse and physical abuse during her childhood and had been the victim of severe domestic abuse by Jodie ’s father 76 Alice Loving and David Shemmings while pregnant. Jodie had been excluded from school due to challenging behaviour and violence directed towards sta ﬀ. She had been diagnosed with Autism and ADHD, which I believe may have been a misdiagnosis as her behaviour appeared more closely linked to the attachment-based trauma she was experiencing. Our work together consisted of alternating between weekly recording sessions of them interacting together, which included completing a puzzle, playing a game, or baking together, and then weekly feedback sessions alone with Kate. During these feedback ses sions, I focused on encouraging Kate to consider what might be in her daughter ’smind when she was doing or saying certain things, especially things that provoked an extreme response in Kate or that caused her to view her daughter ’s intentions negatively, even when in many cases Jodie was behaving as you might expect from any nine-year-old child. A common pattern identi ﬁed in their relationship was that Kate would misinterpret Jodie ’s behaviour by seeing it as containing deliberate attacks on her. She would then become angry with Jodie, which often left Jodie feeling confused and angry herself. In the absence of being oﬀered any sensory regulation such as cuddles, as Kate found any close contact with her daughter very uncomfortable, Jodie had failed to develop any self-regulatory mechanisms. This resulted in her going from 0–100 very quickly whenever she did feel any negative emotions and then lashing out at those around her. I worked intensely with Kate over a number of weeks. I was grateful that the local authority were willing to allow me this time to work with the family and in the end this piece of work played a signi ﬁcant part in a positive outcome for Kate and Jodie. When we consider the critical role that the capacity to mentalize can have on parenting behaviour, it is not surprising that interventions consisting solely of group parenting classes using methods associated with social learning theory that teach the parent strategies for managing behaviour may be less likely to be successful and lead to more sustained positive change. In cases of neglect and emotional abuse when the capacity to mentalize is thought to be a contributing factor, this requires intervention that is more intensive and focused on helping parents tune in to the individual mind of their own child. When it comes to therapeutic intervention, to target ‘unresolved ’ trauma, the ﬁrst challenge can be getting a parent to be willing to engage in therapy. Second, it can be a struggle to ﬁnd available services. In relation to childhood trauma, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy are both highly recommended trauma treatments (World Health Organization 2013). Parent –infant psychotherapy is both mentalization-based and trauma-focused but, certainly in the UK, it is not a service made widely enough available to parents working with social services for concerns relating to neglect or abuse, with a trauma history, who are struggling to mentalize. This chapter aimed to highlight the potential diﬃculties arising in practice when working with cases of neglect and emotional abuse. It has been argued that using an ‘attachment and trauma lens ’ is likely to help us to better understand the parental mechanisms that can lead to neglectful and emotionally abusive behaviour. However, we still have a substantial way to go in ensuring social care practitioners can feel con ﬁdent in using this lens and in oﬀering families the interventions most likely to lead to the best possible chance at eradicating or at least reducing abusive behaviour. Cases of neglect and emotional abuse 77 References Action for Children, 2018, Neglect Law, www.actionforchildren.org.uk/how-to-help/support-our campaigns/our-campaign-successes/neglect-law/ , accessed 17 October 2019. Bilson, A., 2018, Future emotional harm the statistics, paper presented at the Transparency Pro ject ’s conference15 September 2018, https://bilson.org.uk/presentations/emotional-harm/?doing_ wp_cron=1571277998.8071169853210449218750 , accessed 10 October 2019. Daniel, B., 2015, ‘Why have we made neglect so complicated? Taking a fresh look at helping and noticing the neglected child ’, Child Abuse Review , vol. 24, pp. 82–94. Dozier, M., Roben, C.K., Carone, E., Hoye, J. & Bernard, K., 2018, ‘Attachment and biobeha vioral catch-up: An evidence-based intervention for vulnerable infants and their families ’, Psy chotherapy Research , vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 18–29. Epstein, O.B., Schwartz, J. & Schwartz, R.W. (eds), 2011, Ritual abuse and mind control: The manipulation of attachment needs , London: Karnac Books. Fonagy, P., 2011, ‘Multiple voices versus meta-cognition: An attachment theory perspective ’,in V. Sinason (ed.), Attachment, trauma and multiplicity: Working with dissociative identity disorder , 2nd edn. Hove, UK: Brunner-Routledge, pp. 21–36. Fraiberg, S., Adelson, E. & Shapiro, V., 1975, ‘Ghosts in the nursery: A psychoanalytic approach to the problems of impaired infant –mother relationships ’, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry , vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 387 –421. Gardner, R. & Cuthbert, C., 2016, ‘Special issues on child neglect: Research, policy and practice across a devolved United Kingdom – an overview of the ﬁeld ’, Research, Policy and Planning. The Journal of Social Services Research Group , vol. 32 no. 1, pp. 3–10. Horwath, J. & Tarr, S., 2015, ‘Child visibility in cases of chronic neglect: Implications for social work practice ’, The British Journal of Social Work , vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 1379 –1394. Juﬀer, F., Struis, E., Werner, C. & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J., 2017, ‘Eﬀective preventive inter ventions to support parents of young children: Illustrations from the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) ’, Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community , vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 202 –214. Kennedy, H., Landor, M. & Todd, L., 2010, ‘Video Interaction Guidance as a method to promote secure attachment ’, Educational and Child Psychology , vol. 27, no. 3, p. 59. Loving, A., 2018, Attachment, trauma and parenting in social work, unpublished doctoral dis sertation, Royal Holloway, University of London. NICE Guideline NG76, 2017, Child abuse and neglect: Recognizing, assessing and responding to abuse and neglect of children and young people, www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng76 , accessed 15 October 2019. NSPCC, 2014, Core-info: Neglect or emotional abuse in children ages 5–14, www.nspcc.org.uk/ser vices-and-resources/research-and-resources/2014/neglect-emotional-abuse-core-info/ , accessed 15 October 2019. Powell, B., Cooper, G., Ho ﬀman, K. & Marvin, B., 2013, The circle of security intervention: Enhancing attachment in early parent-child relationships . New York and London: The Guilford Press. Sadler, L.S., Slade, A., Close, N., Webb, D.L., Simpson, T., Fennie, K. & Mayes, L.C., 2013, ‘Minding the baby: Enhancing reﬂectiveness to improve early health and relationship outcomes in an inter disciplinary home ‐visiting program ’, Infant Mental Health Journal , vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 391 –405. Siegel, D., 2011, The low road, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkEcpBU3TpE , accessed 15 October 2019. Tickle, L., 2018, Number of children in care for emotional abuse soars, www.theguardian.com/society/ 2018/sep/14/number-of-children-in-care-for-emotional-abuse-soars , accessed 15 October 2019. Treisman, K., 2017, Working with relational and developmental trauma in children and adoles cents , London: Routledge. 78 Alice Loving and David Shemmings Troncoso, P., 2017, Children ’s services in England: Repeat referrals. London: Department for Education. Van Der Kolk, B., 2014, The body keeps the score , New York: Viking. Widom, C.S., Czaja, S.J. & DuMont, K.A., 2015, ‘Intergenerational transmission of child abuse and neglect: Real or detection bias? ’ Science , vol. 347, no. 6229, pp. 1480 –1485. World Health Organization, 2013, WHO releases guidance on mental health care after trauma [Homepage of The World Health Organization] Available: www.who.int/mediacentre/news/relea ses/2013/trauma_mental_health_20130806/en/ accessed February 2015. Wolock, I. & Harowitz B., 1984, ‘Child maltreatment as a social problem: The neglect of neglect ’, The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry , vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 530 –543. 79 Chapter 5 Child sexual abuse Dale Tolliday Introduction Child sexual abuse evokes strong responses individually and socially. Over the past 40 years there has been increasing public awareness and oﬃcial responses to child sexual abuse. In Australia signi ﬁcant levels of recognition and response to child sexual abuse occurred in the 1980s soon after adult and early child sexual assault services were estab lished in the mid to late 1970s. This mirrored processes internationally across North America and much of Europe. Researchers and clinicians began mapping the scale of the issue and suggesting ways of responding (Finkelhor et al. 1986; Herman 1981, 1992; Sgroi 1982). Early Australian experience included an overwhelmingly successful NSW advertis ing campaign in the late 1980s ‘No excuses, never, ever ’ resulting in unprecedented rates of reporting child sexual abuse. Focus on child sexual abuse has however not been constant. Recognition has been met with resistance, ranging from public and institutional denial, sometimes displayed by legal systems slow to respond to the needs of child victims of sexual abuse, and public funding for reforms being tied to political cycles. For example it was not until 1985 that in NSW prosecution for the sexual assault of young children no longer required a ‘reli able ’ older witness or physical evidence. NSW was one of the last common law jurisdic tions internationally to remove this restriction on children being able to give evidence and be believed. Remote witness facilities began being used in the 1990s and in some instances their use remains vexed. The most recent substantial response in Australia to focus public, political and legal attention on child sexual abuse was the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Final Report 2017). The 17 volumes of the ﬁnal report catalogue an enormous amount of material documenting decades of poor institutional responses and practices in relation to child sexual abuse. It substantially adds to contemporary understanding of institutional child sexual abuse while acknowledging most child sexual abuse occurs in private contexts. This Royal Commission is numerously refer enced in this chapter as not only did it refocus attention on the issue of child sexual abuse, it didsoinnew andunique ways,identi ﬁed major deﬁcits in data, understanding and response. It also commissioned many pieces of research to both review best avail able evidence and conduct research where important gaps in the evidence base was established. 80 Dale Tolliday There are a number of headline issues in relation to the sexual safety of children. These include: 1 Children are not only most at risk of sexual abuse from people closely known or related to them, harm is more likely to come from another young person who is under the age of 18 years. 2 The impacts of sexual abuse are broad, generally long-lasting and harm by another child or young person is no less severe than harm by an adult. 3 Advances in technology in the online environment are substantially inﬂuencing sexual development and creating opportunities for new ways to harm. 4 Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is gendered behaviour, something which at times is not noted in the literature including much of the contemporary trauma focus. The gen dered nature of CSA is evidenced by over 90% of all sexual abuse being carried out by men and boys and studies of women and girls identify gendered experiences which are signi ﬁcant precursors to engaging in harmful sexual behaviour. Very little detail is provided in the literature of gender-informed responses to CSA. 5 Disclosure of child sexual abuse is a process and is often delayed for reasons related to the dynamics of CSA and speci ﬁc to the context of individual children. 6 Government and non-government responses continue to struggle to be well co-ordinated, sensitive to the needs of children, demonstrably eﬀective, though there are some encouraging signs of improvement. Language and recognition of child sexual abuse Child sexual assault and child sexual abuse are terms used interchangeably, the former more commonly having a legal deﬁnition of a (class of) sexual oﬀence(s) and the latter referring more to a deliberate process in which the ‘abuser ’ is acting in a strategic manner to achieve a sexually abusive act. Neither of these descriptors satisfactorily encompasses the breadth of behaviour being considered in this chapter. This is especially the case when it is a child or young person engaging in sexual behaviour which causes harm to another. The develop mental capacity of children and young people is diﬀerent to adults and diversity of children and young people who engage in this behaviour reveals that intention, indi ﬀerence to, or ignorance of harm means applying a single framework of culpability is inadequate. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the ‘Royal Commission ’), in relation to children and young people, adopted the language in use in the United Kingdom of ‘harmful sexual behaviour ’ (NSPCC 2016) in preference to ‘sexually harmful behaviour ’. This descriptor achieves separating the behaviour from the child or young person, does not require an attribution of intention or culpability while recognising the harmful eﬀect for the child upon whom the behaviour is imposed. Harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) is preferable to ‘sexually harmful behaviour ’ as the harm is more than sexual: it is emotional, physical, psychological, relational and spiritual as well as sexual and can have profound developmental implications. This, it stole me, I lost myself. He took me away and I’m here today, a shadow of the person I could have been because he took it away from me and I can never get Child sexual abuse 81 that person back. … And society, to want to pretend that it doesn ’t happen, and this is where we are still victims and they ’re still making us victims. This quote appears at the beginning of the 2006 New South Wales Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce Report, ‘Breaking the Silence: Creating the Future, Addressing child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities in NSW ’(2006). For any child or adult survivor, the eﬀects of child sexual assault may be profound, frequently long term and transgenerational (Cashmore & Shackel 2013). Contemporary recognition of the nature and extent of CSA in Australia sub stantially developed as a result of feminist activism in the 1970s and beyond which generated awareness resulting in legislative and service reforms (Carmody & Carring ton 2000). Nationally, a number of key government inquiries, taskforces and royal commissions have examined and re-examined the complex issues which surround child sexual abuse. These include: the nature and prevalence of CSA in Australia, the dynamics of CSA, impact of CSA, building improved responses to disclosure, enacting and amending laws and criminal procedures, examining the eﬀectiveness of response for victimised children and those who have victimised them, identifying and targeting areas of higher risk and the ultimate goal, the prevention and elimination of CSA. In NSW the ﬁrst signi ﬁcant report to Government was that of the NSW Child Sexual Assault Task Force (1985) and the most recent in the national context is the Final Report of the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Final Report 2017). In 2019, over 40 years since the ﬁrst specialist responses to child sexual abuse were developed in child protection, health, police investigation and public prosecution, there remain signi ﬁcant challenges to recognise and respond eﬀectively to CSA. De ﬁning child sexual abuse Forty years of attention has not seen universal agreement on some fundamental issues including deﬁnition of child sexual abuse. The Royal Commission found there to be considerable variance between Australian States and Territories in responses to CSA. Associated with this it found gaps in data and inconsistencies across agencies in recog nition and understanding what constitutes CSA. One signi ﬁcant dynamic issue is that the forms and types of behaviour constituting CSA are evolving, and no doubt will continue to do so (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2015). Not only have there been changes to social and legal standards over time, the advent of new technologies has facilitated a broader range of sexual behaviours establishing new norms as well as potential for harm. The deﬁnition of child sexual abuse adopted by the Royal Commission is: Any act which exposes a child to, or involves a child in, sexual processes beyond his or her understanding or contrary to accepted community standards. Sexually abusive behaviours can include the fondling of genitals, masturbation, oral sex, vaginal or anal penetration by a penis, ﬁnger or any other object, fondling of breasts, voyeur ism, exhibitionism, and exposing the child to or involving the child in pornography. 82 Dale Tolliday It includes child grooming, which refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, to lower the child ’s inhibitions in preparation for sexual activity with the child. (Royal Commission Final Report, Volume 2, p. 30) Prevalence Data collection limitations as well as the changing landscape in sexual behaviour and ability of systems to respond to disclosures of child sexual abuse impact upon the ability to measure the prevalence of CSA. Frequently measured in retrospect post disclosure, prevalence esti mates based upon cohorts of past victims are used at times to suggest they reﬂect current as yet unreported or undetected CSA. A recent Australian study notes 18% of women and 4.7% of men report that they experienced sexual abuse before they turned 15 years of age (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018). Overall, systemic and meta-analytic reviews con ﬁrm reported rates for incidence of CSA are high, with one signi ﬁcant study noting Australia as having the highest reported rate for CSA of girls internationally at 21.5% (Stoltenborgh et al. 2011). It should also be noted that child sexual abuse is frequently experienced alongside other forms of child abuse and harm including children living in contexts of domestic and family violence (Finkelhor 2011, Hackett et al. 2013). Australia is one of few developed countries where a nationally representative prevalence study on child maltreatment and CSA has not been conducted (Mathews et al. 2016), a matter now being remedied by a study under way in 2019 by Professor Daryl Higgins through the Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. Reported prevalence rates of CSA can vary greatly due to a range of factors, includ ing how sexual abuse is deﬁned in terms of the acts, characteristics of the person who is carrying out the acts, how ‘child ’ is deﬁned by age, the time and manner in which data is collected and how subjects of a survey are assembled (Costello and Backhouse 2019). For example, the Australian Personal Safety Study (PSS 2016) collected information on child sexual abuse deﬁning CSA limited to persons under 15 years of age at time of the abuse and the ‘perpetrator ’ as being 18 years or older. Consequently children imposing harmful sexual behaviour were excluded as were victimised children aged 15, 16 and 17 years (if we were to deﬁne children according to the law, it is people up to the age of 18 years). The age at which children can consent to sexual behaviour is 16 years and some research unhelpfully con ﬂates age of consent with maturation from childhood to becoming an adult. The real issue is of sexual abuse of minors, being people under the age of 18 years. Despite the PSS 2016 limitations which present an underestimate of CSA owing to exclusions due to age criteria set out above, it produced valuable insights into CSA. For example, 9 in 10 women who reported experiencing CSA indicate this was by an adult known to them. For men it was adults known to them for 8 in 10. Where is the risk? Costello and Backhouse, while noting the strengths and limitations of the PSS 2016, cite other Australian research noting there are contexts which deﬁne vulnerable populations at risk of CSA. Child sexual abuse 83 Vulnerable populations (Costello and Backhouse 2019): ► Children and young people with intellectual disabilities, psychiatric disabilities or complex communication disabilities (Mitra-Kahn, Newbigin & Hardefeldt 2016). ► Young people in correctional or juvenile justice settings (Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 2017). ► Both men and women report experiencing sexual abuse as a child by someone known to them. However, women are more likely to have reported being sexu ally abused in all other settings including by family members and in the com munity where the majority of child sexual abuse occurs, while the majority of victims of sexual abuse in institutions, particularly religious institutions, were male (Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 2017). ► The sexual abuse of boys is far more common than generally believed and, in comparison to girls, boys are more likely to be assaulted by siblings or other boys (Cashmore & Shackel, 2013; Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 2017). ► Sibling sexual abuse is more prevalent than other types of intra-familial sexual abuse (Ca ﬀaro 2014; Tapara 2012; Welfare 2008). ► ‘Australian studies ﬁnd that 30–60% of childhood sexual abuse is carried out by children and young people, and “most young people target younger children or peers, and know their victim ”… However, accurate statistics are diﬃcult to obtain ’(El-Murr 2017). One further substantially vulnerable population is children and young people in out-of home care (OOHC). Research commissioned by the Royal Commission suggests four dimensions of risk for children in out-of-home care (Parkinson & Cashmore 2017): � Situational risk, which arises from the opportunities for abuse that the environment oﬀers � Vulnerability risk, which arises from the history and/or characteristics of the children cared for � Propensity risk, which is the risk posed by the greater-than-average clustering of those with a propensity to abuse children � Institutional risk stemming from the characteristics of an institution that may make abuse more likely to occur and less likely to be dealt with properly if disclosed. The three main sources of risk for sexual abuse of children in OOHC is from 1 People engaged in some way to provide care for the children 2 Other children in OOHC or children of carers 3 People targeting children in OOHC seeking to sexually exploit them. 84 Dale Tolliday Vulnerability to risk of sexual abuse can be located in the trauma histories many children in OOHC carry, the most signi ﬁcant being prior experiences of being sexually abused and absence of proximate and protective care from a signi ﬁcant adult. The principles of child safe organisations have been developed to prevent sexual abuse of children in all institutional settings including OOHC (National Principles of Child Safe Organisations 2018). Key to OOHC is the way in which care organisations are structured, whether children and their best interests are the highest priority at all points in the care system, how carers and sta ﬀ are trained and selected and how direct care for children is delivered. Substantially related to the vulnerability of children in care is dis location from family and community. Signi ﬁcantly, this is most evident for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in OOHC (Anderson et al. 2017). Frequently non- kinship OOHC struggles to sustain familial relationships, especially with parents regar ded as failing to adequately protect or provide for children. Failure to connect children with family and culture only adds to a child ’s vulnerability, does little to support devel opment of identity and diminishes opportunity to address past traumas, which under mines development of secure and protective relationships with siblings, parents, grandparents and extended family. The OOHC sector recognises the need for well-trained carers and in the case of resi dential care, preferably this to include formal quali ﬁcations of some kind; which quali ﬁ cations, content and standard of training in relation to child sexual abuse remains unresolved. There is no industry standard or accreditation for carers beyond receiving a Working With Children Check clearance in relation to supporting the sexual safety of children in care. Some care organisations have commenced undertaking signi ﬁcant work in this area (McKibbin 2017) but this is occurring with little direction from regulators or through funding agreements. The risk for children from people closely related or known to them means CSA typi cally occurs in private spaces: the child ’s own home or the home of the person harming them (Smallbone & Wortley 2006). When a child is harmed in their own home it is most likely to be by a family member upon whom the child is dependant or subordinate to in the family or home context. Situational prevention is diﬃcult to apply in domestic set tings where the person harming is a member of the same household. Sexual abuse of a young child in their home often is enacted in the context of intimate personal care – normative family care such as play, bathing, dressing and bedtime activities. Family relationships have implicit trust and to build prevention around these activities in general raises diﬃculties of gender roles, suggesting, for example, for children to be safe, men should not be involved in their intimate care. In relation to single parents (usually mothers) who together with their children may be targeted by extra-familial males, situational prevention suggests women need to carefully screen and limit interactions with male friends and potential partners. This under standable but misguided advice fails to recognise single mothers do assess the safety of their children around strangers and new friends and that the mothers themselves are being targeted and subjected to a range of tactics by the harming adult which aim to build her trust and overcome her suspicions or concerns. A gender-based observation of these circumstances recognises the targeted mothers are often caring for children without the children ’s fathers sharing parenting equitably and frequently have experienced past Child sexual abuse 85 violence and abuse in intimate relationships. A poorly applied situational prevention strategy levels primary responsibility for children ’s safety with mothers and blames them for any harm that comes to the children by ‘allowing ’ the person who harmed them access, all the while ignoring the underlying vulnerability of these mothers and the way they have been victimised in this process. A more informed situational prevention strat egy would have community programmes for mothers rearing children on their own, providing practical and personal support including educational and social activities, breaking through isolation loneliness for the mothers and children. Con ﬁdent and asser tive children are less vulnerable to being engaged in dependency relationships with people who may seek to sexually abuse, in part because they do not provide the emotional response such people often seek as part of the process of sexual abuse (Smallbone & Wortley 2006). Disclosure Disclosures made in forensic settings such as police or child protection agencies do not go anywhere near matching or even approaching the population-based incidence numbers. Non-forensic disclosures made to others such as family or friends are often not reported to authorities at all, or are time-delayed due to, amongst other issues, family members not responding supportively, abuse by children and adolescents being seen as ‘normative exploration ’ and victims reluctant to disclose the abuse due to shame, self-blame, fear, and coercion by others not to tell (Kaufman et al. 2006, Leach et al. 2017). Practice issue A recent systematic literature review by Alaggia, Collin-Vézina and Lateef (2019) identi ﬁes ﬁve themes which have emerged through the research literature: 1. Disclosure is an iterative, interactive process rather than a discrete event and is best done in a relational context, 2. The complex interplay of individual, family, contextual and cultural factors are best understood using social-ecological person-in-environment perspectives, 3. Age and gender signi ﬁcantly inﬂuence disclosure, with a sub-theme emerging that intrafamilial abuse or maintaining a family-like relationship of an abuser has an impact of disclosure delays or withholding, 4. There is a lack of a ‘life-course ’ perspective in the research. Disclosure has been under-studied in terms of its place amongst ‘life pathways ’ following child sexual abuse, 5. Barriers to disclosure continue to outweigh facilitators of disclosure. Consider the implications of barriers to disclosure and nominate ways to enhance or add new facilitators to disclosure. (See also McElvaney & Culhane 2017.) 86 Dale Tolliday Factors at play inhibiting disclosure include the direct inﬂuence of the person who has abused the child. Adults may use threats against the child, loved ones or even pets. They may also use a broad range of tactics which are generally grouped together and described as ‘grooming ’ (Pratt & Tolliday 2018). Grooming The use of a variety of manipulative and controlling techniques; with a vulnerable subject; in a range of inter-personal and social settings; in order to establish trust or normalise sexually harmful behaviour; with the overall aim of facilitating exploitation and/or prohibiting exposure. (McAlinden 2012: 11) Children sexually abused by adults and in some instances by other young people are selected based on a number of factors associated with the interest and perception of the person seeking to abuse, including but not limited to the perceived vulnerability of the child, opportunity and anticipation of avoiding detection; typically, a process which focusses on inﬂuencing (‘grooming ’) the child as well as others in the child ’s environment, such as parents. In relation to sexual abuse by a parent or other family member or person to whom the child has a dependent relationship, the grooming of others around children is often invisible. Critically important in achieving sexual abuse is the separation of children from key supports. The deception of other ’s around targeted children is fre quently mistaken for indi ﬀerence or even collusion. Within families this is invariably the position of mothers, vili ﬁed as ‘unprotective ’, with failure to be recognised as victimised through a grooming process (Tolliday, Laing & Spangaro 2018). Examples of conditioning aka ‘grooming ’ � Position of advantage and/or trust � Develop close relationship with the child � Emotionally separate child from others � Gradual violation adult –child boundaries � Desensitise child to sexual behaviour � Entrapping child: – Secrecy – Sense of culpability – Blame – Fear – Isolation � Extortion (often referred to as bribery) � Ploys: seemingly accidental touching/confusion � Covert warning of silence � Non-verbal cueing of abuse � Words to place responsibility on victim � Coercion/physical force Child sexual abuse 87 � Conditioning (grooming) child ’s carers/family � Subverting relationships within the family � Ensuring position of control and inﬂuence (immediate and extended family) � Promoting a positive image of self � Promoting a negative image of child ’s carers/family (Tolliday, Laing & Spangaro 2018) This list is not extensive and there are variations for every circumstance. Key to these is isolation of child and family, introduction of behaviours while avoiding alarm and preventing disclosure or discovery and planning defence should sexual abuse be sus pected. If these conditioning strategies are internalised by the victimised child, disclosure and responsiveness to assistance can be severely impacted: Jane was 9 years old when her step-father Chris ﬁrst touched her in sexual ways and over time directed her to touch him sexually. Chris has been very attentive to Jane and is regarded as a great Dad. Now, at age 12 Jane has indicated by silence and not wanting to always be with Chris that she has growing discomfort about Chris ’ sexual behaviours. He has progressed in his sexual behaviour to seek con ﬁrmation from Jane that his touch is not hurting her. He also has compelled her to describe to him what she experiences as part of his aim is to evoke a physical sexual response. He explains to her what she experiences is normal and part of something they share which is ‘special ’ and ‘they ’ would get into trouble if others found out. It is hard to imagine how Jane could disclose. The layers of intrusion, physically, psycholo gically and emotionally are likely to have her carrying signi ﬁcant responsibility for her sexual abuse, and as time goes on, increasingly for not telling. Children like Jane generally just want the sexual abuse behaviour to stop. Chris ’ defence should Jane disclose is likely to be total denial and pointing to issues of character, citing times she has been unreliable or told lies, moody or distant from her mother – all believable if Chris has all the while been working to undermine Jane ’s relationship with her mother and build reputational damage of Jane within the family. If sexual behaviour is con ﬁrmed, by discovery, admission or forensically, Chris is likely to assert Jane was the initiator and at the very least an active participant, thereby playing on shame and guilt he has built for Jane around the sexual response he evoked in her body. And these scenarios around what may unfold if Jane discloses do not include how they relate to any threats Chris may have made which could include direct threats to harm Jane, other family members, a loved pet or that Jane would not be believed, she may be sent away or if he is taken away to jail, the family will suﬀer ﬁnancially, lose their home … and that would all be her fault. Responses to children by parents and carers At the core of the response a child needs from parents or carers is belief and connection. While this is a simple statement, it is diﬃcult and can take considerable time to achieve at 88 Dale Tolliday a level where the child is not continuing to suﬀer signi ﬁcant negative impacts from the sexual abuse. If the child ’s relationship with the key primary carer has been undermined, a process of mutual recognition of their processes is needed. They may well have said or done things hurtful to each other and recognition of their context for doing so can facil itate this, but it may take time. The journey to recovery for the child is actually a journey of recovery and healing for signi ﬁcant others also victimised. The process is best led by the adults around the child and often this requires those adults to work this through on their own, as the child typically needs to have a discreet personal opportunity to process aspects of their experience without other family members present. It should be recognised that the tactics of CSA do not cease at disclosure, particularly presence of shame, self- doubt and self-blame. It can be overwhelming to face the full picture of how a child has been sexually abused. It is common for parents to want it to be all over, for children to recover as quickly as possible and to contemplate the most contained picture of the abuse. This can include not recognising the full extent or nature of the abuse, not as a part of a desire to deny the abuse but to be able to accommodate as much as they can at any point in time. The closer and more intimate the relationship of a parent with the person who sexually abused their child, the more diﬃcult it can be to hold a picture which includes both. A simple model for relational recovery has the following four parts: 1 Knowing 2 Believing 3 Conveying belief 4 Communicating empathic belief. Knowing means knowledge about what was done, when and how. It includes the tactics used to set up the abuse, carry it out and avoid detection. Believing is recognition that the sexual abuse took place in the terms disclosed with no minimisation and being clear that the person carrying out the abuse is fully responsible for the abuse and its eﬀects. Conveying belief follows knowing and believing as it is essential for the child to be fully believed with no space for blame, whether that be for the abuse or not telling. If a parent holds a view the child should have told earlier, this places the child in the diﬃcult position of being told they did the wrong thing. A poor message which will undermine recovery and indicates the parent does not know or understand how all the abuse was carried out. Communicating empathic belief is important for recovery in the context of safe and secure connected relationships. It conveys an understanding of what the abuse experience entailed including the pressures and inﬂuences to not disclose. It also opens the way for the child and parent to recognise how their relationship was undermined and how the other was groomed. People who have sexually abused children can facilitate recovery of children Taking a position of responsibility to bene ﬁt the child without pursuing other agenda(s) can facilitate belief, contribute to validation of children ’s experiences and if done soon Child sexual abuse 89 after disclosure can assist the child by not being required to give evidence at Court. It should also be noted that some children wish to give evidence at Court, to be able to give their own account of what was done to them. In well-constructed legal processes, both should be possible. The advantage of the harming person providing a detailed acknowl edgement is that if done well it will include elements the child may not have been aware of such as planning and managing the environment around the child. These are practices of restorative justice which need to be carefully managed as they can be misapplied, as in the following example. A letter from a father to his daughter after he was convicted based on guilty pleas to all charges brought against him. Dear Carla, I have been trying to write this letter for three days now, nothing that I write can make the pain I have caused you go away. I hope and pray that one day you can maybe ﬁnd it in your heart to forgive me and maybe you can never be able to. I am proud of you for standing up for your rights. You were always my favourite one even though you were a bit of a devil. I love you kids more than life itself. Make everyone that loves you proud of you and forget about me so that you can go through life with a clear conscience. With all my heart. Please believe I love you forever. Dad xxxx This letter was not sent to Carla (not her real name). The content held no real surprises as rather than being an acknowledgement it was more a continuation of the messages and tactics used by this father. He had sexually abused Carla and her sister. Neither knew about the other until one disclosed. The letter invites Carla from the outset to feel for her father and she is asked to forgive him. It suggests complicity by Carla and concludes with ingenuine self-deprecation and a ﬁnal invitation for Carla to focus on his plight. At a later stage Carla, her sister and mother jointly reviewed the letter with their counsellors and used it as part of a shared exploration of their experiences of and around the sexual abuse of the two sisters (Tolliday, Laing & Spangaro 2018). Children and young people and harmful sexual behaviour It is diﬃcult for many to conceive of children engaging in sexual behaviour and more diﬃcult again that this could be harmful. The Royal Commission did not anticipate the scale and scope of harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) of children towards other children. The signi ﬁcance of this is reﬂected throughout the Final Report with substantial attention to the issue in the volumes concerning OOHC and schools as well as a whole volume on the subject of children and HSB (Final Report, Volume 10). 90 Dale Tolliday It is now conservatively estimated that 30% –50% of all harmful sexual behaviour experienced by children is from other children under the age of 18 years. Most research ers and commentators indicate a view that the rates reported in various studies are likely to be under-representations as they relate generally to children for whom some level of criminality is established and that it may be incredibly diﬃcult for children to complain or have their complaints for this behaviour acted upon in a way the incidence is recorded. Few studies indicate rates below 30% of reported CSA some exceeding 60% (Allardyce & Yates 2018; Print 2013). While there is not concurrence on actual rates there is con currence that children and young people are responsible for a very signi ﬁcant proportion of all child sexual abuse. As with adults, the children who engage in HSB are predominantly boys. Rates for girls vary between 3% (Hackett et al. 2013) and 10% (KPMG 2014). Children and young people come to engage in HSB for a number of reasons. The good news is that the vast majority, contrary to public belief, do not carry this behaviour into adulthood (Caldwell 2016). For some children and young people their harmful behaviour is strongly associated with online consumption of sexual material, though a causal link has not yet been established (Peter & Valkenburg 2016) and some studies have found accessing porno graphy early is associated with seeking earlier sexual experiences and accessing particular types of pornography, notably violent pornography is more associated with HSB (Ybarra & Thompson 2017). Children and young people referred to treatment settings for this behaviour frequently have trauma histories and have disrupted developmental histories. These clinical popu lations have also been noted to have signi ﬁcant proportions of sibling HSB. The New Street Services in NSW report this at 50% of referrals and this ﬁgure has also been reported in a USA national survey (Kreinert & Walsh 2011). While it appears most chil dren and young people mature out of this behaviour, the harm caused to others can have profound and long lasting eﬀects. Little longitudinal work has been completed with adults who as children engaged in HSB. One substantial study noted low rates of later sexual oﬀending as adults but sub-optimal outcomes on a range of social indicators (Hackett et al. 2013). The evidence base for eﬀective therapeutic intervention for children and young people who have engaged in HSB is not settled. However, key research-supported elements for eﬀective programmes have been identi ﬁed (Shlonsky et al. 2017): � Holistic and ecosystemic � Family/care and context focussed � Developmentally appropriate � Coordinated multi-agency in partnership with families � Individually assessed and unique therapeutic processes (with specialist approach to the HSB). Challenges and new norms in sexual development associated with online technologies Social media, the internet, gaming, smart phones and personal devices have been- associated with generational changes in the way young people connect with each other and the world around them including sexual and broader personal development Child sexual abuse 91 (Quadara, El-Murr & Latham 2017). The ﬁfth (and most recent) National Survey of Aus tralian Secondary Students and Sexual Health (Mitchell et al. 2014) noted high and, com pared with previous surveys, increasing rates of engaging through these technologies and media with sexual content. The sending and receiving of explicit intimate images of self or partner may be a new ‘norm ’ which can expose users to harm, particularly children. Harm can range from re- posting of intimate images to being directly engaged in sexual abuse online. Amongst the impacts for young people of engaging in explicit material online is signi ﬁcantly younger age of ﬁrst sexual intercourse (Kraus & Russell 2008). It has not been established that exposure to explicit online material is causally connected to harmful sexual behaviour but high levels of online viewing of this material has been noted in populations of young people who have sexually harmed others (El-Murr 2017). It has been observed that for many young people sex education is substantially gained through accessing explicit material online which is not based in reality and rarely focusses upon respect for self and others, consent and relationships (Crabbe 2016). The issue is not able to be managed by use of web ﬁlters or prohibition. Internet providers are unlikely to limit online access except to comply with laws related to illegal content. The substantial answer is in education and close supportive and therefore safe parent/carer and peer relationships. Providing accessible resources to help remains a challenge as the online world including social media continues to evolve rapidly and ahead of resources and technical capability to respond, ideally before any harm takes place. The Australian Government has established an eSafety Commissioner to lead action in this area (www.esafety.gov.au ). Limitations of the Australian Royal Commission The focus of the Royal Commission was on institutions and their responses. The Royal Commission has provided a generational opportunity to address many institutional fail ings. It has provided a focus on CSA which allowed thousands of survivors to come forward. It has led to public recognition of men and boys as survivors as well as women and girls and is driving systemic change in law, policies and practices across government and non-government agencies and service providers. Unfortunately, the Family Court of Australia was not included as an institution for the Royal Commission to examine. While the States and Territories are responsible for statutory child protection, Federal law pre vails over State law when matters arise as a con ﬂict of laws between State and federal jurisdictions. In matters before the Family Court new orders can be made which in eﬀect overturn child protection action by State or Territory authorities. For example, access could be granted to a parent in contested matters where CSA is alleged and State autho rities have put in place restrictions on contact, or on some occasions parents have been subject to orders to remove a child from sexual assault counselling. It will be for a future Inquiry or perhaps Royal Commission to examine whether the complex Australian Fed eral –State arrangements and powers do eﬀectively protect children in matters involving statutory State child protections and the Family Court. Promising developments in the Australian context While the responses to CSA have varied across diﬀerent States and Territories in what is done, when and to what degree, the elements of a move to a public health approach are increasingly evident. Overwhelmingly, initial eﬀorts have been to respond to victimised 92 Dale Tolliday children with tertiary services. Over time, vulnerable populations of children have been identi ﬁed who are now targeted with secondary level intervention, for example children in OOHC and children with disabilities who are in some form of institutional care. The changes and risks associated with the arrival of online technologies: new ways in which children are being accessed and exploited as well as shifts in normative sexual develop ment, as well as recognition of the high prevalence of harmful sexual behaviour by chil dren and young people mean primary prevention is under way through programmes to all school age children and young people. The establishment of a national eSafety Commissioner is highly signi ﬁcant in this regard (https://esafety.gov.au/ ). Following the Royal Commission the government of each Australian State and Terri tory has responded to the 409 recommendations in the Final Report. While the Royal Commission focussed upon CSA in institutional settings, it also noted the high prevalence of CSA in domestic and private settings and the majority of the recommendations have direct implications in both private and institutional settings. Unlike many other Royal Commissions and Government Inquiries, the Commonwealth Government has com mitted to the Royal Commission recommendation of a 10-year review of progress in implementing recommendations (Recommendation 17.4). Perhaps the most signi ﬁcant structural development has been the establishment of The National Oﬃce for Child Safety, initially situated in the Department of Social Services and moved at the initiative of the Prime Minister into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time of the national apology to the victims of institutional child sexual abuse and their families (https://pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/national-o ﬃce-child-safety ). Key actions of the National Oﬃce of Child Safety: � Oversee and implement the National Strategy to prevent CSA which will be a broad- based public health framework to include cultural change, measures to provide victim services, build evidence of eﬀective practice and drive coordination and colla boration between government sectors and the community. � Sits within national arrangement of ‘Child Safe Framework ’, a national process to overview activities of States and Territories, operation of strategies such as working with children clearances and application of principles of Child Safe Organisations. � Facilitate public reporting (visibility and accountability) of major institutions involved in child-related work, focussing initially on those identi ﬁed by the Royal Commission (religious, education, OOHC, sports, arts and recreation, health, child care and statutory children ’s authorities). In 2027 it will be interesting to see whether the National Oﬃce has met its priorities and whether better data exists to demonstrate substantial decline in the sexual abuse of chil dren, there is evidence of institutions embracing eﬀective child safe practices and whether the focus upon institutions and CSA has improved the safety of children in private and domestic settings as well. It may need to be a simple measure of whether in 2027 children are seen, heard and believed. Re ﬂective practice questions How do you distinguish child sexual abuse by an adult and harmful sexual beha viour by children and young people? 1 Child sexual abuse 93 2 Identify three key strategies which could counter risks presented by availability of online sexual material and technology-based sexual behaviour. 3 What approach would you take to working with a parent of a child who has been sexually abused and the parent is struggling to recognise all of the child ’s experience of victimisation? Would your approach be diﬀerent if the person who harmed the child was a sibling, a peer or an adult? 4 Identify an online strategy for the eSafety Commissioner as a public awareness campaign aimed to facilitate girls and boys disclosing sexual abuse. 5 Review the material online regarding the National Oﬃce of Child Safety. What steps could be taken to strengthen the ability of this oﬃce to meet its priorities and what risks to its work can you identify? References Alaggia, R., Collin-Vézina, D. & Lateef, R., 2019, ‘Facilitators and barriers to child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosures: A research update ’, Trauma, Violence & Abuse , vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 260 –283. Allardyce, S. & Yates, P., 2018, Working with children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour , Edinburgh: Dunedin. Anderson, P., Bamblett, M., Bessarab, D., Brom ﬁeld, L., Chan, S., Maddock, G., Menzies, K., O’Connell, M., Pearson, G., Walker, R. & Wright, M., 2017, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and child sexual abuse in institutional settings, Report for the Royal Commis sion into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Sydney. Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2015, What is child abuse and neglect? CFCA resource sheet – September 2015, www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/what-child-abuse-and-neglect >, accessed 1 September 2019. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018, Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia 2018. Cat. No. FDV 2, Canberra: AIHW, www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/d1a8d479-a39a -48c1-bbe2 –4b27c7a321e0/aihw-fdv-02.pdf.aspx?inline=true , accessed 1 Sept 2019. 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Kaufman, K.L., Mosher, H., Carter, M. & Estes, L., 2006, ‘Empirically based situational preven tion model for child sexual abuse ’, in R. Wortley & S. Smallbone (eds), Situational prevention of child sexual abuse , Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press, pp. 101 –144. Kraus, S. & Russell, B., 2008, ‘Early sexual experiences: The role of internet access and sexually explicit material ’, CyberPsychology & Behavior , vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 162 –168. KPMG, 2014, Evaluation of New Street Adolescent Services, Report for NSW Kids and Families, Sydney: NSW Health, www.health.nsw.gov.au/parvan/hsb/Documents/new-street-evaluation-rep ort.pdf , accessed 1 September 2019. Kreinert, J. & Walsh, J., 2011, ‘Sibling sexual abuse: An empirical analysis of oﬀender, victim, and event characteristics in national incident-based reporting system (NIBRS) data, 2000 –2007 ’, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse , vol. 20, pp. 353 –372. Leach, C., Powell, M. B., Sharman, S. J. & Anglim, J., 2017, ‘The relationship between children ’s age and disclosures of sexual abuse during forensic interviews ’, Child Maltreatment ,vol.22, no. 1, pp. 79–88. McAlinden, A., 2012, ‘Grooming ’ and the sexual abuse of children: Institutional, internet and familial dimensions , Oxford: Clarendon Studies in Criminology. McElvaney, R. & Culhane, M., 2017, ‘A Retrospective Analysis of Children ’s Assessment Reports: What Helps Children Tell? ’, Child Abuse Review , vol. 26, no. 2, pp.103 –115. McKibbin, G., 2017, ‘Preventing harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation for chil dren & young people living in residential care: A scoping review in the Australian context ’, Children and Youth Services Review , vol. 82, pp. 373 –382. Mathews, B., Walsh, K., Dunne, M., Katz, I., Arney, F., Higgins, D., Octoman, O., Parkinson, S. & Bates, S., 2016, Scoping study for research into the prevalence of child abuse in Australia, Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, p. 2, www.childa buseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/ ﬁles/research_report_-_scoping_study_for_research_into_ prevalence_of_child_sexual_abuse_in_australia_-_causes.pdf , accessed 1 September 2019. Mitchell A, Patrick K, Heywood W, Blackman P, & Pitts M., 2014, 5th National Survey of Aus tralian Secondary Students and Sexual Health 2013, (ARCSHS Monograph Series No. 97), Aus tralian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, Melbourne, Australia, La Trobe University. Mitra-Kan, T., Newbigin, C. & Hardefeldt, S., 2016, Invisible women, invisible violence: Under standing and improving data on the experiences of domestic and family violence and sexual assault for diverse groups of women: State of knowledge paper, Sydney: ANROWS, http://media. aomx.com/anrows.org.au/DiversityData_151216.pdf , accessed 1 September 2019. National Principles of Child Safe Organisations, 2018, Australian Human Rights Commission, https:// childsafe.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/ ﬁles/2019-02/National_Principles_for_Child_Safe_ Organisations2019.pdf . Child sexual abuse 95 NICE Guideline NG55, 2016, Harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people, www. nice.org.uk/guidance/ng55 , accessed 10 October 2019. 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Ybarra, M. & Thompson, R., 2017, ‘Predicting the emergence of sexual violence in adolescence ’, Prevention Science , vol. 192, pp. 1–13. 96 Chapter 6 Assessment in child protection Elizabeth Fernandez Child protection operates in the context of a statutory welfare mandate. In this chapter the landscape of child protection is pro ﬁled and the distinctive practice of assessment in protective services is examined. In Australia, State and Territory governments are responsible for protection of children who are abused or at risk of being harmed. Although State governments are involved in the investigation of child protection cases, they usually work in collaboration with a network of non-government organizations in protecting children and young people and providing services to families. Engagement with this system usually begins with reports or noti ﬁcations of alleged abuse or neglect that are made to the respective State Department by professionals, members of the community, organizations, parents, relatives or children themselves. Such noti ﬁcations are assessed to determine whether investigation of the degree of harm and the child ’s protective needs is warranted (AIHW 2019). The services that follow are then based on the nature of the report; the focus is on whether risk of harm is present, whe ther the child is in need of protection, whether the family is in need of services and whether specialist assessments are needed to make decisions. If there is no concern about harm but unmet needs are identi ﬁed, assessment will focus on the nature of need and the help and support services required by the family. Overall, interventions in child protection can be categorised into four major areas: (a) preventative and supportive services to strengthen family functioning; (b) protective ser vices directed at safeguarding children through a system of noti ﬁcation, (c) investigation and intervention; and (d) out-of-home care through placement in foster care, kin care or adoption. This chapter will outline the nature and scope of assessment at speci ﬁc deci sion-making points in the child welfare continuum; provide an overview of the content and context of assessment; describe some of the frameworks and tools used to support consistent and accurate decisions; and, discuss some of the tensions that confront practi tioners in this contested area of practice. As will be discussed, a range of assessments are conducted with children and families who come to the attention of child welfare systems. These include risk and safety assessments to guide child protection decision making and predict recurrence of harm; assessments of child wellbeing while children are in protective care; and, assessments of family needs, strengths and resources to inform service planning for children and families. In many of these con texts the assessment occurs in an involuntary context within a statutory framework. While a major focus will be the assessments within child protection, diﬀerent types and contexts of assessment in the ﬁeld of child welfare practice will be discussed. Assessment in child protection 97 Nature of assessment The concept of assessment is deﬁned in various ways and there are diﬀerent approaches to assessment. Hepworth et al. (2013) deﬁne assessment as both a process and a product. Assessment is conceptualised as a process occurring between a social worker and client in which information is gath ered, analysed and synthesised to provide a complete picture of the client and his or her needs and strengths … a ﬂuid and dynamic process that involves receiving, and analysing and synthesising new information as it emerges during the entire course of a given case. (Hepworth et al. 2013: 186) The process of assessment involves weighing up the information/data, identifying critical facts, ﬁnding theoretical ideas that illuminate and help to interpret the facts, testing interpretations and making recommendations (Milner, Myers & O’Byrne 2015). Assess ment is not an outcome in itself but is intended to inform a case plan and subsequent interventions. Assessment needs to move beyond the assembling of facts. It requires analysis of the information to reach decisions about how to proceed. Assessment entails an analytic process of categorising and synthesising data to develop an informed under standing that progresses to action. Thus, assessment is designed to create a composite picture of the case based on analysis of facts and impressions gleaned from diﬀerent sources to establish whether the child and family need a speci ﬁc intervention or service and the formation of a case plan. The term assessment is also used to refer to the written product resulting from the assessment activity. It entails a statement comprising analysis and synthesis of relevant information assembled into a working deﬁnition of the diﬃcul ties, problems and the factors that create, sustain and mitigate the problem, and encom passes a working hypothesis based on the most current data available (Hepworth et al. 2013). When a case is screened into the system following a report, an assessment process is set in motion. Pertinent data is gathered through interviews, previous reports and accounts from diﬀerent sources to determine whether maltreatment has occurred and how serious the risk is for future maltreatment. The focus of the assessment is based on the auspices and mandate of the agency in which the practitioner works and the theoretical orienta tion and clinical focus of the worker and the team. A worker who is investigating an allegation of maltreatment will pursue a line of inquiry related to risk and safety and potential for recurrence. Child protective services are directed at the overarching goal of child safety. Working towards the outcome of child safety requires an understanding of the concepts of safety and risk and this includes the best approaches to the assessment of risk at all stages of case management. Within this context, assessment is an interactive process and involves a series of sequential assessments focused on speci ﬁc objectives of a case and diﬀerent stages of case management. The process is undertaken in the knowledge that a child ’ssafety needs may change over time (Munro 2008). As a result, caseworkers are often required to revise their assessment at diﬀerent points in time and for diﬀerent contexts of decision making. This is because factors that are predictive of maltreatment at the time of investi gation and prior to intervention may not be the same as those that are predictive of 98 Elizabeth Fernandez maltreatment at another point in time, or in another context such as reuni ﬁcation following service. Milner et al. (2015) suggest major stages of the assessment process in a linear model, recognising that sequential steps may overlap as new information comes to light and re evaluation occurs. � Preparation: a Identify key informants and sources of information/data b Prepare a statement of intent or purpose c Prepare a template/schedule for collecting information d Document tentative/early explanations � Collection of information/data a Access documents and ﬁle data sources, memos, working charts, reports and key informants b Identify key informants c Check verbal and written data for factual accuracy, unsubstantiated opinion, incongruities d Widen data sources if accuracy is doubtful or if there are gaps � Weighing the information/data a Estimate the seriousness and urgency of the situation b Identify pervasive themes in the information and prioritise them c Weigh risks involved d Consult relevant individuals for their input � Consider how child and family is functioning in the current situation � Analysing the information/data a Identify theoretical perspectives and use them to gain depth of analysis b Reach tentative explanations of the situation and consider how they can be tested c Develop tentative goals for intervention d Check/validate with key informants � Utilising data analysis a List outcomes to be achieved or avoided, and mechanism to monitor outcomes b Prepare intervention plan c Prepare draft assessment report detailing insights reached, sources of informa tion, recommendation d Obtain feedback and revise. (Milner et al. 2015: 56–58) While recognising assessment is a staged process, it is important to maintain a reﬂexive approach. By this, it is meant that practitioners should continually evaluate each of the assessment decisions they make along the way to adjust their approach and consider whether they have approached the case objectively, and not in light of pre-existing assumptions. Assessment in child protection 99 Approaches to assessment Practitioners draw on a range of conceptual approaches to assessment depending on the purpose and context of assessments. Smale and Tuson ’s (1993) conceptualisation of three approaches to assessment is instructive: � The Questioning Model – the assessor is viewed as the expert with limited input or interpretation from service users � The Procedural Model – assessment focuses on whether the threshold for interven tion or service is reached � The Exchange Model – clients are viewed as experts in their strengths and potential. The emphasis here is on exchanging information and facilitating a needs-led assess ment driven by goals identi ﬁed by the client. This model encapsulates principles of partnership and empowerment, emphasising working collaboratively to promote a sense of personal agency (Smale & Tuson 1993 cited in Milner & O’Byrne 2002). The extent to which power shared between practitioners and clients varies in the diﬀerent models is outlined. Research evidence suggests working in partnership with families leads to better outcomes for children (Cleaver, Walker & Meadows 2004; Thoburn, Lewis & Shemmings 1995) while Brandon, Bailey and Belderson (2010) remind us about the need to remain alert to the child ’s perspective and be open to re-evaluating information as new evidence emerges. Additionally, legislation and agency policies incorporate the notion of interagency partnership into assessment practice. Depending on the purpose and focus assessments this requires portrayals of the situation from the perspective of diﬀerent actors and agencies ensuring the child is the primary focus (Devaney 2008; Horwarth & Morrison 2011). Assessment needs to be interactive, underpinned by relevant and professional knowledge, and responsive to the service user (Welbourne 2012). Co-operation and col laboration between diﬀerent agencies dealing with the protective situation is crucial. To this end multidimensional centres/teams are established to provide assessment services under one roof so that children are not required to attend diﬀerent locations and see diﬀerent people in the process of validating the abuse. A range of methods – qualitative and quantitative – are used to approach the assess ment task. Qualitative assessment is used as one method to gather information to for mulate a comprehensive assessment. A qualitative approach to assessment enables gaining the depth and breadth of information that cannot be achieved by a quantitative approach. It emphasises context and process through collection of detailed information with indi viduals and families, capturing their meanings, realities and interpretation of events and the contexts in which problems or needs exist. To maximise objectivity, qualitative assessment requires a high level of self-awareness from practitioners to ensure personal beliefs and biases do not inﬂuence their clinical judgement and their ability to discern their interpretations from that of the family. Qualitative assessment uses words, eco maps, genograms and narrative rather than numbers and scores to convey the complexity of the family situation. By contrast, quantitative methods involve the administration of pre-designed measures or surveys that have previously been validated for use in child or family contexts. Important examples in the child context include the Child Behaviour Checklist or Strengths and Di ﬃculties Questionnaire. 100 Elizabeth Fernandez The need for best practice in assessment Assessing children at risk of signi ﬁcant harm requires considerable skill in assembling, analysing, weighing and synthesising relevant information to underpin child protection decisions. The context in which child protection decisions are made may be fraught with uncertainty. Important information may not be readily available, time frames may be compressed, risk may not be immediately apparent, and resources may be limited or rationed. Studies analysing protective care decision making have found wide discrepancies and inconsistency among practitioners on what constitutes abuse and the circumstances warranting removal to protective care. For example, Rossi et al. concluded that the like lihood of a child being removed from its home depended on the individual managing the case (Rossi et al. 1996 cited in Rycus & Hughes 2008). The importance of carefully designed assessment frameworks to enhance the quality and consistency of decisions becomes evident. To respond to these challenges and, to facilitate sound decision making, child welfare agencies have drawn on a range of decision-making frameworks and asso ciated instruments to assess and guide critical decisions related to children who have been maltreated or are at high risk of being maltreated (D ’Andrade, Austin & Benton 2008; Gambrill & Shlonsky 2001). The use of formalised risk assessments systems by child protection agencies is on the increase. Risk assessments are used to make critical decisions during the investigation including whether the child is at immediate risk of maltreatment, what actions might be needed to protect the child during investigation, whether the child needs to be removed to protective care, and in the preparation of an initial case plan to address current needs or concerns. Such considerations of risk and safety are used frequently in child protection. Risk factors are commonly deﬁned as the conditions that threaten the child ’s safety and safety factors are those that mitigate on oﬀset risk. One type of risk assessment under taken concerns the determination of imminent risk of harm to a child from maltreatment (Rycus & Hughes 2008). It involves assessing the seriousness of the concern, the duration, the vulnerability of the child, the imminence of harm. While safety assessments are concerned with determining risk of imminent harm to children, risk assessment focuses on estimating the likelihood of harm from maltreatment in the future as part of the continuum of safety assurance strategies (Hughes & Rycus 2007). Risk assessment is deﬁned as the ‘systematic collection of information to determine the degree to which a child is likely to be abused or neglected at some future point in time ’ (Doueck et al. 1993: 442). Risk assessment is future oriented in that it estimates a child will be maltreated at a later time. It is often used to prioritise cases to determine the level of intervention and the types of services the family receives. Approaching assessment in child protection Assessment is an integral part of child protection case management. Meyer (1993: 3) characterises assessment as ‘the thinking process that seeks out the meaning of case situations, puts the particulars of the case into some order, and leads to appropriate interventions ’. The assessment is designed to identify needs that require intervention to alleviate the problem. Webb (2006) proposes a tripartite conceptualisation of assessment, highlighting the potential interaction of biological, social and psychological factors with respect to the child and family: Assessment in child protection 101 � factors related to the individual (e.g. age, developmental stage, cognitive level, home, school, interests, abuse history, resilience) � factors related to the problem situation (e.g. presence of trauma, life threat, onset and duration of abuse, involvement of signi ﬁcant others) � factors in support system (nuclear family, extended family, school, peers, neigh bourhood, formal service systems). A crucial question that arises is determining ‘who ’ or ‘what ’ is to be assessed. A series of helpful questions are to be considered by case managers in undertaking the assessment: � who is the focus of the assessment (child, parents, family unit, neighbourhood)? � In what sequence should these assessments occur and what protocols are to be followed? � What assessment tools/standardised measures are be used to support the assessment (genogram, ecomap, decision-making tool …)? � How might parents/children/young people be engaged in the assessment? � How is the assessment to be documented (for case conferences, courts, agency records)? � What information should be sought from collateral sources (school, medical, legal, other agencies)? � What knowledge/concepts might be drawn on to analyse the information generated from the assessment (e.g. developmental theory, trauma, loss, ecological systems)? (Fernandez 2016). The assessment of ‘risk ’ is central to the work of practitioners in child protection. Assessment of risk frequently involves identifying the probability of immediate and long- term harm. In responding to reports of maltreatment, practitioners are required to undertake an assessment of risk. Such an assessment may focus on ‘speci ﬁc harms ’ or ‘imminence ’ of further harm or potential for ‘cumulative harm ’ in the future (Munro 2008). The complexity of isolating and interpreting risk factors in assessing child physi cal, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect is the subject of a wide literature (Cooper & Ball 1987; Corby, Shemmings & Wilkins 2012; Crosson-Tower 2008; Doyle & Timms 2014; Lawrence 2004; O’Hagan 2006). Brearly proposes core questions to be posed in the context of uncertainty and risk: � What are the various possibilities? � How probable are they? � How serious are they? � How imminent are they? (Brearly 1982 cited in Cooper & Ball 1987: 77) Cooper and Ball (1987) apply the work of Brearly to illuminate themes that underpin the analysis of risk in the ﬁeld of child abuse. They cite speci ﬁc factors which are said to predispose children to abuse by parents including: a lack of aﬀectional bonds; gross dis tortion of parenting models; absence of or maladaptive interaction between parents; absent or distorted communication network within the family and between the family and the outside world; dysfunctional styles of coping with stress and disproportionate 102 Elizabeth Fernandez aggression; absent or exaggerated disciplinary techniques; and, the absence of devel opmentally appropriate life experience to satisfy children ’s needs. In addition to these existing ‘hazards ’, extra familial factors are identi ﬁed that exacerbate risk. These include: deﬁcits in support services; failures of inter-professional communication; deﬁciencies in monitoring and supervision; and, ambiguous case conference decision making. Exploring the notion of risk further, they highlight the complex mix of ‘predisposing ’ and ‘situa tional hazards ’ operating within families as well as within agency and worker networks. ‘Predisposing ’ factors include hazards associated with practitioners, managers and the network of agencies that inﬂuence case outcomes. Over-sensitivity to the needs and feel ings of parents, over-optimism about cooperative work with parents and about the rehabilitation of children with their families, and paucity of alternate care placements are among ‘predisposing ’ attitudes and actions of practitioners considered to impact on appraisal of risk. Identi ﬁed ‘situational hazards ’ located within the network of agencies, professionals and case managers are also worthy of note: � Inadequate supervision of the family � Minimising risks to the child � Failure to detect warning signs � Over-optimism about particular families � Confusion about case responsibility and accountability � Lack of supervision or excessive supervision � Knowledge and skill deﬁcits: skills in assessment, skills in communicating and enga ging with families and children, knowledge of the impacts of adverse environments on families and children � Poor inter-professional communication � Lack of community resources and services. Families have strengths and competencies that also can be mobilised to mitigate risk and enhance wellbeing. Against the above analysis of existing or anticipated hazards, strengths and protective factors are to be catalogued to underpin child protection assess ment and case planning decisions and justify strategies for intervention. Approaches to risk assessment Several major approaches to risk assessment are diﬀerentiated. The ﬁrst of these is con sensus-based approaches. Consensus-based approaches emphasize a comprehensive assessment of risk based on theories of maltreatment, empirical literature on maltreat ment and input from practitioners. A consensus-based approach to risk assessment tends to be multidimensional and draws on several domains. These domains provide a struc ture for workers ’ process of information gathering for the purpose of assessment of risk. Some consensus-based instruments use qualitative and/or quantitative approaches to consider relevant areas to be assessed and may code information under categories of high, moderate or low risk based on clinical judgement. Consensus models rely on the expertise of professionals to identify the level of risk based on the body of knowledge on individual, family and environmental conditions considered to be associated with maltreatment. Consensus models draw on the knowl edge base of practitioners and their experience and practice wisdom and are often used in Assessment in child protection 103 the context of team decision making. Attention is drawn to the potential factors that can negatively impact the objectivity and accuracy of decisions such as personal values and beliefs, preconceptions, selective attention, history and organisational pressure to negoti ate compromise (Gambrill & Shlonsky 2000; Munro 1999). Consensus-based frameworks are perceived by some as poorly conceptualised, global and subjective (Rycus & Hughes 2008), and that they are insu ﬃcient for diﬀerentiating between diﬀerent dynamics and types of abuse and tend to be overly focused on the characteristics associated with maltreatment rather than what predicts its recurrence (Doyle & Dolan 2002; Wald & Wolverton 1990). By contrast, actuarial approaches to assessment focus risk assessments on a limited set of case characteristics and use statistical procedures to weigh factors that are predictive of future maltreatment which are then incorporated into a checklist. Practitioners score each factor and scores are summed into overall risk scores for particular types of mal treatment categorising families/parents into low, moderate and high-risk groups. This classi ﬁcation approach often results from the application of an algorithm that combines the information in a mathematically optimal way so as to indicate the probability of diﬀerent events, e.g., the risk of further abuse. Such methods can often yield predictions that are at least as accurate as professional judgement, but they have to be used with caution because there can be a danger that many cases with certain pre-coded ‘risk fac tors ’ will be repeatedly classi ﬁed as higher risk, without scrutiny, e.g., people from cer tain ethnic, indigenous, geographic or lower socio-economic backgrounds. Questions can, therefore, arise as to the fairness or ‘natural justice ’ associated with purely algorithm- based decision making and this is likely to become an increasing concern as AI technol ogy and big data analyses become more commonplace in child-protection contexts. Actuarial methods have also come under criticism for their focus on a limited range of factors overlooking case-speci ﬁc factors, and for the tendency to focus on static factors resulting in passive predictions. Other limitations identi ﬁed include: the tendency for cli ents to present themselves in a favourable light (social desirability); failure to capture ﬂuctuating client characteristics and interactions with the environment; their over emphasis on problems and deﬁcits overlooking individual diﬀerences in coping styles and client strengths; inability to make linkages between needs, problems and interventions, and errors and pitfalls in administration (Jordan & Franklin 1995). Actuarial instruments are also criticised for being value driven (Ryan et al. 2005) for limiting wholistic clinical judgement of practitioners and for constraining practice (Gillingham & Humphreys 2010; Hollows 2008). A third approach involves the use of psychometric instruments or risk assessment tools. Risk assessment tools oﬀer a reliable and systematic approach to assessing risk (Doueck et al. 1993) establishing the severity of abuse (English & Graham 2000) provid ing a structure for documentation and for determining the type of intervention or services needed (Wald & Wolverton 1990). However, as in research contexts, the quality of any assessment tool is determined by its validity and reliability. Validity refers to the extent to which the measure captures what it is supposed to measure and reliability refers to the consistency of the measure (i.e., does it capture the construct or quality the same way each time?) There are several diﬀerent indicators of validity and reliability, but Hughes and Rycus (2007) suggest that two essential psychometric qualities are needed in risk assessment involving children and families. The ﬁrst of these is predictive validity (how well the instrument can predict a particular outcome) and test-re-test reliability which 104 Elizabeth Fernandez refers to the degree to which the use of the instrument results in consistent decisions by the worker for similar cases over time. Reliable and valid risk assessment tools have been demonstrated to enhance child safety by ensuring resources and strengthening case mon itoring for those families at risk of maltreatment recurrence (Baird & Wagner 2000). Limitations of risk assessment methods While risk assessment instruments are intended to reduce worker idiosyncrasies, there are a number of shortcomings. A critique of both actuarial and consensus-based approaches is that they focus on interpersonal characteristics of parents to exclusion of community and societal factors that may explain maltreatment. Rycus and Hughes (2008) caution that, while actuarial risk assessment instruments categorise families into probabilities of high and low risk, they may not accurately predict occurrence of maltreatment. A large percentage of families classi ﬁed as high risk do not go on to re-abuse or neglect their children. Nonetheless, identifying such families enables agencies to eﬀectively allocate resources and services to prevent recurrence of maltreatment and also make relevant case disposition decisions, including alternative responses. They elaborate on how safety and risk assessment instruments can be used in conjunction with clinical judgement to inform child protection decisions. The reason for this caution is that there are costs for families in being labelled as being at risk but who will not abuse their children. The experience of investigation can be traumatic and may not result in services or having to be labelled as being at risk of maltreatment in order to access services when risk assessments are skewed towards thresholds for service and carry the potential to exacerbate the social exclusion experi enced by families in child protection systems (Dare 2015). Recognising the limited ability to predict severe injury or death Reder, Duncan and Lucey (2003) advocate resources be directed towards preventive services for families rather than targeted interventions. Recognising practitioners are concerned with the clinical responsibility for assessment and case management, and to a lesser extent of prediction Doyle and Dolan (2002), pro pose an approach which combines the merits of the actuarial approach and the priorities of clinical assessment and management of the case, suggesting that evidence-based fra meworks are used ﬂexibly to accommodate case-speci ﬁc and contextual factors. On a similar note, it is suggested that risk assessments should be combined with assessments of family strengths and needs and information from both assessments integrated into decisions about service interventions (Shlonsky & Wagner 2005). The items incorporated in an actuarial risk assessment tool are often drawn from professionals in the ﬁeld and from research evidence and thereafter tested for reliability and validity before being approved as a risk assessment tool. Despite the inclusion of professional perspectives in the construction of instruments, questions are raised as to whether they reﬂect the full range of information to evaluate situations. In this context, a combination of formal risk assessment tools and professional judgement is advocated (Hollows 2008; Holosko & Ojo 2016). Ethical considerations in using standardised measures are also to be noted, not the least of which are ensuring practitioners are trained in the use of scoring of the measure and interpretation of results. Multiple methods of assessment are advocated rather than single indicators to ensure the measure is complemented with other sources of informa tion. Consistent with social work values, con ﬁdentiality of scores should be maintained Assessment in child protection 105 to ensure they are not used to negatively label clients and not misused in legal contexts or for purposes for which they were not intended. Client strengths and assets should be captured. Given the cultural and ethnic diversity of families and children practitioners work with, they need to be attuned to the possibility that instruments may be biased against certain cultural groups and geographies if they are not ‘normed ’ with these populations, leading to mislabelling the attributes of culturally diverse clients (Broadhurst et al. 2010; Fernandez 1991; Jordan & Franklin 1995). Structured decision-making tools Another approach to assessment, and widely used, are structured decision-making tools. One example is the Structured Decision-making Tool (SDM) developed by the Children ’s Research Centre, Wisconsin. Designed to improve decision-making capabilities of child protection practitioners and outcomes for children, the SDM comprises a set of assess ment tools to assist in deciding how best to assess families reported to child protection services through to engagement with services. The compendium of instruments compris ing the SDM includes the California Family Risk Assessment (CFRA), a 20-item instru ment eliciting information on child and family characteristics to estimate the likelihood of recurrence of maltreatment within two years if they do not receive any intervention, classifying assessed families into ‘low ’, ‘moderate ’ and ‘high ’ risk. Other instruments include the SDM Safety Assessment (SA), and the Family Strengths and Needs Assess ment (FSNA). The SA involves a 20-item tool which identi ﬁes immediate threats to the child with a view to developing a safety plan enabling the child to remain with parents pending fuller investigation, or one requiring the child ’s placement in protective out-of home care placement. The FSNA, a consensus-based instrument, prioritises the three most pressing areas of need to be addressed by services based on an assessment of 11 domains of family functioning using a four-point scale from ‘strength ’ to ‘severe need ’. Other associated SDM tools are the Family Risk Assessment and the Family Strengths and Needs Reassessment, and the Reuni ﬁcation Safety Assessment (Johnson 2004). The SDM has been implemented in several states in the USA and has been adopted in selected States in Australia (Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales). Draw ing on the Queensland experience of its implementation Gillingham and Humphreys (2010) observe that the tools undermined practitioner ’s development of knowledge and skills in child protection and lacked the capacity to deal with the complexities of family situations. Assessing child wellbeing and key assessment points Children and young people who come to the attention of child welfare systems reﬂect lower levels of wellbeing than their counterparts in the community (Wulczyn et al. 2005; Zimmer & Panko 2007). For example, these disparities are illustrated in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The importance of holistic ecological assessments of children that incorporate both deﬁcits, strengths and overall wellbeing is stressed (Leslie et al. 2003) as is the importance of multidimensional and multi-system perspectives that capture the interface of the child and the environment as portrayed in the resilience literature (Jenson 106 Elizabeth Fernandez & Fraser 2006; Ungar 2004; Wulczyn et al. 2005) and the developing literature on chil dren ’s subjective wellbeing (Ben-Arieh et al. 2001). Measures of child wellbeing attempt to balance risk and protective factors. However, the approach to assessment should take into account developmental stages and processes and the complexities of socio-emotional aspects of wellbeing, perspectives of multiple informants including children and young people ’s subjective wellbeing. The broad nature of wellbeing is evident from the range of multidimensional instruments developed and in use (Ben Arieh et al. 2014). Austin ’s (2010) overview of selected well validated, widely used instruments to assess child wellbeing in the context of child welfare interventions is instructive. These instru ments are identi ﬁed as reﬂecting comprehensiveness and are strength based. Among them are the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to assess social and emotional development of young children (Squires, Bricker & Potter 1997); the Social Adjustment Inventory for Children and Adolescents (SAICA) (John, Gammon & Kruger 1999) which focuses on adaptive functioning in the areas of peer relations, activities, academic achievement and family relations. Also included is the Behavioural and Emotional Scale (BERS) (Epstein 2004) which assesses emotional and behavioural strengths, allowing for independent perspectives of child, parent and teacher. Credited with strong psychometric properties, it is found to be useful in pre-referral assessments and in evaluating outcomes of interven tions over time. Other widely used instruments to assess children and young people are the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach 1991) and the Strengths and Di ﬃculties Questionnaire (Goodman 2001). An especially useful strength-based and multidimensional tool for child welfare work ers engaged with youth transitioning from care is the Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment (ACLSA) (Casey Family Programs 2005; Nollan et al. 2000). All four versions tailored to speci ﬁc ages assess life skills in physical, social and moral development, educational/ vocational development, money, housing and transportation and may be completed by youth and caregivers. A child wellbeing assessment may be undertaken at particular decision points: removal to protective care; monitoring and review while in placement; in permanence decisions involving reuni ﬁcation or guardianship and adoption, and transition from care. At a macro level, individual wellbeing assessment can enable aggregation of outcome to inform program and policy development. For example, there are multiple assessments needed to underpin decisions that follow from court ’s determination to place a child in out-of-home care. These include such questions as: What is the most appropriate place ment: with relatives, non-relatives, or residential care? What considerations apply in matching children ’s needs to attributes of the carer and foster home? How will issues of contact with the birth family be managed? Is reuni ﬁcation with the birth family to be considered? Children ’s trajectories in care may be punctuated with a number of feelings, reactions and disappointments arising from separation and entry to care and adjusting to new and some times multiple care environments. Further challenges arise from maintaining a child ’s sense of identity, security and continuity in the context of his/her care being shared between foster carers and birth parents, and managing various forms of change inherent in placement breakdowns, school changes, transitions eﬀected through reuni ﬁcation, or leaving care (Driscoll 2018; Fernandez 2019; Sebba et al. 2016; Tarren-Sweeny & Hazell 2006). Whatever the nature of change, eﬀective communication, assessment and planning are needed in Assessment in child protection 107 responding to the needs of children and carers, while engaging professionals and agencies, involved eﬀectively as integral members of the therapeutic team. The implementation of a permanency framework imposes a particular set of case planning expectations that have implications for assessment in the context of protective care. There are also pressures to ﬁne tune out-of-home care to respond to the needs of particular children such as children who are exposed to substance abuse, children who are HIV-positive, children with disabilities, children of incarcerated parents, children of refugees and youth who are gay or lesbian. The UK Looking After Children Initiative designed to facilitate assessment and track out comes in the domains of health, education, emotional and behavioural development, identity, family and social relationships, self-care and self-presentation (Ward 1996) oﬀers a potential framework for guiding assessment and care planning in out-of-home care. Through the establishment of the Looking After Children project, a collaboration of Barnardo ’s Australia and University of New South Wales, a guided practice case management system, MyStory, is implemented in out-of-home care programs of Barnardo ’s and selected non-government agencies to provide practitioners, carers and families a streamlined and guided practice approach to assessing outcomes through all stages of the child ’s care trajectory, ensuring the child ’s voice is at the centre of decisions that aﬀect their lives. Family assessment A prime purpose of a risk assessment is to implement a process for determining which cases receive which interventions and services, serving as a strategy to target limited resources to the neediest (Rycus & Hughes 2008). In clarifying the purpose of assessing risk and safety, a distinction is made between risk assessment and family assessment. Rycus and Hughes oﬀer this clari ﬁcation ‘while risk assessment is designed to accurately estimate the likelihood of future incidents of maltreatment, the purpose of family assessment is to explore, in considerable depth, the unique complex of developmental and ecological factors in each family and their environment that may contribute to or mitigate maltreatment ” (Rycus & Hughes 2003: 11 cited in Austin 2010). Families who are served by agencies present with a range of needs, resources and strengths. Many agencies have developed or adapted frameworks or protocols to carry out comprehensive family assessment to formulate a case plan. The focus and depth of the assessment is determined by purpose and context of decisions. A major challenge in initial assessments involves determinations about child removal and placement in out-of-home care in order to ensure their safety. Awareness of the traumatic impact of separation stra tegies to maintain the child safely in their own families is prioritised in the continuum of child welfare interventions. It is recognised the child maltreatment reﬂects complex personal, familial, environ mental and social factors that interact to undermine families ’ ability to care for their children. It is being increasingly recognised that the large number of reports coming to the attention of Statutory Child Welfare Departments are about wider child and family needs and that investigative and child rescue approaches are less optimal responses (Garbarino & Barry 1997; Scott 2009). Several commentators highlight the relationship between poverty, abuse and neglect and the disproportionate numbers of families from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds who become mired in the child protection system (Parton, Thorpe & Wattam 1997; Pelton 2015; Welbourne 2012). Gil (1979) draws 108 Elizabeth Fernandez attention to the pervasive pressures inherent in the deprivations of poverty that generate stress for economically disadvantaged families, creating the triggering context in which violence occurs. The structure of many disadvantaged families characterised by sole par enthood, female-headed households, and isolation from social supports and social net works that potentially oﬀer respite and parenting support, further compound children ’s vulnerability to neglect and abuse (Ghate & Hazel 2002). Initiatives that emphasise prevention of abuse and enhancement of parenting potential to improve the wellbeing of vulnerable children have emerged. In the United Kingdom emphasis on the principle of partnership with parents and emergence of the con ceptualization of children in need (Little, Axford & Morphet 2004; Ward & Rose 2002), and development of family preservation services in the United States have prompted a shift from the exclusive focus on child removal to greater emphasis on family support and shared care. Parallel developments are evident in Australian Child Welfare reﬂected in models of family-based services (Wise 2017). The clientele of family support services involve children and families who are child protection referrals, as well as families whose children who are judged to be ‘in need ’, requiring services to be addressed before their situation deteriorates to the level of a child protection concern. Families who are served by agencies present with a range of needs, resources and strengths. In order to safeguard children in their own homes, practitioners must identify the resources, strengths and protective capacities in their immediate family, extended family and community that can be mobilised to mitigate threats to safety and stabilise the family situation. Many agencies have developed or adapted frameworks or protocols to carry out comprehensive family assessments to formulate a case plan. The focus and depth of the assessment is determined by purpose and context of decisions. In family assessment, the focus is on assembling, analysing and weighing of informa tion to capture key factors aﬀecting a child ’s safety and wellbeing and parental needs, diﬃculties and protective capacities that impinge on children ’s wellbeing. The purpose of assessment is to represent the family in its needs, diﬃculties and struggles for resources, including a justi ﬁcation for treating the situation as a problem and the extent to which it falls within the agency ’s remit to deal with it. There are a number of contexts and key points in the life of a case when family assessments are undertaken: at initial contact with the family support agencies; and at several decision-making stages when protective care is needed such as visitation and contact during placement, reuni ﬁcation or adoption, and transition to independent living. Other assessment points might include reviews or chan ges in case plan. Families typically come to the attention of agencies when problems or diﬃculties are experienced or identi ﬁed. Resultantly, assessments tend to focus on problems and deﬁcits leading to an overemphasis on pathology and dysfunction at the expense of strengths, abilities and achievements. Families have strengths and competencies that also can be mobilised to mitigate risk and enhance wellbeing. Against anticipated hazards, strengths and protective factors are to be catalogued to underpin assessment and case planning decisions and strategies for intervention. Emphasising strengths and empowerment in the assessment process, Cowger (1992) advocates � prioritising the family ’s understanding of the situation and eliciting client goals and their perception of obstacles and challenges. � assessing personal and environmental strengths at multiple levels. Assessment in child protection 109 Several approaches are used in conducting family assessments, including interviews, observation and self-report. The assessment may elicit or integrate perspectives of multi ple actors – perspectives from children and family members, school and other practi tioners involved in the case. The assessment process may involve sequential stages and functions: initial screening at intake; identi ﬁcation of need or problem and level of severity; planning and matching services with needs or problems; and monitoring pro gress and evaluating outcomes (Austin 2010). A number of tools may be used as a means of understanding the family situation. For example, ecomaps can be used to gain information about the family ’s relationship with the environment. It enables focus on the social context of families and interactions between the family and society. This mapping technique is frequently used with families with language barriers and is visually oriented. The Genogram is used to map family structure, family history and relationships. The Social Support Networks map explores the structure and quality of the family ’s interconnected relationships and social support. There has been an expanding empirical and clinical literature on family assessment with the advent of child protection policies and family preservation and family support initiatives in the US, UK and Australia. Concomitantly, there have been initiatives in the development of family assessment frameworks for use in these child welfare contexts. In response to the shortcomings of deﬁcit-based assessment models, child welfare systems have undergone a paradigm shift in the direction of incorporating strengths and assets in the holistic assessment of children and families. Grounded in family systems theories and the developmental literature, they focus on relevant components of family functioning, parenting and social support. Family assessment frameworks that comprehensively address major domains of family functioning validated for speci ﬁc stage of assessment and relevant for use in child welfare settings are reviewed by Austin (2010). Austin ’s review of family assessment frameworks identi ﬁes selected instruments developed in the US for child welfare systems: � The North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS) and the NCFAS-R for reuni ﬁcation. � The Family Assessment Form (FAF) � The Darlington Family Assessment System � The Clinical Assessment Package for Assessing Clients ’ Risks and Strengths (CASPARS). The NCFAS (Reed-Ashcraft, Kirk & Fraser 2001) is a 39-item instrument designed to assist preservation services to assess family functioning at intake and case closure and capture measurable change demonstrated during the service period. The NCFAS makes provision for rating on a 6-point scale ranging from ‘clear strength ’ to ‘serious problems ’ on ﬁve domains: (1) environment, (2) parental capabilities, (3) family interactions, (4) family safety and (5) child wellbeing. Internal consistency and construct validity have been established for the instrument. To facilitate reuni ﬁcation decision making in pro grams using family preservation services to reunify children placed in out-of-home care with their families, the NCFAS for Reuni ﬁcation (NCFAS-R) (Reed-Ashcraft et al. 2001) has been developed. The instrument assesses family functioning on seven domains adding two new domains to the original ﬁve domains of NCFAS, namely Caregiver/Child Ambivalence and Readiness for Reuni ﬁcation using the same 6-point scale. Change scores 110 Elizabeth Fernandez are indicative of the degree of change achieved during the service period from the intake to the point of reuni ﬁcation or case closure. Internal consistency and construct validity have been established for this measure with respect to success or failure of reuni ﬁcation. The NCFAS and NCFAS-R are favoured for their strength-based orientation and exten sive testing and validation with child welfare populations. For many children in care, reuni ﬁcation is a goal. However, decisions about reuni ﬁca tion are based on a comprehensive family assessment and reassessment of risk and the families ’ protective capacities to ensure any safety threats are reduced. Reuni ﬁcation entails several challenges for families arising from the disruptions and discontinuities from the child ’s placement in care and the re-establishment of relationships. There is the dual focus of assessing readiness for reuni ﬁcation and the supports and services needed by the family to sustain child safety. The Family Assessment Form (FAF) has an ecological focus oﬀering a structured method for identifying the strengths and concerns of families in ﬁve substantive areas (1) Environment, (2) Caregivers, (3) Interactions, (4) Developmental stimulation to children, (5) Support available to the family. It captures caregiver characteristics interactions within family subsystems and transactions of the family with the larger environment and is par ticularly useful in contexts where workers do not have a lengthy assessment period and when families need help for pressing problems. The FAF has been developed as a practice tool to enhance assessment procedures. It is designed to help caseworkers to develop ser vice plans for families and monitor service outcomes systematically. It requires workers to undertake and structure family assessments in the complex atmosphere of the family home. The ﬁve-point rating scale and summary facilitates identi ﬁcation of family strengths from which to build problem solving and coping abilities while paying attention to areas of concern. Internal consistency and interrater reliability have been established (Austin 2010; McCrosky & Meezan 1997). The Clinical Assessment Package for Assessing Clients ’ Risks and Strengths (CASPARS) (Gilgun 1999) is also seen as promising for its applicability to child welfare populations. It assesses strengths and risks in ﬁve domains: emotional expressiveness, family relationships, family embeddedness in the community, peer relationships and sexuality. Internal con sistency, interrater reliability and construct validity are considered strong. To complement the various family assessment frameworks, specialised instruments or standardised measures to assess parenting practices and behaviours are used in assessments of parenting of families who come to the attention of child welfare systems. Developed as a tool for child protective service practitioners, the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) is one of them. It is designed as a self-report tool to identify parents who are most likely to be at risk for child maltreatment by assessing parenting practices and social interactions and has been subject to substantial psychometric evaluation. Programs have used the measure in pre- and post-interventions to measure change (Milner 1994). Another measure, the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin 1995), incorporates com prehensive self-report items which assess parenting in parent- and child-related domains. For rapid assessment, a 36-item short form is also available. Psychometric evaluations ascribe high internal consistency, construct validity and good test –retest reliability. A psychometrically validated measure designed to comprehensively assess a family ’sbasic needs in addition to patterns of social interaction and parenting is the Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME). Versions of the HOME tailored to age-speci ﬁc Assessment in child protection 111 populations (e.g. families with infants and toddlers; children in middle childhood) and versions adapted to minority and special needs populations are available. In general, these instruments are intended to complement rather than replace profes sional judgement and enhance the assessment process by providing a structure for gath ering and assembling information and ensuring speci ﬁc aspects of family assessment are addressed. The results of such assessments can be used in diﬀerent contexts including referral to services, court reports, monitoring clients and documenting child and family outcomes for supervision and agencies (Austin 2010). In the UK, the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (FACN) (Department of Health 2000), has been designed to provide a systematic and consistent approach to assessment of families of all children in need. Its distinctive fea ture is its holistic focus on the complex interrelationships between three domains of the assessment ‘triangle ’: children ’s developmental outcomes; the capacity of parents to respond appropriately to their needs; and the impact of factors within their family and broader environment, as well as the delicate balance of risk and protective factors in each of these domains. Implicit in this framework is a broadening of focus from a narrow concentration on risk and incidents of harm to a holistic and comprehensive assessment of the manner in which parenting capacity and factors in the wider environment aﬀect children ’s developmental needs. The UK Framework for Assessment for Children in need and their families shifts the focus of assessment away from identifying deﬁcits to assessing both strengths and diﬃculties to counter the tendency towards pathologizing families. It promotes a broad-based approach to assessment of need to facilitate responsive service and better sharing of information between agencies. Encompassing three domains, it focuses on children ’s needs (health, emotional development, relationships, selfcare, safety), parenting capacity (ability to provide basic care, emotional warmth, stimulation, guidance and boundaries) and environment (family history, housing, employment, income, community resources) (Seden, 2002; Ward & Rose 2002). The case management system Supporting Children and Responding to Families (SCARF), an Australian adaptation of the UK Assessment framework currently used in family support services of Barnardo ’sAustralia and selected non-government agencies (Wise 2001), provides a strength-based, ecologically orientated, participatory approach with built-in mechanisms to engage parents and older children in the assessment process. The UK Common Assessment Framework (CAF), introduced later, advances on the earlier Framework to facilitate linkage of families to a continuum of services based on level and complexity of needs. However, these frameworks are not without challenges. While the FACN provides adequate prompts to ensure comprehensive coverage of issues, it oﬀers little guidance on how individual factors on each domain or dimension of the triangle should be weighted and integrated into an analytical account of the child ’s wellbeing and the standard of caregiving (Milner et al. 2015; Welbourne 2012). Calder and Hackett (2003), in particular, express concerns about the viability of assessing risk of physical and sexual abuse using the FACN, given its emphasis on identifying needs and strengths, the concern being that focus on strengths may obscure the workers ’ identi ﬁcation of risk. Other critical reviews of these fra meworks and the guidance accompanying them have emphasised the need to balance proce dural demands with professional judgement and ﬂexibility (Munro 2011). A further framework, Signs of Safety , was based on the work of Turnell and Edwards (1999) who propose a safety assessment process that captures concerns and safety issues incorporating perspectives of professionals and family members. The focus is on 112 Elizabeth Fernandez assessment of measurable indicators for the family to stay together and in this regard has both an assessment and interventive focus. Issues for practice An ecological approach to assessment While many parental and family characteristics are associated with abuse and neglect including mental illness, substance use, domestic violence, social isolation and previous history of maltreatment (although not all adults who have been maltreated go on to abuse their children), the correlates of maltreatment are complex and are best understood from an ecological perspective. Social conditions such as poverty, deprivation, dangerous neighbourhoods, lack of support and social services, and societal tolerance of inter personal violence are closely associated with maltreatment and constitute risk factors. As a result, there is some concern that many assessments focus narrowly on providing evi dence of abuse and neglect, with little attention to ongoing needs of children and families. For this reason, an ecological approach (Bronfenbrenner 1979) oﬀers an eﬀective frame work for understanding ways in which risk and protective factors interact. Such an approach would require assessment of multiple domains including the child, parents and family unit at the micro level; the interactions between the family and systems including school, health and welfare agencies, and the capturing of environmental dimensions of housing, income security and social support that directly or indirectly inﬂuence parents and children. At the macro level, prevailing societal values, social policies, statutory systems and cultural contexts that impact micro and meso systems need to be factored in. Conducting assessments that utilise an ecological framework facilitates holistic assessment that captures the interaction of child, family and the outside world. Ecological assessments engage with the complexity of family situations and prompt the practitioner to draw on theories relevant to each of the systems involved – micro, meso and macro. Implied here is a broadening of focus from a narrow concentration on risk and incidents of harm to a holistic and comprehensive assessment of the manner in which parenting capacity and factors in the wider environment impact on chil dren ’s developmental needs and wellbeing. The dual focus on parenting capacity and envir onmental determinants enhances the potential to draw on a wider repertoire of interventions in responding to the needs of parents and children. Environment of risk assessment Assessment in child protection involves operating in an environment of uncertainty where information is limited. For this reason, there have been critical discourses surrounding the almost default referral to risk assessment in child protection (Gillingham & Hum phreys 2010; Kemshall 2002; Parton 2014; Webb 2006) as well as risk assessment tools, with concerns being raised about their ability to resolve issues of ambiguity and uncer tainty and address risk elimination. Munro (2011) elaborates on the uncertainty inherent in the work arising from the ambiguity of the signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect and the possibility of alternative ‘benign ’ explanations, and the challenges of making predictions of children ’s future safety. In this context she comments: Assessment in child protection 113 The big problem for society (and consequently professionals) is establishing a rea listic expectation of professionals ’ ability to predict the future and manage risk of harm to children and young people. Even when it is ascertained that abuse and neglect has occurred, there are diﬃcult decisions to make about whether the parents can be helped to keep children safe from harm or whether the child needs to be removed. Such decisions involve making predictions about likely future harm and are so fallible. It may be judged highly unlikely that the child will be re abused but low probability events happen. This does not in itself indicate ﬂaws in the professional reasoning. The ideal would be if risk management could eradicate risk but this is not possible; it can only reduce the probability of harm. It is important to be aware how much hindsight distorts our judgement about predictability of an adverse outcome. Once we know an outcome was tragic, we look backwards from it and it seems clear which assessments were critical in leading to that outcome. (Munro 2011: 18) Further constraints of risk assessment as a predictor of maltreatment recurrence arises from the state of knowledge about the predictors of child maltreatment. Such factors continue to remain a focus of research, so that there may be value in practitioners and managers maintain ing awareness of these developments through ongoing professional development activities. What is also needed is less reliance on selective uses of research evidence as well as over-reliance on expert assessments to validate preferred decisions, and the narrow focus of such assessments to the exclusion of relevant social factors (Milner et al. 2015). In support of these concerns, researchers have identi ﬁed a number of pitfalls and common errors in practitioners ’ decision making. These include disregarding important information, over-optimism in their ability to predict events, and valuing and prioritising certain sources of evidence over others. Scepticism over new information when it con ﬂicts with their initial view of a family and being slow to reassess their judgements (Munro 1999), and diﬃculties in weighing diﬀerent factors relevant to the decision (Helm 2010) are further concerns noted. Other errors of reasoning such as the tendency to reach explanations hurriedly and seeking evidence to con ﬁrm their preferred views and to ignore or not seek information that chal lenges early views, referred to as ‘con ﬁrmatory bias ’ are also highlighted (Munro 2008; Plous 1993; Brandon, Bailey & Belderson 2010). For example, the work of Brandon et al. (2010) highlights ways in which con ﬁrmation bias can result in practitioners concluding a case does meet the threshold for child protection intervention, or conversely may result in families being subject to investigation and coercive intervention through failure to take on board evi dence that challenges initial beliefs. When conducting risk assessment, a range of diﬀerent types of information may emerge. Some information will indicate deﬁcits in the family and there will also be evidence of areas of strength or resilience. In many cases, evidence concerning family deﬁcits may overshadow the positive aspects of the family and so it is important that assessments take a considered and balanced approach that tries to capture both of these aspects (Helm 2010). A tendency to over-emphasise the negative aspects of the family (negative halo eﬀect) and to impute blame to individuals rather than their circumstances are recognised biases in psychological research (the fundamental attribution error). At all stages, practitioners should endeavour to take a reﬂective and systematic approach that is thorough in its appraisal of information, and also be mindful of their own potential biases or preconceptions. 114 Elizabeth Fernandez Responding to diversity The assessment process needs to be sensitive to variations in client characteristics that may inﬂuence how assessments are conducted and what recommendations might follow. Important issues to consider are economic class, race, culture, gender and sexual orien tation or identity. These characteristics share the common quality of locating some cli ents outside the mainstream society where services, communication and policies may operate on the assumption that people do not possess the characteristics that are central to their identity. Such factors can render them vulnerable to social exclusion, prejudice and oppressive and discriminatory practice. Examples can include services that are not attuned to cultural sensitivities, which have no language services, or which exclude people from certain opportunities or decisions because of the structure of their family or sexual identity. In a diverse multicultural society, the importance of taking into account cultural diﬀerences in norms and power diﬀerentials should be emphasised. Already, there is an extensive empirically derived literature on poverty and its impact on children and families in child welfare systems that should sensitise practitioners to ways of understanding families who parent in poor environments and their experience of child welfare systems (Bywaters et al. 2015; Ghate & Hazel 2002; Jack & Gill 2010; Pelton 2015). A less extensive, but informative literature is also available concerning practice involving cultu rally diverse groups, including people from refugee backgrounds, particular religious groups, and those from Indigenous backgrounds (Laird & Tedam 2019). Considerations based on client gender are also important. In child protection contexts, the clients are statistically more likely to be women and many of these will be single parents; victims of domestic violence; those who have misused drugs or alcohol and are experiencing poverty and who are living in marginal housing and disadvantaged neigh bourhoods. There is a tendency in assessments to locate the source of problems of neglect and abuse within the behaviour of individual mothers because fathers, often the perpe trators of domestic violence, are absent and not involved within the assessment (Ferguson 2011). For this reason, opportunities to include men and fathers in assessment processes should be sought wherever possible. It is thought that father inclusive assessment will be an important step in the direction of moving beyond the focus on holding mothers solely responsible for children ’s outcomes (Campbell et al. 2015; Douglas & Walsh 2010; Featherstone 2009; Scour ﬁeld 2001). There are also signi ﬁcant issues of culturally appropriate assessment and case man agement in the context of modern multicultural societies. The clientele of child welfare are often multicultural and these people will diﬀer in their family structure, child rearing patterns, communication, and parenting goals. Culturally competent assessment therefore requires seeking out information and understanding of ways that cultural diﬀerences might surface in the assessment process and whether there are any biases evident in the process. Awareness that our culture shapes our world views and interactions with people and our perception of the world is important and so, in some child protection contexts, culture awareness training may play a signi ﬁcant role in minimising the intrusion of practitioners ’ cultural orientation and biases into the assessment process. In countries such as Australia and Canada, cultural awareness is particularly important in relation to work involving Aboriginal or Indigenous people. In such contexts, assess ment and case management needs to be more culturally sensitive to understand the values of Aboriginal societies, particularly in relation to their family structure and child-rearing Assessment in child protection 115 practices and to recognise the entrenched problems of poverty, racism and social exclusion that contribute to their continuing over-representation in child protection and out-of-home care systems. In Australia, one of the central considerations is compliance with the Abori ginal Child Placement Principle that is enshrined in State legislation. This requires practi tioners to identify and support placements with the child ’s extended family in the interests of their wellbeing and identity needs. For example, in the context of reuni ﬁcation assess ments there is a need to take into account realities of domestic violence, substance abuse, poverty intergenerational trauma, and other factors that capture the challenges of Aboriginal living as a minority in a larger culture. It is important that practitioners recognise these complex circumstances that relate to systemic issues that cannot be addressed through individual behavioural change. As noted by Megan Davis: When mums and dads are given unrealistic, unachievable goals in order to have their children or grandchildren restored to them, this has historical resonance. Some of the restoration goals are incontrovertibly impossible to be achieved. Some of these practices demonstrate concrete examples of institutional racism. The system is replete with practice that renders our people voiceless and powerless. (Davis 2019) Using knowledge in assessment In carrying out assessments in child protection, practitioners are required to draw on and apply a wide range of knowledge to complex situations which are fraught with emotion and risk. In such situations, a core skill integral to the assessment process is analysis (Dalzell & Sawyer 2007), which has been found to be frequently lacking in assessments. Analytical assessments require: � A sound knowledge of child development, parenting capacity and the impact of trauma and adversity in the social environment � An ability to apply knowledge critically to understand each situation � An organisational environment that supports such activity with resources.(Helm 2010) The expectation that assessments will be evidence based highlights the signi ﬁcant role that knowledge, theory and research play in assessments in shaping the questions asked, the information sought and the hypothesis formulated. For example, as other chapters in this volume indicate, the ﬁeld of child welfare needs to be cognisant of the concepts of developmental theory of attachment, loss, trauma, coping, interpersonal relationships, risk, and resilience and these concepts are to be used judiciously rather than selectively. Walsh (2006) cautions that theories used selectively and rigidly can oversimplify the problem and objectify the client and be less mindful of the subjective (and often) complex experiences that have shaped the client ’s situation. A danger is that theories and frameworks may be applied inappropriately to individual families that are diﬀerent from the populations on which they were tested. Concentration on particular concepts or frameworks may obscure other important factors in the case and deter the practitioner from drawing on emerging new knowledge and interventions (Taylor 2004; Taylor & White 2006). It is sometimes assumed that all problems that arise in children are due to poor attachment relationships when there are other more 116 Elizabeth Fernandez complex issues relating to trauma that more validly account for the young person ’s experiences and outcomes (Whitt-Whoosley, Eslinger & Sprang 2018). As previously discussed, child welfare and associated court decision making can often take a very individualistic orientation that obscures the structural factors and the economic, social and political contexts in which problems of inadequate parenting and childcare are identi ﬁed and deﬁned. In such contexts, there is a need to incorporate perspectives that challenge injustice and inequalities (Callahan & Lumb 1995; Healy 2014; Welbourne 2012) to show how individual action and circumstances are embedded in broader socio-political systems. Examples include people ’s socio-economic status, their cultural background, geography and access to transport and services. Moreover, at an indivi dual level, there is a need to apply caution when applying developmental theories because these often have a strong Eurocentric bias and are derived from research often based on middle-class and often Caucasian populations. Although such knowledge may be applicable to other modern cultures (e.g., family structures in many Asian or Middle Eastern countries), they may be less applicable for children raised in families whose structure, parenting practices and expectations are diﬀerent and which involve diﬀerent parenting practices (Fernandez 1991; Laird & Tedam 2019; Lee & Fernandez 2019; Robinson 2007). A particular example of relevance to Australia is the strong role of relatives in the care of Indigenous children, which may be judged by some Western observers to have reduced the responsibility of parents or impacted attachment. In other words, without a cross-cultural perspective, family assessments are likely to be biased towards deﬁcits overlooking strengths as practitioners assess those who do not ﬁt into the dominant developmental norms. In relation to indigenous children in particular, it is important to apply greater cultural sensitivity needed to understand the values of Aboriginal societies with respect to family structure and child-rearing practices and recognise the entrenched problems of poverty, racism and social exclusion that contribute to their continuing over-representation in child protection and out-of-home care systems. In particular, the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle entrenched in legislation will require case managers to identify and support placements with the child ’s extended family. There are also broader issues of culture-appropriate case management in the context of a multicultural society. Adopting a child-centred approach It is also important that children ’s views are taken into account, especially given that many decisions aﬀect children ’s future and well-being. Practitioners are criticised for the weight attached to parental characteristics and the limited emphasis on the child ’s perspective. In the context of both risk or need assessments or care planning, the centrality of the child must be recognised. The importance of providing children with clear explanations of events in child protection situations that impact on them, eliciting their views in the assessment process, and providing opportunities for them to express their wishes is underlined (Alderson 2000; Hol land 2000; Turney et al. 2011). The rights of children to participate in assessment is enshrined in Article 12 of the UNCROC (1989) which enjoins States Parties to assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters aﬀecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. Assessment in child protection 117 These principles/injunctions are translated into practice in speci ﬁc legislation and assess ment frameworks. For example, the UK Common Assessment Framework (CAF) (Department of Health 2000) in its guidance requires practitioners to involve children and families in assessments (Department of Education and Skills 2006). The extent to which this is implemented, however, is questioned (Cleaver, Walker & Meadows 2004; Gilligan & Manby 2008; Reder & Duncan 2003) acknowledging the need for organisational support and resources to achieve this. In carrying out assessments involving children, a trusting relationship with the care giver will be vital to accessing and engaging with the child. Depending on the child ’s level of development, he/she may be limited in communicating their needs, concerns, strengths and coping methods (Aldgate et al. 2006). Interviews with collateral contacts such as parents, family members, teachers may be needed to develop a comprehensive assessment, though these can be subject to distortions and biases. Ascertaining wishes and feelings of the child to assess their understanding of the situation with minimum distress is thus crucial (Holland 2001), as is also eliciting information from caregivers to determine wider social and environmental factors that impact on them. Engaging parents Engaging parents is an important part of parenting assessments. Parents may be wary of engaging with child welfare practitioners because of prior experiences of the child welfare system. Parents ’ reluctance to cooperate with the assessment process and disclose their diﬃ culties is sometimes construed as an indicator of risk. Shemmings and Shemmings (1996) draw on their research to advocate the bene ﬁts of parental participation for the family and professionals involved, arguing that parents are more likely to be committed to implementing case plans they have contributed to, and value being trusted and given the opportunity to express their views. With mounting pressure to respond to child protection referrals, family support services have become a pathway for families to access needed services, though at times in an involuntary relationship. The process of engagement and working with fam ilies can often be inﬂuenced by the context of referral, posing challenges in relationship building (Forrester et al. 2008). 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Barth, R.P., Yuan, Y.T., Harden, B.J. & Landsberk, J., 2005, Beyond common sense: Child welfare, child well-being, and the evidence for policy reform , New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transactions. Zimmer, M.H. & Panko, L.M., 2007, ‘Developmental status and service use among children in the child welfare system: A national survey ’, Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine , vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 183 –188. 123 Chapter 7 Child protection and the role of the Children ’s Court Rosemary Sheehan The legal system exerts considerable inﬂuence on the child protection system in Australia and legislation and legal process speci ﬁcally direct system and service responses. Each of Australia ’s eight States and two Territories has its own child welfare legislation and specialist Children ’s Courts to hear both child abuse and neglect and youth oﬀending matters (AIFS 2014; Brom ﬁeld & Higgins 2005; Sheehan & Borowski 2013). The legisla tion sets out the legal framework for child protection investigations and interventions and whilst each State and Territory legislation varies in its crafting, it is this legislation that supplies the legal framework for child protection investigations and interventions. The Children ’s Court: a specialist role Children ’s Courts are a specialist jurisdiction in Australia. They hear criminal matters and also child abuse and neglect cases where they have the authority to determine matters relating to the child ’s care and protection. They are not courts of public record. Thus, no body of case law has been built to guide judicial oﬃcers ’ decision making in relation to either criminal or child welfare matters. Australia ’s legal system, like that of Canada, England, Wales, Ireland and New Zealand, is a common law adversarial one in which the judicial oﬃcer presides over matters brought to court, it is up to legal practitioners to present the issues in dispute, and the magistrate or judge adjudicates and decides the outcome of the case (Borowski 2013). It is very diﬀerent from the European ‘inquisitorial ’ approach in which judicial oﬃcers can be actively involved in the investigation and ana lysis of cases and the courts are perceived as ‘truth seeking rather than proof-making ’ (Freiberg 2011: 83). There are Children ’s Courts in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. South Australia has a Youth Court; in the Northern Territory both the Youth Justice Court and the Local Court deal with children and young people. Tasmania has no dedicated Children ’s Court, dealing with children and young people by a division of the adult Magistrate ’s Court (Borowski 2013). An additional complication is the overlapping roles of the Children ’s Court and the federal Family Court of Australia (now part of the Federal Circuit Court of Aus tralia) where cases in the latter court involve child abuse. A wider system of courts and tribunals is also involved, in both Victoria and Queensland, for example, appeals in child welfare matters (most often by parents regarding court-ordered care arrangements) are directed to the Civil and Administrative Tribunals (CATs). 124 Rosemary Sheehan Statutory child protection agencies (e.g., Community Services Directorate in the ACT, Department of Children and Families in the Northern Territory and the Department of Human Services ’ Child Protection Service in Victoria) have the key child welfare responsibilities (Borowski 2013). There are mandatory reporting requirements across all jurisdictions although they vary in which professions are mandated to report suspected child abuse or neglect (AIHW 2012: 1). There are diﬀerences of emphasis in mandatory reporting. In Western Australia, it is for child sexual abuse only; Victoria and the ACT have mandatory reporting for suspected cases of child sexual abuse and physical abuse; the remaining jurisdictions have mandatory reporting of all forms of child abuse (physi cal, emotional and sexual abuse) and child neglect (Commission for Children and Young People 2012: 63). Child protection legislation There are common aims across Australian child protection legislation, that a child must be at risk of, or have experienced, ‘signi ﬁcant harm ’ from physical, sexual or emotional harm, or harm to the child ’s physical development or health (see for example, Victoria ’s Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, S. 162 (2)), and it is in the child ’s ‘best interests ’ that the court make a child protection order. Such an order obliges parents to meet cer tain obligations in the care of the child if the child is to either remain in, or return to, parental care; or the order provides for out-of-home care for the child, which may be long term. How ‘signi ﬁcant harm ’ or ‘best interests ’ are to be understood is not set out in legislation, nor is there any guidance, as there is in England and Wales (Sheehan 2018), about how these concerns might be materially understood. Australian child protection legislation sets out that intervention is to be at the mini mum necessary to secure the child ’s welfare and safety (see CYFA 2005, s.10 (2) (a)); its aim is the protection of the child from harm, rather than as a gateway to child and family services. The legislation con ﬁnes child protection activity to identifying and responding to critical incidents of child abuse and neglect, with ‘risk ’ as the key benchmark for deciding harm or likelihood of harm to a child. It is the statutory child protection authority in each Australian State and Territory which brings child abuse matters before the Chil dren ’s Court, presenting evidence there is an unacceptable risk of harm to the child (see CYFA s.87 (1)(j)) to justify the need for intervention by the child protection service. Even though ‘proof ’ in child protection matters is ‘on the balance of probabilities ’ (Sheehan 2001), child protection services often struggle to present the child ’s circumstances in a way that ﬁts the legal principles which dominate how child maltreatment is understood. Legal vs welfare approaches Court proceedings are part of the core business of the child protection service and child protection workers spend considerable time gathering evidence that is acceptable to the Court (Victorian Ombudsman 2009: 12; Allen Consulting Group 2003) to permit statu tory intervention. The task of assessing whether or a not a child is suﬃciently at risk of child abuse to justify child protection intervention is made more diﬃcult because legal decisions made about children brought to court often diﬀer from child protection recommendations about the need for formal intervention (Braye & Preston-Shoot 2006). Moreover, the legal approach to seek out discrete episodes of maltreatment fails to The role of the Children ’s Court 125 recognise that the majority of child protection cases are generally of a more chronic nature and about cumulative harm rather than ‘speci ﬁc dangerous parental behaviours ’ (Allen Consulting Group 2003: 29). Legal and welfare professionals use diﬀerent frames of reference to deal with child abuse cases and what the child protection service views as harm and risk to the child can diﬀer markedly from that of legal professionals (Sheehan 2006). How magistrates and judicial oﬃcers decide whether or not a child is in need of protection (see, for example, CYFA s.162) and how they assess a parent ’s failure to pro tect, is left to their discretion and the individual criteria they use to explain child abuse. Australia ’s child protection systems frame formal child protection intervention as a legal enterprise, where entry into the child welfare system typically occurs via a single point, linked to a report or noti ﬁcation by a third party and is involuntary. The child protection system then investigates the noti ﬁcation and provides support to families, usually as child safety plans. The child protection intervention is thus invested with statutory legal powers, and where legal intervention is sought it is deﬁned by adversarial, standardised and evidence-based procedures (Borowski & Sheehan 2013). It is a system that is separate from wider family support services, and focuses on families where there is a high or immediate, rather than residual, need (Allen Consulting Group 2003; Price-Robertson et al. 2013; Sammut & O’Brien 2009). This approach to child protection is in marked contrast to Australia ’s overarching child protection framework: the National Framework for Protecting Australia ’s Children 2009 –2020 which advocates a ‘whole of community ’ approach where child protection is ‘everyone ’s responsibility ’ (Council of Australian Governments 2009). There is a rising demand for child protection services (AIHW 2017), bedevilled by systemic issues, such as the lack of ‘ﬁt’ between legal process, court outcomes, child protection recommendations and child welfare needs, together with resource limitations that hinder suitable place ments for children in care, early and timely family intervention, along with fragmented interagency collaboration (Brom ﬁeld, Arney & Higgins 2014; Price-Robertson et al. 2013; Sheehan & Borowski 2013). The number of children on care and protection orders in Australia continues to rise despite signi ﬁcant attempts by many jurisdictions to divert children and families away from statutory intervention and increasing family supports to maintain children in their family ’s care (AIHW 2017). In Victoria, on 30 June, 2009, ﬁve in 1,000 Victorian children were the subject of a care and protection order, the largest proportion of whom were aged between birth and four years of age. The rate of Indigenous children on care and protection orders was more than seven times as high as for other children and the rate of Indigenous children in out- of-home care was almost nine times the rate of other children (VLRC 2010: 34). Addi tionally, in Victoria, most child protection noti ﬁcations are about child neglect or emo tional harm; the latter formed 44% of the noti ﬁcations made, in 2000 –01, to the Victorian child protection service, followed by physical abuse (38%) and child sexual abuse (6%) (Sheehan 2006). De ﬁning child maltreatment A key challenge to child protection practice is the constraints around how child mal treatment is framed in legislation. Four Australian States and Territories – Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland – have a legislative basis for cumulative harm, in an attempt to move away from the ‘event ’ model and singular 126 Rosemary Sheehan instances of harm to a child. Victoria ’s Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (s.162 (1) (2)) sets out that ‘harm may be constituted by a single act, omission or circumstance or accumulate through a series of acts, omissions or circumstances ’. The ACT ’s Children and Young People Act 2008 directs that signi ﬁcant harm includes ‘a single instance of signi ﬁcant harm or multiple instances of harm that together make up signi ﬁcant harm ’ (s.341 (2)). Queensland ’s Child Protection Act 1999 (s.9 (4)(b)) consolidates this by stat ing harm can be caused by ‘a series or combination of acts, omissions or circumstances ’. However, whilst it appears the parameters for deciding when a child is in need of pro tection have been redirected to understand harm as prolonged or repeated experiences of harm as well as episodic instances of harm (Sheehan 2012; Brom ﬁeld & Miller 2012), the lack of clear deﬁnition on what is considered ‘harm to a child ’ continues the disconnect between framing welfare concerns as legal facts to put before a court (VLRC 2010). Brom ﬁeld and Arney (2008) suggest one explanatory factor for the overall increase in child protection concerns is the complex family situations of these children, previously noted: the strong connection between child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, parental substance abuse and parental mental health. Certainly there is a clear relationship between socio-economic disadvantage and contact with child protection services (VLRC 2010: 35), characterised by housing instability, poverty, low education, social isolation and neighbourhood disadvantage (Brom ﬁeld & Arney 2008). Yet, child protection legislation and Children ’s Courts struggle to accommodate the chronic problems of child abuse that are increasingly characteristic of the child protection jurisdiction. The Protecting Children: The Child Protection Outcomes Project (prepared and published in 2003 by the Allen Consulting Group for the Victorian Government) found that the legislation was not structured to respond to consequences of major social changes, such as deinstitutionalisation for people with intellectual disability or serious mental illness and the increase in parental substance abuse. These ﬁndings resonate still across the child protection jurisdiction. Whilst there are Children ’s Court innovations in a number of courts around the use of problem solving and therapeutic jurisprudence approaches, most notably with Indigenous matters and Family Drug Treatment Courts, the adversarial paradigm still predominates and continues to create tension between the child protection and legal systems. (Sheehan 2016a). This distracts from concentrating on the nature and merit of child protection concerns and how a child ’s best interests are best determined. The Victorian Law Reform Commission, in their Report on the child pro tection system (2010: 204) described how magistrates described their role as that of hearing and determining issues raised by parties, and it was not for the magistrate to decide what ought to be discussed. Both the VLRC (2010) and the Oﬃce of the Victorian Ombudsman (2009) noted that attention needed to be turned away from the Court to allow the child protection service to work with families apart from the legal system, recognising that a child ’s best interests are better understood when all facets of concerns are assessed rather than just those which meet legal criteria. Reviewing the child welfare jurisdiction Reviews of child protection systems across Australia call for legislation that shifts legal decision makers to a more holistic evaluation of children ’s health and wellbeing. The Victorian Law Reform Commission (2010) proposed that the Children ’s Court move away from an adversarial approach to a more problem-solving approach in reaching The role of the Children ’s Court 127 agreement on what is in the best interests of the child. The focus then is less about proving maltreatment and more about addressing harm to the child (Borowski & Shee han 2013; VLRC 2010), and draws on inter-professional collaboration to respond to the broader context of child maltreatment, often occurring in a context of parental dis advantage and marginalisation. The Wood (2008) Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protective Services in NSW reported that current legal models of decision making which focus on speci ﬁc incidents of maltreatment make it diﬃcult to develop a holistic assessment of the needs of the child within their family and community context, commenting ‘the systemic response is reactive not proactive ’ (Wood 2008: 373). Queensland (Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry 2013), Northern Territory (NT) (Bamblett, Bath & Roseby 2010) and Tasmania (DHHS 2008; Select Committee on Child Protection 2011) reports on the operation of the child protection systems all recommend the need for leg islative and policy frameworks to shift attention to the child ’s longer-term needs, rather than the immediate episodes of abuse. The critiques of Victoria ’s child protection system: the Oﬃce of the Victorian Ombudsman ’s Own Motion Investigation into the Department of Human Services ChildProtectionProgram (Victorian Ombudsman 2009) and the VLRC inquiry into the Protection Applications in the Children ’sCourt advocated for a problem-solving approach to underpin practice in the Children ’s Court (see also Cummins, Scott and Scales 2012, Protecting Victoria ’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry ). The Victorian Ombudsman ’s (2009) identi ﬁed the need to move away from an event-oriented focus of maltreatment, towards a more longer-term impact-orientated focus. It was noted that risk frameworks need to better focus on likelihood of harm and predicting future behaviour rather than looking for a discrete event to explain harm to a child. However, Borowski and Sheehan ’s (2013) examination of practice within the Victorian Children ’s Court found that magistrates and practitioners said the current legislation was ‘too large, too complex, too technical and lacking clarity about key constructs such as “cumulative ” and “signi ﬁcant ” harm, and “parental responsibility ”’ (Borowski & Sheehan 2013: 138). Child protection workers described the diﬃcultytheyhad in con veying in a judicial setting their assessments about harm to a child when there are no legislative parameters to deﬁne this (Borowski & Sheehan 2013). Certainly, child protection workers perceived that court outcomes are often a com promise, legally driven and based on an accommodation of parents ’ and children ’s instructions to their legal representatives, and on what they will agree to do rather than based on the child ’s developmental and welfare needs (Sheehan 2016a). Such outcomes are often diﬃcult to implement, viewed by families as too intrusive and by child protection workers as insu ﬃcient for the child ’s safety. Di ﬃculty in deciding child abuse matters Child protection legislation struggles to accommodate the chronic problems of child abuse that are increasingly characteristic of the child protection jurisdiction. Statutory intervention emphasises the importance of family preservation and minimum intervention whilst also directing that ‘best interests of the child are paramount ’ (see CYFA s.10 (1)). The adversarial and highly legalised court processes surrounding child protection matters are described as confusing and, at times, hostile and traumatic (DHS 2002: 53) for 128 Rosemary Sheehan children, families and professionals (See: National Commission of Inquiry into the Pre vention of Child Abuse, 1997 –8, in Walby 1998). Neither existing child protection legis lation nor legal and court approaches are structured to respond to consequences of major social changes, such as deinstitutionalisation for people with intellectual disability or serious mental illness and the increase in parental substance abuse (Allen Consulting Group 2003). The key legal criterion of signi ﬁcant harm raises particular challenges (Masson 2010) and Dickens (2007: 78) notes, especially in cases of child neglect. Although legislation in England and Wales does not require a ‘decisive event ’ to satisfy the courts when making a child protection order, he found the focus of both social work and legal practice remained very much on incidents. He found the tensions about incidents and reasonable parenting epitomised the dilemmas of intervening in child neglect cases. They are cases, he notes, frequently characterised by parents ‘facing great challenges of deprivation or vulnerability ’ (2007: 79). This is especially evident in how cumulative harm is dealt with by legislation. Tasma nia ’s Report into child protection by the Select Committee on Child Protection (2011) found child protection practice to be crisis driven, with negligible consideration given to the issue of cumulative harm. They recommended ‘a complete overhaul of the legislative framework within which child protection in Tasmania is practiced ’ (Select Committee on Child Protection 2011: 188), ‘with legislation amended to change the focus on episodic interventions to cumulative harm and new provisions introduced to enable child protec tion services to intervene with children who, over the long-term, have experienced cumulative trauma and harm ’ (Select Committee on Child Protection 2011: 191). Whilst there is no clear legislative basis in the Northern Territory (NT) to address cumulative harm, Bamblett, Bath and Roseby ’s (2010) Growing them Strong, Together Inquiry into the NT child protection system found that cumulative harm is a critical issue in the assessment of child protection concerns. The focus is on immediate and urgent harm rather than understanding that cumulative harm is also ‘signi ﬁcant ’. Despite the acknowledged concerns, cumulative harm is not mentioned in the legislative framework. Victoria ’s Protecting Victoria ’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry (Cummins, Scott & Scales 2012) found that whilst cumulative harm was recognised for its impact on the child, child protection workers found it diﬃcult to present evidence relating to it in a manner that is accepted by the court, given the legal and legislative ambiguity around how cumulative harm is to be interpreted. Risk assessment models that favour an event (or crisis) orien tation further the court ’s response to child protection concerns (Cummins, Scott & Scales 2012). Whilst Victoria ’s CYFA acknowledges the ‘eﬀects of cumulative patterns of harm on children ’s safety and development ’ (s.10 (3)(d)), how the ‘best interests ’ of the child (s.10 (1)) are applied is not clearly deﬁned in the Act, nor is guidance provided on how these principles are to be materially understood in practice (Brom ﬁeld & Miller 2012; Sheehan 2012). Cumulative harm is often associated with neglect (Brom ﬁeld & Miller 2012). The challenge is that compared to physical and sexual abuse, neglect – especially chronic neglect – often requires complex responses. It is very often less visible than physical or sexual abuse, often more pervasive and harder to resolve and embedded within complex family issues (CWIG 2013). Neither Victorian legislation nor NSW legislation include neglect as a ground for child protection; legislation for the other six Australian states and two territories does speci ﬁcally mention neglect on the grounds for when a child is in The role of the Children ’s Court 129 need of protection. The speci ﬁc link between cumulative harm and neglect needs to be more eﬀectively ﬂagged in legislation. Although legal practitioners acknowledged there was legal provision for neglect, and that a child ’s best interests might be better served by child protection involvement, they still looked for a speci ﬁc event or a change of cir cumstances that justi ﬁed legal action. The child ’s ‘best interests ’ is often determined at court not solely by child welfare concerns but by a ‘trade-o ﬀ’ between how such concerns can be accommodated by legal frameworks. Child welfare legislation in Australia con tinues to maintain adversarial and highly legalised processes to deal with child abuse which diminish the signi ﬁcance and utility of welfare contributions. There is little accommodation of the kind of multidisciplinary contributions that are necessary to both make sense of, and eﬀectively respond to, the increasingly complex problems characteristic of child maltreatment. National assessment of Australia ’s Children ’s Courts A national assessment of Australia ’s Children ’s Courts (2009 –2011) by Sheehan and Borowski (2013) examined the operation of these courts and the challenges to this, from the perspective of judicial oﬃcers and other stakeholders, and what reforms might enhance the work of the court. The national study covered Australia ’s six States and two Territories. The study participants varied in how they believed the court was viewed; in NSW, South Australia and the ACT, it was believed the child protection arm of the children ’s courts was generally held in high regard, which was a view not shared in Victoria or Western Australia. Children ’s Court judicial oﬃcers comprise about 80 specialist judicial oﬃcers (mainly magistrates but also some judges) based in specialist Children ’s Court matters (SCRGSP 2012: 7.28). There is a larger number of ‘generalist ’ judicial oﬃcers (in adult Magistrate ’s or Local Courts) based in regional and remote locations, who convene a specialist Chil dren ’s Court when required, to deal with both youth oﬀending and child welfare matters. This mix of specialist and generalist judicial oﬃcers delivers major variation in knowl edge and skill in case management and decision making in, for example, child protection outcomes, given there is negligible professional development to prepare the court oﬀers for dealing with child maltreatment matters. Child protection workers experienced the Children ’s Court as a very diﬃcult work environment. There was considerable criticism of them by study participants, despite acknowledgement of the pressures of child protection work (e.g., little support, high caseloads, tight timelines). Their professional expertise was often called into question in terms of the quality of their evidence or case planning, and they faced often hostile cross- examination in the adversarial court proceedings. They were frustrated that they, with child welfare training, were not treated with respect by legal practitioners or magistrates. Lawyers working in Australia ’s Children ’s Courts do not require any special accredita tion, and have no formal training in how to identify or frame the best interests of the child (Blackman 2002). Legal practitioners act on the instructions of the child (direct representation), with no formal requirement for assessment of the child ’s best interests, unless they are appointed by the court as an independent children ’s lawyer, where a child because of age or disability is unable to give instructions. The need for training, by those professionals working in the court, was raised espe cially by child protection workers, who said judicial oﬃcers and legal practitioners 130 Rosemary Sheehan needed knowledge in developmental psychology and childhood trauma arising from abuse and/or neglect, mental health, intellectual disability, communication skills and in jur isdictions with large Indigenous (and, indeed, cultural and linguistic diﬀerences (CALD)) communities, training in cross-cultural professional practice. Children ’s Courts serve a challenging clientele. The workload of the children ’s court has increased signi ﬁcantly (AIC 2012; SCRGSP 2012), and magistrates, legal practitioners and child protection workers commented on the pressure of this increase on eﬀective responses to children in need of care and protection. The children, young people and families who appear before Children ’s Courts are highly socio-economically dis advantaged and marginalised. They have problems with alcohol and drug abuse, domes tic violence, mental health, and a history of involvement with the child protection system. Child protection matters brought before the Court increasingly involve long-term factors impacting on the lives of the children and their families: low income, sole parenthood, parental mental illness, substance abuse and domestic violence (Allen Consulting Group 2003: 12). They typically are more diﬃcult to prove legally, there is little agreement between legal and welfare systems about deﬁnition and recognition of the impact of these factors on children, and the child protection service struggles to present the type of evi dence of demonstrated behaviour and events that the Court seeks and ﬁts readily into legislative parameters about proof of harm and the need for care and protection. Sheehan (2016b) con ﬁrmed that diﬃculties in demonstrating signi ﬁcant harm for children aﬀected, for example, by parental addiction or signi ﬁcant mental illness, when the child welfare concerns did not readily ﬁt into legislative grounds for the making of a child protection order (Dawe, Harnett & Frye 2008). Hearing children ’s matters at court was problematic in terms of the facilities available; whilst Children ’s Courts in some capital cities are located in purpose-built buildings (e.g., Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra) which permit a completely separate hear ing of matters, other cities (e.g., Darwin and Hobart), however, and in regional and remote locations, there is no physical separation between Children ’s Courts and adult courts, resulting in children ’s matters often being heard alongside adult ones. Whatever the setting, Children ’s Courts were described as overcrowded, tense, chaotic and often unsafe, with few interview rooms for lawyers to meet privately with clients. A major ﬁnding of the national assessment was that in most (but not all) States and Territories there was strong support for a shift away from the critical incident-based, accusatorial approach in dealing with cases of child abuse and neglect. It was suggested by the key stakeholders interviewed for the study that an approach which focused less on disputation and more on dealing with the often long-term and complex problems of the children, young people and families who appear in court, was preferable – such as that characteristic of a collaborative problem-solving therapeutic jurisprudence approach (Sheehan & Borowski 2013; Sheehan 2016b). Problem-solving courts feature judicial monitoring of cases and close collaboration with statutory and non-government service providers (Berman & Feinblatt 2001); these approaches are found in the drug and alco hol, mental health and domestic violence courts already operating in Australia (Borowski 2013). Not all judicial oﬃcers concurred with this. The court is to have an impartial role, and the adversarial appraisal of evidence in child welfare matters is essential to upholding children ’s and families ’ rights (Borowski 2013). Yet, it was generally agreed that increasing complexity of cases coming before Children ’s Courts needed additional measures to manage and decide them. The role of the Children ’s Court 131 Child welfare legislation is challenged by the diﬃcult and uncertain nature of the social and individual problems that child protection workers respond to on a daily basis (Braye & Preston-Shoot 2006). Moreover, child protection legislation in Victoria – and this is typical of Australian child protection legislation in general – sets out overlapping interests that are not easily reconciled: the family ’s interest to live as it chooses without external interference; the State ’s interest in the protection of vulnerable children; and, the child ’s interest in exercising their own rights, which might diﬀer from those of family and State especially when their wellbeing is being determined. How the child welfare, legal and adult service systems (mental health, substance abuse, family violence, for example) deﬁne child abuse and neglect may overlap, but will diﬀer because they each serve a dif ferent purpose. In the absence of shared frameworks, legal and child protection systems ﬁnd it almost impossible to develop agreed approaches about the risks and consequences of maltreatment. Children ’s Courts: the need for a shared enterprise The Victorian Law Reform commission (2010) proposed that approaches to deciding child maltreatment matters need to be more agreement focussed and more child centred (2010: 214), with legislative principles developed to encourage early resolution of child protection matters. The legal process should be problem solving in its approach and accommodate the kind of inter-professional contributions decision makers need to decide about a child ’s development and wellbeing. The incorporation of child welfare guidance for the court and child protection case conferences into statutory processes provides a way to assess the relevant information about a child and family and develop an agreed child protection plan to be put to the Court. Importantly, legal decision makers must have formal knowledge and education in child development, the eﬀect of trauma on children, and the impact of parental mental illness and exposure to drugs and family violence on children (submission by the Director of Victorian Paediatric Forensic Medical Service to the VLRC 2010: 365). Families with multiple problems are the primary client group in child protection services, and their isolation and disadvantage places their chil dren at greater risk of abuse and neglect. A more holistic and collaborative approach oﬀers a more eﬀective response to families where children are referred to the Children ’s Court because of concerns about child abuse and neglect. The Council of Australian Governments (2009) believes that applying a public health model, rather than focussing solely on legal and rights-based approaches to child pro tection, may help to reduce the burden on child protection services and children ’s courts and deliver better outcomes for children and families. A public health model oﬀers a service continuum, from primary services available to all families, such as health and education, to having secondary interventions available to families who are seen as at risk of child maltreatment, to tertiary child protection services which are a last resort for families when child abuse and neglect has occurred (Horsfall, Brom ﬁeld & McDonald 2010; Scott 2013). It is an approach that brings a broader understanding to deciding a child ’s best interests. Families turn to governments to help them deal with social concerns and the speci ﬁc issues they face (Sheehan 2012). Child protection legislation and the legal process need to be better grounded in understanding the factors that inﬂuence children ’s outcomes, and work collaboratively to improve the living circumstances of vulnerable children. 132 Rosemary Sheehan References Allen Consulting Group, 2003, Protecting children: The Child Protection Outcomes Project , Mel bourne: Victorian Department of Human Services. AIC, 2012, Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2011 , Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. AIFS, 2014, Australian child protection legislation , Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. AIHW, 2012, Child Protection Australia, 2010 –11, Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. AIHW, 2017, Child Protection Australia 2015 –16, Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Bamblett, M., Bath, H. & Roseby, R., 2010, Growing them strong, together: Promoting the safety and wellbeing of the Northern Territory ’s children , Northern Territory, Australia: Northern Territory Government. Berman, G. & Feinblatt, J., 2001, ‘Problem-solving courts: A brief primer ’, Law and Policy , vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 125 –140. Blackman, L., 2002, Representing children and young people: A lawyer ’s guide , Melbourne: Vic toria Law Foundation. Borowski, A., 2013, ‘A portrait of Australia ’s Children ’s Courts: Findings of a national assessment ’, in R. Sheehan, & A. Borowski (eds), Australia ’s Children ’s Courts today and tomorrow , New York: Springer. Borowski, A. & Sheehan, R., 2013, ‘The Children ’s CourtofVictoria ’, in R. Sheehan & A. Borowski (eds), Australia ’sChildren ’s Courts today and tomorrow , Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 123 –142. Braye, S. & Preston-Shoot, M., 2006, Teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education , Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Brom ﬁeld, L.M. & Arney, F., 2008, Developing a road map for research: Identifying the priorities for a national child protection research agenda , Melbourne: National Child Protection Clearinghouse. Brom ﬁeld, L., Arney, F. & Higgins, D., 2014, ‘Contemporary issues in child protection, intake, referral and family support ’, in A. Hayes & D. Higgins (eds), Families, policy and the law: Selected essays on contemporary issues for Australia , Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Brom ﬁeld, L. & Miller, R., 2012, Cumulative harm – Best interests case practice model: Specialist practice resource , Melbourne: Department of Human Services. Brom ﬁeld, L. & Higgins, D., 2005, National comparison of child protection systems , Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Child Welfare Information Gateway (CWIG), 2013, Chronic child neglect , Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services. Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, Victoria. Commission for Children and Young People, 2012, The state of Western Australia ’s children and young people: Edition one , Subiaco, Western Australia: The Commission for Children and Young People. Council of Australian Governments, 2009, Protecting children is everyone ’s business: National Framework for Protecting Australia ’s Children 2009 –2020 (the National Framework), Annual Report, Canberra: The Council of Australian Governments. Cummins, P., Scott, D. & Scales, D., 2012, Report of the protecting Victoria ’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry , Melbourne: Department of Premier and Cabinet. Dawe, S., Harnett, P. & Frye, S., 2008, Improving outcomes for children living in families with parental substance misuse: What do we know and what should we do, Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. DHHS, 2008, New directions for child protection in Tasmania: An integrated strategic framework , Tasmania: Department of Health and Human Services. The role of the Children ’s Court 133 Department of Human Services, 2002, Annual Report 2002 –03. Victoria: Victorian Government Department of Human Service. Dickens, J., 2007, ‘When a child care case is taken to court in England and Wales, Child Neglect and the Law: Catapults, Thresholds and Delay ’, Child Abuse Review , vol. 16, pp. 77–92. Freiberg, A., 2011, ‘Post-adversarial and post-inquisitorial justice: Transcending traditional peno logical paradigms ’, European Journal of Criminology , vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 82–101. Horsfall, B., Brom ﬁeld, L. & McDonald, M., 2010, Are social marketing campaigns eﬀective in preventing child abuse and neglect? , Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Masson, J., 2010, ‘(Mis)understandings of signi ﬁcant harm ’, Child Abuse Review , vol. 19, pp. 291 –298. Price-Robertson, R., Rush, P., Wall, L. & Higgins, D., 2013, Rarely an isolated incident: Acknowledging the interrelatedness of child maltreatment, victimisation and trauma (CFCA Paper No. 15). Melbourne: Child Family Community Australia, Australian Institute of Family Studies, www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/papers/a144788/index.html . Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry, 2013, Taking responsibility: A roadmap for Queensland child protection , Queensland: Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry. Sammut, J. & O’ Brien, T., 2009, Fatally ﬂawed: The child protection crisis in Australia , Sydney: Centre for Independent Studies. Scott, D., 2013, Meeting children ’s needs when the family environment isn ’t always ‘good enough ’: A systems approach , Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Select Committee on Child Protection, 2011, Select committee on child protection: Final report , Tasmania: Parliament of Tasmania. Sheehan, R., 2001, Magistrates ’ decision-making in matters of child protection , Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. Sheehan, R., 2006, ‘Emotional abuse and neglect: The legal response ’, Child Abuse Review , vol.15, no. 1, pp. 38–54. Sheehan, R., 2012, ‘Deciding the best interest of the child: Legal responses to child protection con cerns ’, in R. Sheehan, H. Rhoades & N. Stanley (eds), Vulnerable children and the law: Inter national perspectives on challenges to child welfare, child protection, and children ’s rights , London: Jessica Kingsley. Sheehan, R., 2016a, ‘Legal responses to child sexual abuse cases in the Children ’s Court of Victoria: study ﬁndings on a case-management approach ’, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law ,vol.38, no. 3, pp. 287 –301. Sheehan, R., 2016b, ‘Child sexual abuse cases: Implementing a specialist judicial list ’, Australian Social Work , vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 403 –416. 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Wood, J., 2008, The report of the special commission of inquiry into child protection services , Sydney: New South Wales Government. 134 Chapter 8 Therapeutic approaches to children and families in child protection contexts Paul Delfabbro and Alexandra Osborn Introduction and policy context Children in child protection (CP) have usually been exposed to abuse and trauma (Bruce et al. 2018; Dorsey et al. 2013). Most come from families aﬀected by multiple complex factors, including poverty, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health pro blems. Such children have often suﬀered neurological harm and this places them at risk of future psychological, developmental and social problems (Applegate & Shapiro 2005; Perry 2002, 2009). As a result, child protection and social work practitioners are usually faced with clients who need intensive support and often from multidisciplinary teams. Decisions will therefore have to be made about the nature and timing of additional therapeutic services in the knowledge that a failure to deal with these problems can inﬂuence placement outcomes, the choice of cares, family relationships and whether children can live successfully with their biological families. The aim of this chapter is to provide a broad overview of the types of therapeutic programs and approaches that are used to assist these families. The term ‘therapeutic ’ refers to interventions which try to address the presence of conditions that are harmful for child wellbeing, their families and those who work with them. Such approaches gen erally try to encourage healthier psychological and social functioning in children, while also helping to foster the development of skills in parents that enhance parental ability to have productive and healthy interactions with their children. Although interventions of this nature are highly diverse and cannot be fully encapsulated in this brief chapter, the aim is to provide an indicative summary of some of the most empirically supported methods often advanced to address the most common problems faced by children and their families in the CP system. To this end, four principal areas of need are considered: (a) Behavioural problems : how to deal with externalised or conduct-related issues; (b) Resilience : building social competency and resilience in children; (c) Early developmental harm : dealing with trauma and attachment-related problems, particularly in out-of-home care and (d) Parenting : building parental skills and enhancing family functioning. Context: Mental health problems in child protection populations Much of the evidence for the challenges faced by children has emerged from studies involving children in out-of-home care. Studies have consistently shown that the pre valence of a range of clinical problems is higher for children in care than in the general population. Children are signi ﬁcantly more likely to display clinical level behavioural/ Therapeutic approaches to child protection 135 externalising problems than those in the general population (Delfabbr o 2018; Sawyer et al. 2007) and are more likely to display internalising problems such as depression or anxiety (Sawyer et al. 2007; Tarren-Sweeney 2008, 2013). They are also likely to experience diﬃcul ties in forming adaptive and healthy attachments with other people (Bruce et al. 2018). The term ‘attachment disorder ’ refers to problems associated with the bonds between young children and their parents (usually the mother) in early development and this can take several forms. CP practitioners may observe that the child ’s attachments are disordered (e.g., the child will try to form bonds with both strangers and well as proximal carers); insecure (e.g., the child clings to the carer and is unwilling to engage with others or negotiate the environ ment con ﬁdently) or reactive (e.g., the child is unresponsive and does not seem to respond to attempts to provide aﬀection or seek assistance when upset). They may also observe that children display symptoms consistent with disorders such as PTSD (e.g., anxiety, reliving traumatic experiences, nightmares, poor concentration) which often arises from exposure to early traumatic events including domestic violence, parental death, imprisonment or mental health issues (Dubner & Motta 1999). Research: Informed practice The following section highlights some of the principal areas that have received some of the most attention because of their signi ﬁcant policy importance. It will be noted that many of these approaches are multidisciplinary. They typically involve the interplay of diﬀerent areas of expertise including professional practitioners in social work, psychology and psychiatry. I. Approaches to behavioural problems PRACTICE ISSUE: Children in care often have complex behaviours and this increases the risk of them coming into care and increases the changes of poorer outcomes in the care system. CP practitioners may ﬁnd it diﬃcult to ﬁnd stable family placements and that it is more diﬃcult for children to return to their families. Behavioural therapy These approaches do not try to address deeper underlying causes of behavioural problems (e.g., early trauma). Instead, these methods provide practitioners with practical strategies to deal with immediate challenges such as aggressive, disrespectful and challenging beha viour to enable children to adapt better to placements and to have greater success at school. Most are based on the principles of applied behaviour analysis and focus on a regime of punishments, rewards and contingencies, whereas others might also include cognitive ele ments (cognitive-behavioural therapy, CBT) if children are suﬃciently mature. Child behaviour therapy, as it is often called, has a very extensive and well-established history (Bloomquist & Schnell 2005; Hersen 1989). Most interventions involve the sys tematic reinforcement and punishment of responses to produce more desirable beha viours. It is assumed that inappropriate behaviours can be modi ﬁed through rewards and punishments and that children are capable of learning the relationship (or contingency) between their behaviours and consequences (Fahlberg 1991). Ultimately, the aim is to teach children to form new habits and to make more socially appropriate and adaptive 136 Paul Delfabbro and Alexandra Osborn behavioural choices. The usual process is for the therapist or caregiver (parent, foster parent or residential sta ﬀ) to apply positive reinforcement or rewards for positive beha viours and punish or ignore (fail to reward) undesirable behaviours. In this way, the incidence of bad behaviour should decrease while desirable behaviour increases (Meadowcraft 1989). Only very simple rewards (e.g., praise or privileges) and pun ishments (e.g., loss of privileges or withdrawal of attention) are used during the modi ﬁcation process. In general, few of these programs are punitive in nature or involve any sort of physical punishment or harsh disciplinary techniques (Bloomquist & Schnell 2005). Many of these programs will employ a form of behaviour modi ﬁcation based upon the principle of conditioned reinforcement. The central idea here is that people can often be encouraged to perform behaviours to achieve speci ﬁc outcomes (secondary reinforcers) which can then be used to obtain highly desirable outcomes (primary reinforcers). Pri mary reinforcers usually include such things as money, privileges and luxuries, whereas secondary reinforcers usually take the form of points, tickets or tokens. Often such pro grams use what is termed a ‘token economy ’ procedure (Bloomquist & Schnell 2005; Chamberlain 1990). A token economy is a system whereby tokens are used as reinforcers to increase desirable behaviour in individuals. Programs for older children that employ this form of behavioural modi ﬁcation usually supplement the process of conditioned reinforcement with the use of behavioural contracts. Behavioural contracts are, in most cases, mutually negotiated obligations established between the young person and their caregiver (parent, foster parent, residential youth worker, therapist etc.) (Patterson 1974). Multidimensional treatment foster care Internationally, one of the most well-known programs that utilises token economies as part of its intervention with children is multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC) (Rhoades et al. 2013). MTFC is used predominantly as a service for adolescents and particularly those with oﬀending histories or complex externalising behaviours. It has been used widely in the US, but has also been trialled elsewhere, including in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The program goals are to decrease problem behaviour and increase developmentally appropriate normative and prosocial behaviour. These treat ment goals are accomplished by providing: close supervision, fair and consistent limits, predictable consequences for rule breaking, a supportive relationship with at least one mentoring adult, and reduced exposure to peers with similar problems. Often these are achieved by using a stepped process of rewards or privileges. For example, when young people enter the program they may be given very few possessions and privileges. As their behaviour then improves over time, they accumulate points which can then be exchanged for things that they desire (i.e. more furniture, a radio). In another approach, young people might not be deprived initially but have the option to accumulate more points to obtain additional luxuries, greater responsibilities or variations in the level of freedom in the program. Such accumulation of points is often referred to in terms of ‘levels ’ or ‘stages ’, so that as the young person accumulates the points they are then able to gradu ate to a higher level or stage in the program. Eventually, once the young person graduates from each of the levels, they are then able to be discharged from the program, in most cases to a less restrictive setting. MTFC has generally proven to be quite eﬀective and the youth have shown signi ﬁcant reductions in antisocial behaviour (Chamberlain & Reid 1991; Rhoades et al. 2013), and Therapeutic approaches to child protection 137 signi ﬁcant decreases in criminal referrals and days spent in detention facilities (Chamberlain 1990); thus, it appears to be a cost-e ﬀective alternative to residential treatment, leading to better outcomes for children and families. The only downside to this type of program, however, is that it can be very labour intensive and time consuming (due to the high amount of monitoring and documentation of behaviours that is required). The technique also does not address the underlying emotions and attitudes that may be driving the behaviour. Some researchers (e.g., Levy & Orlans 1998) have also suggested that such transactional styles of interaction may inhibit young people ’s capacity to form more emotionally ful ﬁlling relation ships with adults, in that it may reinforce the young people ’sview of adultsasrigid and authoritarian. Another potential point of caution is that relatively few evaluations have been conducted independently on the principal designers of the program. Despite this, it provides a useful model that could potentially be applied in family preservation programs or in some forms of residential care where there may be a case –plan to transition young people back home. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) Many of the behaviourally focused programs often try to incorporate additional cognitive elements that recognise children and young people as ‘thinking beings ’ who have their own ability to shape and plan their own behaviour (Ollendick & King 1998). CBT involves, in addition to the behavioural therapy techniques, the use of cognitive therapy to teach the child or young person the link between how certain thinking patterns can cause certain symptoms. For example, the therapist might teach the child how to change their thought patterns from ones that lead to maladaptive behaviour to ones that produce adaptive behaviour and posi tive feelings (Hinswaw, Henker & Whalen 1984; Hodges 2004). CBT-based techniques may also be a useful strategy to consider for serious problems such as sexualised behaviours (Saunders, Berliner & Hanson 2004). For example, studies have shown that CBT in combination with Dynamic Play Therapy can be used to assist younger children (6–12 years) who exhibit inappropriate and/or aggressive sexual beha viour. The children attend 12 weekly sessions that involve both cognitive-behavioural therapy and dynamic therapy components including: impulse control; learning and applying sexual behaviour rules for children; cognitive reframing to prevent re-abuse of or by the child; weekly assessment of acquisition of information; positive re-informing of appropriate behaviour; reﬂection to increase child ’s self understanding; acceptance to convey positive regard for child and improve child ’s self-esteem; and, facilitating group interaction to improve peer relationships (Bonner, Walker & Berliner 2000). II. Building resilience PRACTICE ISSUE: Children from vulnerable families where abuse is present often have poorer social skills which often leads to problems at school, diﬃculties in forming rela tionships and a danger of being further mistreated as teenagers and young adults. Social skills training A lot of social work practice and philosophy is based on the assumption that children have strengths and abilities that need to be harnessed so that they can cope with future 138 Paul Delfabbro and Alexandra Osborn challenges. Accordingly, there are a number of programs that practitioners can draw upon to encourage the development of positive and adaptive social behaviours (Evans, Axelrod & Sapia 2000). Common program elements include anger management, social skills training, personal skill development and assertiveness training. Many of these interventions use behavioural principles, but there is a much greater focus on the devel opment of skills as opposed to just controlling or removing problematic behaviours. Furthermore, these interventions generally do not ascribe to just one theoretical model but often incorporate a broader range of theoretical approaches including cognitive therapy, social learning theory and general counselling techniques. Con ﬂict resolution and anger management skills are likely to be bene ﬁcial for both younger and older children. Although they take several diﬀerent formats, programs gen erally involve a counsellor or therapist helping the young person to recognise the nature, the causes and the consequences of their anger and what situations appear to act as triggers. There may, for example, be a focus on simple relaxation, behavioural, or social methods for dealing with the situation and their anger and how the young person can learn to avoid the escalation of their anger by relaxing, taking deep breaths or simply by counting to ten before making a response. Other important elements may include the inclusion of role-playing, modelling and rehearsal to teach the client eﬀective and appro priate ways to respond in anger-inducing situations. The client may practice such strate gies with the therapist or may practice in a group therapy context with others who share similar problems. Such approaches may be combined with cognitive elements such as being able to avoid interpretation of situations in a way that induces anger or which leads it to escalate. As might be expected, these broader social skills programs tend to vary depending upon a child ’s age, mental ability and the nature of the areas for development. In very young chil dren, training may focus on simple things such as: eye contact, taking turns in conversation and in tasks or sharing toys with other children. By contrast, programs for older children, will commonly focus on improving communication skills (e.g., how to talk respectfully to adults, how to make requests or express certain ideas, initiate conversations and keep them going). There may also be a greater emphasis on limit setting or ‘boundaries ’ of behaviours, including: the appropriate standards of personal attire or personal hygiene for diﬀerent situations; appropriate emotional or physical boundaries (who can be approached, touched or contacted), or social rules and obligations (e.g., what is impolite, inappropriate or selﬁsh). Some of the programs may include elements of: � Social learning or role-modelling : Opportunities are given to demonstrate and prac tise the social skills observed in others. Subtle reinforcements (praise, positive aﬀec tive responses) can encourage repetition of behaviours which are more adaptive and increase con ﬁdence in social interactions (Bandura 1977). � Self-assertiveness training : Young people can learn to protect their interests, deal with bullying and interact with others in appropriate and non-aggressive ways (Thompson 2000; Wise et al. 1991). � Self-discipline and obligations: Young are taught life skills, independent living skills, about how to organise their lives and daily routines and the obligations that exist between people. Some programs and, particularly some good residential care pro grams, may encourage such skill development by giving young people tasks, respon sibilities and routines. Therapeutic approaches to child protection 139 Dealing with early developmental harm CP practitioners will often be aware from case notes and their own observations that many children have been signi ﬁcantly harmed by abuse. This means that once they have moved beyond any immediate focus on very visible behavioural problems, there is need to seek specialist help to deal with the deeper underlying problems caused by early trau matic experiences. Such problems may commonly manifest themselves in the form of unusual attachment behaviours or PTSD-like symptomology. But it is important that any such diagnosis is not rushed or made without appropriate assessment or evaluation. As McLean et al. (2013) points out: not all social-behavioural problems necessarily reﬂect disrupted attachments, and attachment- and trauma-related behaviours can often be confused. Each must be assessed by a trained clinical psychologist or psychiatrist to understand the speci ﬁc causes of the symptomology observed. Thereafter, however, chil dren may bene ﬁt from multidisciplinary approaches deriving from a number of disciplines including social work, occupational therapy as well as psychology. Trauma-informed counselling One option that could be considered is trauma counselling or some form of trauma- informed therapy (Allen & Hoskowitz 2017; Kolko, Iselin & Gully 2011). Such approa ches are predicated on the assumption that young people need to come to terms with their experiences by discussing them. In a non-judgmental way, the therapist helps them understand why and what happened to them and how this can aﬀect the way that they function today. One of the best empirically supported approaches is Trauma Focused CBT (Cohen, Mannarino & Deblinger 2016). This technique, based on learning and cognitive theories is designed to reduce children ’s negative emotional and behavioural responses. Common treatment components include: psychoeducation about child abuse; gradual exposure techniques of abusive events (i.e. utilising dolls, puppets etc.); cognitive reframing, consisting of exploration and correction of inaccurate attributions about the abuse; stress management techniques; parental participation in parallel or conjoint treat ment; parental instruction in child behaviour management strategies; family work to enhance communication and create opportunities for therapeutic discussion regarding the abuse (Carr, Du ﬀ & Craddock 2018; Saunders Berliner & Hanson 2004). Activity scheduling and play therapies Children may also bene ﬁt from some form of Activity Scheduling involving play therapy, art therapy and music therapy. Although the evidence base for these techniques is less developed than for programs such as MTFC, such methods may service a variety of useful functions. Therapeutically, the aim is to take advantage of children ’s natural means of expression as embodied in their play behaviour to assist them in coping with emotional stress or trauma. Play therapy can be implemented in a variety of formats including sensorimotor, art, fantasy, and game play (Hall, Kaduson & Schaefer 2002). Play therapy has also been applied to initiate change and help children in transition, especially those children experiencing multiple moves in the care system. Play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play (e.g. relationship enhancement, role-playing, catharsis, attachment formation, etc.) to help clients prevent or resolve psychological diﬃculties. 140 Paul Delfabbro and Alexandra Osborn The therapists believe that this method allows the child to manipulate their world on a small scale. Therefore, by playing with specially selected materials (i.e. crayons, painting supplies, dolls and ﬁgures of various sizes and ages, toy cars, toy guns, stu ﬀed animals) and with the guidance of the therapist, the child can play out their feelings, bringing them to the surface where they can face them and cope with them. The therapist also works from a non-judgemental, non-punitive position and creates an environment whereby children feel safe to express themselves in any manner they wish (Ray et al. 2001). Attachment therapy/Attachment-focused approaches Attachment refers to the enduring ties that children form with their primary caregivers during early development (Ainsworth 1979). The quality of these earliest relationships lays the foundation for later psychosocial and cognitive development (Fahlberg 1991). Eﬀective attachments enhance conscience development, the ability to empathise with others, the ability to trust others, inner feelings of security, the ability to express a range of emotions and the internal regulation of emotions and impulses (Delaney 1998; Levy & Orlans 1998). Disruption to these attachments can lead to attachment disorder. Such children may feel rejected and worthless, be unable to control and regulate their emotions or have the have the ability to form productive relationships with others. Children may present as either very withdrawn or mistrustful, or conversely, overly controlling and demanding due to their inability to negotiate with others, or understand what should be expected of others. Others may be lacking in empathy or indiscriminately aﬀectionate (absence of stranger anxiety) (Delaney 1998). Attachment therapy has been a controversial topic because it has been associated with questionable practices involving the physical restraint or ‘holding-therapy ’. However, in more acceptable practices, the approach focuses on the regulation of emotions and behaviours to help develop more productive and ful ﬁlling relationships with other people (Becker-Weidman 2006; Hughes 2004; Newman & Mares 2007). Attachment therapy does not specify that any single style of intervention is best (Moretti et al. 1997). Rather the purpose is to emphasise the importance of parent –child relationships and how the low quality of such relationships can impact greatly on the development of a wide range of social, cognitive and emotional impairments. Theoretically grounded approaches to attachment disorder recognise that the disorder is complex and multifaceted with beha vioural, emotional, social and cognitive components. Moretti et al. (1997) argue that interventions need to be diverse and individually tailored to meet each child ’s particular needs. Therefore, the therapist and caregiver need to create an environment in which the young person feels protected, cared for to reduce their anxiety and uncertainty and so that they know what is expected of them. Attachment therapy focuses on providing the young person with opportunities and choices as attachment-disordered children do not generally respond to the same rewards as other children. A fundamental element of attachment therapy is to teach the child empathy and emo tional regulation; two parts of social development that the child with attachment disorder often fails to acquire. During therapy it is imperative that the child goes through a pro cess of self-re ﬂection whereby they are better able to understand their own actions and also understand how certain behaviours inﬂuence the emotional states for others. Chil dren will be taught self regulation of their own emotional expression and to recognise what are appropriate or inappropriate behaviours with certain people and in certain Therapeutic approaches to child protection 141 environments. Such approaches can often be combined with some of the play and social skills methods described above. As Fahlberg (1991) points out, a child ’s sense of self- worth and the predictability and safety of the environment will be enhanced by making things seem positive and worthwhile. By engaging in activities that the young person is interested in, the expectation is that their con ﬁdence in their own abilities will increase in conjunction with their level of trust in other people. The hope is that their ability to interact with others without the need to manipulate or control their behaviour is also likely to improve. III. Parental skill training and enhancing family functioning PRACTICE ISSUE: Parents of children who are abused often face parenting challenging, including how to deal with complex behaviour and how to make the right choices in parental behaviours. Eﬀective family preservation and reuni ﬁcation also requires that birth parents are able to cope eﬀectively with their children ’s behaviour. To this end, many interventions have been developed to enhance the skills and well-being of parents and to improve family functioning. Some of the best documented programs are summarised in this section. Parent –Child Interaction therapy (PCIT) Parent –Child Interaction therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported therapy that has been used for parents of children aged 2–8 years, including in cases involving abuse (Thomas et al. 2017; Urquiza et al. 2011). CP practitioners may be able to locate psy chologists who are trained in this method by contacting peak bodies or seeking specialist referrals. PCIT attempts to improve parent –child interactions with a focus on nurturance and boundary-setting, both of which are the hallmarks of Baumrind ’s authoritative par enting style (Baumrind 1966). PCIT usually commences with a component termed Child- Directed Interaction (CDI) which aims to restructure the parent –child relationship and provide the child with a secure attachment to his or her parent. The CDI phase is similar to play therapy in that parents engage with their children in play to help strengthen their relationship with the child. The second phase of PCIT is based on social learning theory and emphasises the contingencies that shape interactions of conduct-disordered children and their parents; referred to as the Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI). The PDI phase often uses a step-by-step, live-coached (e.g., from behind one-way glass) behavioural parent training model. It provides the parents with immediate prompts, from the thera pist in an observation room, to a parent while they are interacting with their child through an ear-mounted receiver worn by the parent to develop new more eﬀective interaction strategies. A number of studies have shown that this can lead to signi ﬁcant improvements in the conduct-disordered behaviour of preschool children (Bell & Eyberg 2002), in reducing parental distress (Schuhmann et al. 1998) and maladaptive interactions that might lead to abuse (Ware, Forston & McNeil 2003). Although some studies have not supported sus tained improvements in behaviours beyond 18 months (Funderburk et al. 1998), it is generally accepted this is a promising approach for assisting parents at risk of being physically abused (Chadwick 2004). 142 Paul Delfabbro and Alexandra Osborn Parent Management Training (PMT) If children are older and particularly if there is a history of oﬀending, CP practitioners may ﬁnd that parents may need to be trained to deal with more complex and serious behaviours. One good example of this type of program is Parent Management Training or PMT. PMT usually involves older children and often those with more serious beha viours or oﬀending histories. Most of these programs are usually behavioural or cogni tive-behavioural in nature and focus on teaching parents the skills that will enable them to create a home environment that is less likely to trigger and reinforce problematic behaviour in children. Interventions can be individually administered or also involve both parents and children (Pearl 2009). One well-known PMT program was developed at the Oregon Social Learning Centre (Patterson, Chamberlain & Reid 1982; Reid, Patterson & Snyder 2002) and focuses on breaking down maladaptive and ultimately destructive behavioural cycles between parents and their children. Attempts are made to recognise and modify the patterns of control, coercion and factors that lead to the mutual escala tion of behaviour, often by using the behavioural techniques described above. Studies conducted by Patterson Chamberlain and Reid (1982) as well as Bank et al. (1991) have indicated positive results in the form of reductions in oﬀending and other anti-social behaviours. The Incredible Years The Incredible Years programs were developed by Carolyn Webster-Stratton for children (aged 2 to 10 years) who are highly aggressive, disobedient, hyperactive and inattentive. The program has also been used with parents at risk for abusing or neglecting their children. Inﬂuenced by the work of Patterson, Chamberlain and Reid (1982), the program includes a parent, teacher and child training series that is designed to promote social competence and prevent, reduce and treat aggression and related conduct problems in young children. The program uses group discussion, videotape modelling, and rehearsal intervention techniques to help adults living and working with children. The interventions that make up this series (parent training, teacher training, and child training programs) are guided by developmental theory concerning the role of multiple interacting risk and protective factors (child, family and school) in the development of conduct problems. The parent training intervention is focused on strengthening parenting competencies (monitoring, positive discipline, con ﬁdence) and developing parents ’ involvement in children ’s school experiences in order to promote children ’s academic and social competencies and reduce conduct problems. The child social skills and problem-solving training programs involve strengthening children ’s social and emotional competencies (i.e. eﬀective problem-solving strategies, managing anger, practising friendship and conversational skills), as well as appropriate class room behaviours. The teacher training programs are focused on strengthening teacher classroom management strategies, promoting children ’s prosocial behaviour and school readiness (reading skills), and reducing classroom aggression and non-cooperation with peers and teachers. Additionally the intervention focuses on ways teachers can eﬀectively collaborate with parents to support their school involvement and promote consistency from home to school. Therapeutic approaches to child protection 143 Multisystemic therapy (MST) Multisystemic therapy (MST) (Henggeler et al. 1993) was developed in the late 1970s and also focuses parent management and skills training. MST is an intensive family- and community-based treatment that views individuals as being nested within a complex network of interconnected systems that include individual, family and extra-familial (i.e. peer, school and neighbourhood) factors. The MST approach believes that interventions must deal with each of these systems. Originally designed to treat chronic, violent or substance abusing oﬀenders at high risk of out-of-home placement, MST is now being tested and used with a variety of populations including children and young people with emotional and behavioural disturbance (Huey et al. 2000), abused and neglected youth (Brunk, Henggeler & Whelan 1987) substance abusing or dependent adolescent oﬀenders (Henggeler et al. 1997; Schoenwald et al. 2000). MST is based on two behavioural the ories; namely systems theory and social ecology, and on causal modelling studies of ser ious anti-social youth (Burns et al. 2000). The program seeks to intervene in a way that alters both the surrounding environment and the individual ’s behaviour. Accordingly, MST is a strengths-focused approach in that it endeavours to promote behaviour change in the youth ’s natural environment through using existing strengths within each system (e.g., family, peers, school, neighbourhood, informal support networks). The ultimate goal of MST is to empower parents with the skills and resources needed to address the diﬃculties that may arise in the home with the youth and also enable the youth to cope with the family, peer, school, and neighbourhood problems. MST helps the family to function more successfully in their immediate environment (Burns et al. 2000). Interventions are integrated into a social –ecological context and include a variety of approaches such as strategic family therapy, structural family ther apy, behavioural parent training and cognitive behaviour therapies. MST is provided to families using a home-based model of services delivery. The reason for this type of service delivery model is to help overcome barriers to service access, increase family retention in treatment, allow for the provision of intensive services and enhance the maintenance of treatment gains. Core treatment principles focus on the use of child strengths as the level for change and developmental appropriateness, target speci ﬁc behaviours and try to address the causes across the diﬀerent levels or domains of the child ’s life (e.g., both in the home and at school). Evidence generally supports the view that MST can be an eﬀective family preservation approach (Schoenwald et al. 2000), but some authors (e.g., Littell, Popa & Forsythe 2006) have pointed to some inconsistencies in results, and whe ther this, being a very intensive and, by implication, expensive program, is necessarily better than other parenting skills programs. Positive Parenting Program (PPP) Many stand-alone parenting programs exist around the world and CP practitioners would be encouraged to consider a range of options. However, one useful starting point would be the Australian program, Triple P, developed by Professor Matthew Sanders and his colleagues from the Parenting and Family Support Centre in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, which uses a multi-level framework to tailor informa tion, advice and professional support to the needs of individual families. Triple P oﬀers ﬁve levels of intervention of increasing strength, ranging from basic tip sheets and videos, 144 Paul Delfabbro and Alexandra Osborn to brief targeted interventions to more intensive parent training in positive parenting that targets broader family issues such as parental depression, anger and stress, and aims to prevent severe emotional, behavioural and developmental problems in children (Sanders, Markie-Dadds & Turner 2003). PPP is designed to promote family independence by enhancing parents ’ knowledge, skills and con ﬁdence to create safe and nurturing environments that foster healthy child development. The program aims to use the minimally suﬃcient intervention a parent requires, working from level 1 up to level 5 to avert the child from developing more serious pro blems. The program targets ﬁve diﬀerent developmental periods: infants, toddlers, pre schoolers, primary schoolers and teenagers and within each developmental period the intervention is very ﬂexible and therefore tailored to the speci ﬁc needs of the individual. The program also uses a variety of ﬂexible delivery modalities including individual, face to-face, group, telephone-assisted and self-directed programs. Triple P has a 25- year history of implementation and research evidence and is considered to be evidenced-based family intervention. Many of the studies conducted by Sanders and his colleagues (see Sanders et al. 2003) reported very positive changes in child behaviour problems, reduc tions in aversive parenting practices and parenting con ﬂict, and improvements in relationship satisfaction and communication. Summary CP practitioners will often encounter children and families who face multiple, complex and often overlapping problems. Eﬀective therapeutic approaches for these families involve mul tiple elements. While much of the early stages of engagement with children and fam ilies is likely to have a stronger social work focus (e.g., building trust) and dealing with practical problems such as housing, contact and support services, therapeutic needs will eventually need to be considered. Such services are likely to have a dual focus. One will be to recognise and identify the deeper underlying causes and eﬀects of any ongoing trauma (e.g., trauma focused and attachment therapies); the other will be to deal with the immediate behaviours and symptomology (e.g., CBT or social skills training). Such approaches are not in competi tion, but are likely to be complementary. A best practice approach would, therefore, involve recognition of the importance of the early identi ﬁcation and standardised clinical assessment of child problems followed by tailored interventions. Eﬀective interventions should also involve the development of a strengths-based approach that recognises the importance of developing skills and capacity in both children and their families so as to gradually encourage greater self-determination and resilience to face future challenges. Discussion questions � Complex behaviours often reﬂect deeper underlying psychological problems arising from earlier abuse and trauma. 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Wise, K.L., Bundy, K.A., Bundy, E.A. & Wise, L.A., 1991, ‘Social skills training for young adoles cents ’, Adolescence , vol. 26, pp. 233 –241. 149 Part 3 The protective care continuum 151 Chapter 9 Prevention and early intervention with children, young people, and families Carmel Devaney Introduction Children ’s future is the present (Cosaro 1997). Notwithstanding the fact that children are active agents in their own right they remain a vulnerable group dependent on adults to protect, support, nourish and educate them. Supports therefore need to be available to children and young people as early as possible and usually require the involvement of family members who, as Devaney (2008) emphasised, can be either the subject of the intervention or a partner for change. As will be shown in this chapter, any supports that are provided need to be underpinned by the principles of accessibility, responsiveness and inclusivity in their how they are planned and delivered. To illustrate the application of these principles, this chapter will examine models and approaches applied in children and families services in Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is geographically a relatively small country of just over 70,000 square kilometres, with a population of 4,761,865, of which 1,251,796 are children. The average number of children in each family is 1.38, with 18 per cent of families having one parent, the vast majority of whom (86.4%) are one- parent mothers (CSO 2016). The chapter ﬁrstly debates the conceptual issues involved in taking a preventative stance in service provision and in day-to-day child welfare practice. The chapter will use this context to highlight the implementation of, and evidence base supporting a programme for prevention and early intervention in the child protection and welfare system. Prevention and early intervention in supporting children and young people Supportive welfare services play a central role in preventing issues escalating to the point that they cause signi ﬁcant harm to children ’s welfare and a delays to their development. This includes an emphasis, not only on preventing diﬃculties arising in the ﬁrst instance, but also on intervening early where diﬃculties have occurred. In line with this view, Barlow and Schrader McMillan (2010) draw a conceptual distinction between preventive interventions, designed to reduce the likelihood of maltreatment, and more specialist or therapeutic interventions, designed to prevent its recurrence and/or address the psycho social consequences. Although such interventions may diﬀer in content and focus, they are all nonetheless preventative in nature. It is widely accepted that prevention and early intervention approaches can reduce risk factors, enhance protective factors as well as help achieve better outcomes than interventions that are implemented later (Harvey 2014). 152 Carmel Devaney Other authors such as Frost and Parton (2009) further argue that the role of prevention is not only to combat risk (the negatives) for children and families, but also to enhance the positives which may include opportunities to strengthen child development by maximis ing protective factors and processes (p. 20). It is also increasingly accepted that best practice in supporting children and young people involves supporting family members and, in particular, parents or carers. Mac- Millan et al. (2009) found that protective factors for children included access to resources and support for parents (for example, material resources, human capital and social sup port), nurturing responsive parenting and care, and nurturing supportive family and friendship relationships. Factors such as strong relationships between parents and chil dren, good parental understanding of child development, parental resilience, strong social support and social networks, and child emotional and social competence can serve as protective factors in relation to child maltreatment (Sethi et al. 2013). In both conceptual and practical terms, the word ‘family ’ can extend beyond immedi ate biological relatives to include other important people who are both related and unrelated (Morris 2012). The evidence from family decision making in care and protec tion suggests that the family networks identi ﬁed by children and those close to them have few boundaries, with factors such as geographical location, blood ties and proximity not necessarily being key determinants of the membership of a child ’s network (Morris & Barnes 2008). Many families involve complex unconventional networks of relationships. New relationships due to divorce, separation, and changing partners have to be nego tiated within families and between families and practitioners (Saltiel 2013). It makes sense to therefore adopt a ﬂuid deﬁnition of ‘family ’ that recognises that family structures or networks will vary considerably. However, although modern families display diversity in their structure, how they are described and how they are viewed by practitioners, the legislation and policies that govern child protection work continue to be situated within a conventional paradigm based on the nuclear family (Morris 2012). In eﬀect, a standard model of family life and operation is presumed by Governments to allow easier legislation, but, in reality, it is very diﬃcult to identify a standard model of what families do or indeed what they ought to do. For this reason, Morgan ’s (1999) notion of family practices has been particularly helpful in directing attention away from focusing on family structure to the practices that sustain or impede love, connection and support (Featherstone 2004). Understanding family practices allows practitioners to consider how each individual family operates and this extends the debate about who is in the family (what the family composition is) or the role of families (are they good for children) (Morris 2013). Building upon this literature, advocates of prevention, early intervention and Family Support have therefore begun to encourage a change in focus from supporting family structures to family practices (Morris 2012). Such an approach directs attention towards understanding what is hap pening to individual family members and how the needs of diﬀerent family members may change over time. It also aligns with international family support literature that provides important insights into what people value, when and how (see Katz & Pinkerton 2003). It opens debate about the type and level of need each individual might have, and what family members and close networks can oﬀer in terms of care and support, and it extends practice and policy considerations away from a narrow focus on time-limited prescriptive interventions as the only possible response. Prevention and early intervention 153 The importance of timing Delaying services and support provision to families with complex needs can have a cost, both in terms of individual and family wellbeing and individual and family outcomes (Nupponen 2007). Moreover, risk factors for child maltreatment can be cumulative in nature, meaning that the more a child or family experiences, the more vulnerable they are to child maltreatment. Currently, in many jurisdictions, services for children and families can be driven and shaped by political interests, funding, media focus, individual interests and energy. The actual needs of children and young people are often underplayed or even ignored in this process, resulting in costly interventions later in life (Harvey 2014). However, child maltreatment and the devastating impacts it has on young people throughout their lives can often be prevented through appropriate policies and interven tions (Nupponen 2007). However, it is also clear that earlier and timely interventions and those which prevent the occurrence of maltreatment are likely to be more eﬀective than those that address its consequences. Studies show that the outcomes of interventions are inﬂuenced by the age of the children or young person entering the services and the length of time he/she is in receipt of a service, with an earlier starting age and a longer time in receipt of services associated with a greater number of positive outcomes (Raspa et al. 2010). As Allen (2011) suggests, one great merit of early intervention is that it can help families under stress to ful ﬁl their mission of giving children a secure and loving envir onment in which to grow. Early intervention can keep families together and save many from the trauma of break-up and removal (p. ix). At a broader level, prevention and early intervention can be understood from the per spective of social investment. Early intervention, particularly targeted at early years, can be a more cost-e ﬀective investment than those which come later. This is because child maltreatment is associated with numerous longer-term negative outcomes including: increased use of health services, poorer educational outcomes, greater risk of correctional involvement and poorer job and housing outcomes. Indeed, studies focused on return of investment of prevention and early interventions have described a return of between £1.37 and £9.20 per every pound invested (Harvey 2014). Early intervention approaches place a greater emphasis on people ’s strengths and potential and can serve to reduce the level of dependency on the state by investing in children, young people and their families as active contributors to society (Gray 2014). Such approaches can be particularly eﬀective when attention is given to children who are predicted to cost the most in terms of service provision and who have a diminished future early capacity and contribution to state taxation revenue (Heckman 2006). This, how ever, requires government policies to be focused on tackling causes and not symptoms and an overarching shift of investment towards the implementation of prevention and early intervention (or primary) services rather than tertiary interventions once the harm has been caused. It requires the implementation of proactive, empowered and partnership relationships between service providers and children, young people and families that are involved with social services. A public health response recognises that public health issues sit on a continuum of severity and many families with access to universal services may occasionally require secondary services to support their parenting or address other areas of need (Scott, Lonne & Higgins 2016). Furthermore, the long-term impact of childhood abuse on mental and social wellbeing can mean that adults who have suﬀered abuse as children are at increased risk of maltreating their own children. Daro (2011) outlines 154 Carmel Devaney strategies and interventions that have been proven to reduce child maltreatment and suggests consideration should be given to: � Improving the nation ’s ability to prevent child maltreatment through a public health model of universal program delivery � Designing programs to support a diverse population � Employing technology to increase access to programs; and � Balancing enhancement of formal services and informal supports. She concludes that preventing child maltreatment is not simply a matter of parents ‘doing a better job ’; it is about creating a context in which ‘doing a better job ’ is easier (2011: 11). Heckman ’s (2006) work shows the value of investing in early childhood as a viable alternative to increased welfare. He notes that, without supportive social services, merely providing increased welfare bene ﬁts to families experiencing diﬃculties merely throws good money after bad. Importance of social conditions Social and economic conditions are also key determinants of the health and wellbeing of children and adults. They can be of an economic, social, political and cultural nature. Based on an ecological approach, fundamental aspects of life and living such as occupa tion, social class, education, gender, ethnicity, income and housing all have a role in the adversities and vulnerabilities that aﬀect individuals and their families (Titterton & Taylor 2018). The diﬃculties faced by families and their ability to cope with and manage presenting adversities vary from family to family and household to household. Families living in areas of deprivation and with low levels of services available to them experience child maltreatment to a greater extent than those living in less deprived areas and with higher access to supports and resources. Child welfare inequality is deﬁned as occurring ‘when children and/or their parents face unequal chances, experiences or outcomes of involvement with child welfare services that are systematically associated with structural social dis/advantage and are unjust and avoidable ’ (Bywaters et al. 2015: 100). The annual European Union (EU) Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), conducted in Ireland by the Central Statistics Oﬃce (CSO) is part of a programme to obtain informa tion on the income and living conditions of diﬀerent types of households and is used to measure poverty in Ireland. The most recent SILC ﬁgures on poverty relate to 2016 and show that, in 2016, 11.1 per cent of children in Ireland lived in consistent poverty, which equates to approximately 138,949 children or one in nine children. The proportion of children living in consistent poverty in Ireland almost doubled during the economic recession from 6.3 per cent in 2008 to 11.1 per cent in 2016. Of all households with children, lone parents had the highest poverty and deprivation rates in 2016, with a deprivation rate of 50.1 per cent (CSO 2016). In the UK, recent research highlights large inequalities in child welfare intervention rates with children living in deprived areas much more likely to be involved in child protection processes or to be taken into state care than children living in more aﬄuent neighbourhoods (Bywaters et al. 2016). A small number of studies in the United States of America have also highlighted a link between family income and involvement in child protection services (Cancian, Yang & Shook Slack 2013). Of note also is that child maltreatment has been shown to be both a cause and a Prevention and early intervention 155 consequence of poverty (Bunting et al. 2018). Most recent Irish policy around tackling poverty for children and families is articulated in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures (BOBF), the national policy framework for children and young people 2014 –2020. This approach includes, among others, a signi ﬁcant focus on prevention and early intervention services for children, young people and their families in disadvantaged communities (Department of Children and Youth Aﬀairs 2014). Prevention and early intervention in practice in Ireland Responding to the needs of children and young people from a prevention and early intervention approach and implementing policies such as Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures implies a change in the provision of services for families, which has been descri bed as a paradigm shift. Agencies need to be ﬂexible and adapt to ﬁt with family needs instead of expecting families to adjust to immovable structures and procedures within agencies (Nupponen 2007). This is an ongoing challenge in the design and delivery of child welfare systems worldwide with many commentators debating this issue (Gilbert 2012). In Ireland, the establishment of a new dedicated state agency responsible for improving wellbeing and outcomes for children has aﬀorded an opportunity to reimagine the orientation of the child protection and welfare service. Tusla, the Irish national Child and Family Agency (Tusla) was established in 2014 by the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. The Agency was established as part of a comprehensive reform and consolidation of child protection, early intervention and family support services in Ireland. The Child and Family Agency ’s services include a range of universal and targeted services, including: Child protection and welfare services, Educational Welfare Services, Psychological Ser vices, Alternative Care (including foster care, residential care and special care), Family and Locally-based Community Supports, Early Years Services and Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Services. Prior to the Child and Family Agency Act, child pro tection and welfare services was under the remit of the wider Health Services Executive (HSE) and the Health Boards as was legislated for in the Child Care Act of 1991. The Agency is committed to the principle that the family aﬀords the best environment for raising children and the objective of external intervention should be to support families within the community. Similar to international developments in child welfare policy and practice, there has been a decisive shift away from institutional, residential type care towards foster care arrangements in Ireland (Devaney & Rooney 2018) and Ireland now has one of highest rates of family-based care placements globally and is similar to countries such as Australia. In May 2018, there were 6,160 children in the care of the Irish state, with approximately 92 per cent of these in either relative or general foster care arrangements; 2,067 young adults (all ages) were in receipt of aftercare ser vices. In Australia, as of 30 June 2018 just over 45,800 children were in out-of-home care. Of these children, 51 per cent were in relative/kinship care, 39 per cent were in foster care, and 6 per cent were in residential care (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019). Overall, at the end of the ﬁrst quarter of 2018, there were 24,669 open cases in the Irish child protection and welfare system. The average monthly rate of referral to child protection and welfare services was just under 4,000 (61 per cent of which are classi ﬁed as child welfare concerns) with ‘no further action ’ recorded in just over 50 per cent of these referrals (Tusla Quality Assurance Directorate 2018). 156 Carmel Devaney Within its child welfare remit there is a new programme of action being undertaken by Tusla as part of its Service Delivery Framework. The programme, known as Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS) seeks to transform child and family services in Ireland by providing services which are provided when and where families need them, are responsive to the diﬃculties families are having and include the views of family members. The programme has ﬁve distinct but complementary and interwoven components: Par enting Support and Parental Participation (i.e. in the services they are involved in); Public Awareness (i.e. increasing awareness of where and how to access help among the general public); Children ’s Participation (i.e. enhancing child and youth participation at all levels of their involvement with Tusla); Commissioning, which focuses on the funding of ser vices; and the development of the ‘Meitheal ’ model. The latter is a distinct stream but it also acts as a fulcrum for much of the development of the other aspects of the programme. Meitheal is deﬁned as a national practice model to ensure that the needs and strengths of children and their families are eﬀectively identi ﬁed, understood, and responded to in a timely way so that children and families get the help and support needed to improve children ’s outcomes and to realise their rights. (Gillen et al. 2013: 1) The model is a process-based system, which is not linked to a physical infrastructure or network but rather revolves around the development of an approach that can be applied by organisations in the community and voluntary sector, by Tusla and other statutory services. This is grounded in a set of principles and structures that help to ensure a con sistent application of this model regardless of where a family lives or which practitioner is working with them. These principles include: � involvement in the process is voluntary and all aspects of the process are led by the parent and child or young person. This includes the decision to enter the process, the nature of information to be shared, the outcomes desired, the support deliv ered, and the agencies involved. Review Meetings cannot take place without the involvement of at least one parent. � The process privileges the voices of the parent and child, recognising them as experts in their own situations and assisting them to identify their own needs and ways of meeting them. � The model looks at the whole child in a holistic manner, in the context of their family and environment. It considers strengths and resilience, as well as challenges and needs. � The overall focus is on outcomes and implemented through an agreed key worker known as the ‘Lead Practitioner ’ who has an existing relationship with the family. (Tusla 2015: 15–16) Additionally, the model operates outside of the child protection system in that, for instance, families cannot be involved with Meitheal and the child protection system at the same time. Should child protection concerns be raised during the process, a referral will be made to the child protection system and the process will be closed. However, support can continue to be provided by individual agencies and practitioners. Prevention and early intervention 157 While Meitheal activity is relatively low compared with the general family support service, it is rising. For example, at the end of 2017, there were 21,526 children in receipt of family support services with a total of 39,065 children referred to family support ser vices throughout the year. During the same period there were 1,409 Meitheal processes requested. Of these, 52 per cent (736) were direct requests (i.e. without going through the child protection system), 39 per cent (554) were diverted from the child protection team and 8 per cent (119) were requested after the involvement of the child protection workers. In 2018, by the end of the ﬁrst quarter, 802 Meitheals had been requested and processed (Tusla Quality Assurance Directorate 2018). A number of Meitheal case studies are published by Cassidy, Devaney and McGregor, 2016. (See the following extracts from ‘Early Implementation of Meitheal and the Child and Family Support Networks: Lessons from the ﬁeld ’,pp. 65–66). Family A An Educational Welfare Oﬃcer described a family they were involved with where there was a young child with serious behavioural issues in school. The school was struggling to support the child, it did not have supportive resources to draw on. It was also challenging to engage the child ’s parents, who rarely attended meetings and were reluctant to get involved with statutory services. They eventually agreed to a Meitheal and the situation improved considerably for the child, who now attended school almost full time whereas previously they only attended a couple of hours a day. The parents were supported not only during the Meitheal Review Meetings but also afterwards by the services involved in the case. The parents ’ engagement in the process increased because they were active participants who felt listened to. Family B A number of diﬀerent services had been working separately in one family with the children and the parent. In the case of the teenage son, a Meitheal process was initiated and at a meeting that he, his mother and a number of agencies attended it was decided that he would enrol in an alternative education programme. Meitheal had enabled a more coordinated approach to be taken to the case, which also made it easier for the parent, as the agencies were brought together simultaneously at a meeting where a joint decision could be taken. Discussion points 1. Can you identify Meitheal principles and structures that made a diﬀerence to the outcomes of these families? 2. Would you consider this a preventative early intervention? 3. What would a likely outcome be if the families did not engage in the Meitheal process? 4. What are the strengths of this model as exempli ﬁed in these case vignettes? 158 Carmel Devaney The evidence base Recent research with families who participated in the Meitheal process showed sig niﬁcantly improved outcomes for mothers and that mothers reported improved outcomes for children, young people and families as a whole. Father ’s wellbeing improved sig niﬁcantly (Rodriguez, Cassidy & Devaney 2018). This is an important ﬁnding as poor parental mental health is strongly associated with child maltreatment. Children and young people ’s self-reports on their wellbeing and family outcomes improved but this was not statistically signi ﬁcant (Rodriguez et al. 2018). The positive impact of Meitheal on most outcomes is a very important ﬁnding as currently policy and practice are tar geted at outcomes as evidence of best practice, promoting the eﬀectiveness of services, and evidence of accountability for funders and the public (Devaney, Canavan & Landy 2013). Tusla ’s Child Protection and Welfare Strategy (2017 –2022) is informed by the principles that ‘early intervention is key to getting better outcomes ’. This evidence sup ports the argument to intervene early to prevent diﬃculties in families escalating. The introduction of Meitheal in the system has made Tusla ’s ‘continuum of care ’ a reality by making Tusla ’s work at a low prevention level accountable in their overall performance reports published quarterly. Tusla (2017) deﬁned low prevention services as those which target children and young people that may have additional needs requiring support without which they may not fully achieve their potential. Meitheal is speci ﬁcally targeted at this low level of need for families that do not meet the threshold for child protection services although they may have complex and signi ﬁcant needs as well as following involvement with the child protection system. Families who participated in the research also report positive experience of taking part in the Meitheal process with its capacity to ensure a range of supports are coordinated to meet identi ﬁed needs. It also appears that Meitheal can lead to improvements in families ’ experiences of help-seeking by enabling parents to develop better relationships with pro fessionals and take a greater role in decisions about what supports they receive. This empowerment has been identi ﬁed in the literature as crucial to supporting children and young people ’s development (Devaney et al. 2013). Furthermore, Dunst and Trivette (2009) identi ﬁed that having a family focus, and not just viewing the child as the unit of intervention, is one of the principles to enable and empower families, allowing parents to acquire the knowledge and skills to be able to cope with daily living and improve their sense of mastery and control. The research emphasised the importance of the process characteristics of the model with relationship a key component of its success. The relationship between the family members and practitioners has long been considered the ‘bedrock ’ of good practice, with emphasis placed on its importance (Mason 2012). Nonetheless, despite all the rhetoric on relationship-based practice, it remains a persistent challenge for child wel fare practitioners. Along with the ever-decreasing time available to spend with families, a key question for practitioners involves determining what exactly constitutes a positive relationship. What are the skills and qualities that a practitioner needs to possess to develop a warm, helpful yet professional relationship? Mason usefully highlights four elements that enable relationships between practitioners and family members to work successfully: Prevention and early intervention 159 1 Respectful communication, this includes trust, honesty and feeling safe. When families feel they can trust practitioners, and where there is honesty in the communication exchange there is an increased likelihood of open communication about the diﬃculties faced and the associated needs. This includes families feeling that practitioners listen to them and take into account what they have to say. It has been suggested that the style adopted by practitioners in how they carry out their work with family members is as important as what they actually do (Devaney & Dolan 2017). 2 A shared goal An agreed goal related to the family ’s needs has been shown to improve outcomes for family members. An inclusive approach to identifying individual needs, strengths and appropriate helpful responses to them allows for agreed goals which family members are motivated to try and achieve. Opportunities, without blame or judgement, to review and rede ﬁne these goals when necessary is also critical. 3 Practical assistance and understanding parents ’ own needs Being available to support parents and children or young people is a critical factor in building a positive relationship. The importance of providing parents with both practical and emotional support has been highlighted as an important aspect of building relationships as it can convey a sense of understanding and caring. 4 Reliability – being available An emphasis on direct contact with family members is central with a strong degree of ﬂexibility included. Spending time together (the antithesis of busy ‘case ’ driven pro ceduralised practice) is essential in order to build a trusting relationship. At a wider level Meitheal also had an unexpected impact on the help-seeking behaviours and awareness of support services for families. Taking part in Meitheal has increased access to formal support networks and families who had had little understanding of how the service provision system worked now had a greater understanding of how to access help. Many of the parents who had a positive experience of Meitheal had begun to recommend the process to their own informal social networks which arguably could have positive consequences for earlier help-seeking in the general community (Rodriguez et al. 2018). It can also be argued that the positive formal support networks families develop with professionals through the Meitheal process could act as a protective factor against future risk, help to ensure that support is sought before issues reach a crisis point or reduce their reliance on continued access to one key service or individual. This could be particularly signi ﬁcant in the long term, as research demonstrates that help-seeking behaviours are strongly inﬂuenced by family and community behaviours and attitudes and that in the Irish context most individuals rely on their own informal networks for support (McGregor & NicGabhainn 2018). Given that current public awareness of formal services in Ireland is low (McGregor & NicGabhainn 2018), these parents could be agents of change in the perception of services and help seeking behaviours in their local areas. This has been identi ﬁed as an especially crucial form of sup port for families, which is most likely to be utilised in times of need. At a system-wide level, Meitheal appears to have the potential to aﬀect change in the provision of the child welfare service in Ireland in terms of improving the continuum of support for families who do not meet thresholds for intervention from the child 160 Carmel Devaney protection workers. It enables issues to be addressed early in a coordinated and prompt fashion based on clear identi ﬁed needs within a transparent process. It also can lead to the development of stronger inter-agency cross-discipline relationships that are utilised outside of this process. Conclusion Maltreatment of children and young people is not inevitable. In many instances it is preventable and undoubtedly intervening early where there are diﬃculties is more cost- eﬀective than dealing with the consequences of doing nothing. It is early stages in the use of the Meitheal model as an approach to prevention and early intervention but it is expected that this approach to help-seeking and help-provision will continue to evolve and become ﬁrmly established in the Irish child welfare system. Time is needed to further evaluate its impact. Research studies have suggested that it may require up to ﬁve years for prevention and early interventions to achieve long-term and permanent bene ﬁts (Norman et al. 2017). Ongoing attention to, and most likely balancing of, the prevention and early intervention approach and the requirement to ensure children and young people are safe will be ongoing. The need for integration across this continuum has been high lighted as a way to maximise potential of all services and to achieve better outcomes for children and families (Devaney & McGregor 2017; McGregor & Devaney 2019). Con tinued eﬀorts will be required to reach the most vulnerable families who will not neces sarily present themselves or make their way to services. Responding to the needs of children, young people and their families and improving their outcomes is the ultimate goal of support services. This paper has presented the issues involved in prevention and early intervention using recent developments and research in the Irish context as a case study. Contexts diﬀer and, as this chapter has emphasised, families diﬀer; however, the values and principles that underpin this approach have transferability and applicability across jurisdictions and within diverse settings. This approach has delivered a service that is welcomed by families (and practitioners) that makes a positive diﬀerence to their outcomes and wellbeing. References Allen, G., 2011, Early intervention: The next steps. An independent report to HM Government , London: Cabinet Oﬃce. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019, Child protection Australia: 2017 –18. Child wel fare series no. 70. Cat. no. CWS 65. Canberra: AIHW. Barlow, J. & Schrader McMillan, A., 2010, Safeguarding children from emotional maltreatment: What works , London: Jessica Kingsley. 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Dunst, C. & Trivette, C., 2009, ‘Capacity-building family-systems intervention practices ’, Journal of Family Social Work , vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 119 –143. Featherstone, B., 2004, Family life and family support , Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Frost, N. & Parton, N., 2009, Understanding children ’s social care politics, policy and practice . London: Sage. Gray, M., 2014, ‘The swing to early intervention and prevention and its implications for social work ’, The British Journal of Social Work , vol. 44, pp. 1750 –1769. Gilbert, N., 2012, ‘A comparative study of child welfare systems: Abstract orientations and con crete results ’, Children and Youth Services Review , vol. 34, pp. 532 –536. Gillen, A., Landy, F., Devaney, C. & Canavan, J., 2013, Guidance for the implementation of an area-based approach to prevention, partnership and family support , Dublin: HSE. Harvey B., 2014, The case for prevention and early intervention. Promoting positive outcomes for children, families and communities , Dublin: Prevention and Early Intervention Network. Heckman, J.J., 2006, ‘Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged children ’, Science , vol. 312, pp. 1900 –1902. Katz, I. & Pinkerton, J. (eds), 2003, Evaluating family support: Thinking internationally, thinking critically , Chichester, UK: John Wiley. McGregor, C. & Devaney, C., 2019, ‘Protective support and supportive protection for families “in the middle ”: Learning from the Irish context ’, Child & Family Social Work , vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 277 –285. McGregor, C. & NicGabhainn, S., 2018, Public awareness , Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland. MacMillan, H.L., Wathen, N.C., Barlow, J., Fergusson, D.M., Leventhal, J. & Taussig, N., 2009, ‘Interventions to prevent child maltreatment and associated impairment ’, The Lancet , vol. 373, pp. 250 –266. 162 Carmel Devaney Mason, C., 2012, ‘Social work the “art of relationship ”: parents ’ perspectives on an intensive family support project ’, Child & Family Social Work , vol. 17, pp. 368 –377. Morgan, D.H.J., 1999, Risk and family practices: Accounting for change and ﬂuidity in family life – The new family , London: Sage. Morris, K., 2012, ‘Thinking family? The complexities of family engagement in care and protection ’, British Journal of Social Work , vol. 42, pp. 906 –920. Morris, K., 2013, ‘Trouble families: Vulnerable families ’ experiences of multiple service use ’, Child & Family Social Work , vol. 18, pp. 198 –206. Morris, K. & Barnes, M., 2008, ‘Prevention and Social Exclusion: New Understandings for Policy and Practice ’, British Journal of Social Work , vol. 38, pp. 1194 –1211. Norman, R., Anderson, K., MacDougall, A., Machanda, R., Harricharan, R., Subramanian, P., Richard, J. & Northcott, S., 2017, ‘Stability of outcomes after 5 years of treatment in an early intervention programme ’, Early Intervention and Psychiatry , vol. 12, pp. 720 –725. Nupponen, H., 2007, ‘Prevention and early intervention: Innovative practice model “down under ” in South-east Queensland, Australia ’, Child Care in Practice , vol. 13, pp. 367 –386. Raspa, M., Bailey, D.B., Olmsted, M.G., Nelson, R., Robinson, N., Simpson, M., Guillen, C. & Houts, R., 2010, ‘Measuring family outcomes in early intervention: Findings from a large-scale assessment ’, Exceptional Children , vol. 76, pp. 496 –510. Rodriguez, L., Cassidy, A., & Devaney, C., 2018, Meitheal process and outcomes study , Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland. Saltiel, D., 2013, ‘Understanding complexity in families ’ lives: the usefulness of “family practices ” as an aid to decision ‐making ’, Child and Family Social Work , vol. 18, pp. 15–24. Scott, D., Lonne, B. & Higgins, D., 2016, ‘Public health models for preventing child maltreatment: Applications from the ﬁeld of injury prevention ’, Trauma, Violence, & Abuse ,vol.17, no.4, pp. 408 –419. Sethi, D., Bellis, M., Hughes, K., Gilbert, R., Mitis, F. & Galea, G. (eds), 2013, European report on preventing child maltreatment , Copenhagen: WHO. Titterton, M., & Taylor, J., 2018, ‘Rethinking risk and resilience in childhood and child maltreat ment ’, The British Journal of Social Work , vol. 48, pp. 1541 –1558. Tusla, 2015, Meitheal toolkit , Dublin: Tusla Child and Family Agency. Tusla, 2017, The Prevention, Partnership and Family Support Programme. Collaborative leadership for better outcomes, www.tusla.ie/uploads/content/PPFS_Low_Prevention_Services_Brochure.pdf , accessed 12 April 2018. Tusla Quality Assurance Directorate, 2018, Integrated performance and activity report. Quarter 1 2018, Dublin: Tusla. 163 Chapter 10 Foster family care as a response to child maltreatment June Thoburn Introduction Across the world, a version of foster family care forms part of the response to the abuse and neglect of children. Informal foster care, especially with relatives and friends, is a part of every society, although the proportion of children who are in foster care varies over time and across jurisdictions. This chapter focuses on foster care in ‘global north ’ nations, and on the formally provided services, while recognising its presence in a less regulated form in poorer countries. In some countries, including the USA and Australian states, out-of-home care in general, and foster family care in particular, is mainly court- mandated and triggered by concerns about abuse or neglect. In other countries such as the UK and much of Europe, state-provided foster family care is part of a service to a wider range of children and families ‘in need of additional services ’ including disabled children needing a ‘shared care ’ family support service (Thoburn 2010b). But even when they enter care on a voluntary basis (53% of care entrants in England in 2017 –18), there are in most cases some concerns about actual or likely harm if the service is not provided. So foster family care as part of the response to maltreatment has much in common across jurisdictions. In this chapter foster care services and foster carer ‘careers ’ are considered in terms of whether they are in the main providing a short-term, birth family-focused service or a longer-term substitute family service. Information is provided on the extent to which foster family care is used in diﬀerent jurisdictions. This is then followed by a summary of what is known about the outcomes of foster family care. Which children and families need a family foster care service? Children in diﬀerent jurisdictions enter care for similar reasons and therefore often have similar needs. A large proportion will have experienced trauma, often because of parental mental ill-health, addictions or inter-partner violence which is frequently exacerbated by material deprivation. Except for infants removed at birth and placed directly with long- term foster families, or those placed with kinship foster parents they have known since birth, children placed with foster carers will have experienced the traumas of separation and loss, usually more than once and sometimes on multiple occasions. But there are also notable diﬀerences, especially with respect to the numbers and proportions entering care in the diﬀerent age groups. Table 10.1 shows that, in Anglophone countries, a larger proportion of care entrants is in the younger age groups, whereas in most Western 164 June Thorburn Table 10.1 0–1 Percentages of those entering care by age group. Data for Australia, England and USA from 2016 to 2017 and for other countries from 2010 to 2013 Country 0–4 (, accessed 12 August 2019. Gilbert, N., Parton, N. & Skivenes, M. (eds), 2011, Child protection systems: International trends and orientations , New York: Oxford University Press. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1997, Bringing them home: Report of the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, Sydney: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Ivec, M., Braithwaite, V. & Harris, N., 2012, ‘“Resetting the relationship ” in Indigenous child protection: Public hope and private reality ’, Law & Policy , vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 80–103. Jenkins, B.Q., Tilbury, C., Mazerolle, P. & Hayes, H., 2018, ‘Factors associated with child pro tection recurrence in Australia ’, Child Abuse and Neglect , vol. 81, pp. 181 –191. Long, M. & Sephton, R., 2011, ‘Rethinking the “best interests ” of the child: Voices from Abori ginal child and family welfare practitioners ’, Australian Social Work , vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 96–112. McKenzie, B. & Shangreaux, C., 2011, ‘From child protection to community caring in ﬁrst nations child and family services ’, in B. McKenzie & K. Kufelt, Child welfare: connecting research, policy, and practice , 2nd edn, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, pp. 323 –338. Newton, B.J., 2019, ‘Understanding child neglect in Aboriginal families and communities in the context of trauma ’, Child and Family Social Work , vol. 24, pp. 218 –226. O’Donnell, M., Taplin, S., Marriott, R., Lima, F. & Stanley, F.J., 2019, ‘Infant removals: The need to address the over-representation of Aboriginal infants and community concerns of another “stolen generation ”’, Child Abuse and Neglect , vol. 90, pp. 88–98. Oliver, C., 2017, Strengths-based child protection: Firm, fair, and friendly , Toronto: University of Toronto Press. First Nations children: a rights approach 299 Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak, 2017, Position statement for Aboriginal kinship care, Brisbane: Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak. SNAICC, 2012, Opening doors through partnerships: Practical approaches to developing genuine partnerships that address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community needs, Melbourne: SNAICC. SNAICC, 2017, Understanding and applying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Pla cement Principle: A resource for legislation, policy and program development , Melbourne: SNAICC. SNAICC, 2019, The Family Matters Report 2018: Measuring trends to turn the tide on the over- representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care in Australia , Melbourne: SNAICC. United States Department of the Interior, 2016, Guidelines for Implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act, Washington DC: The author. Victorian Law Reform Commission, 2015, Adoption Act: Consultation paper, www.lawreform.vic. gov.au/content/6-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-children-and-best -interests-principle, acces sed 11 August 2019. Zubrick, S.R., Silburn, S.R., Lawrence, D.M, Mitrou, F.G., Dalby, R.B., Blair, E.M, Griﬃn, J., Milroy, H., De Maio, J.A. & Li, J., 2005, The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: The social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal children and young people, Perth: Curtin University of Technology and the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. 300 Chapter 19 Engaging ﬁ rst mothers, fathers and grandparents in the care continuum Elizabeth Fernandez and Ros Thorpe Introduction Out-of-home care provides a service to protect the needs of children whose parental care has been considered inadequate or unsafe. Such services have come to be increasing in demand over the last decade, particularly as a result of an escalation in the rates of reported child abuse and neglect and statutory removals of children to protective care. Although parents are usually subject to the interventions of the State, they are now increasingly being recognised as partners or participants in the child protection system who have their own needs and role to play in informing the best outcomes and inter ventions for vulnerable children (Farmer & Owen 1995; Ivec 2013). This perspective is consistent with a wider interest in participatory and consumer perspectives in both policy as well as child welfare research. However, despite the recognition of the important role and perspectives of birth or First Parents, 1 research into this area remains under-devel oped and in need for further investigation (Harries 2008; Ross et al. 2017; Smithson & Gibson 2017). This chapter examines current research to understand what is known about the char acteristics of birth or First Families; the state of relationships between First Families and their caseworkers; their relationship with those caring for their children and their experi ences of contact with their children in care. It also examines the personal impact of being involved in the child protection decisions, and the availability of services to address their needs, particularly in relation to when children are reuni ﬁed with their First Families. The challenging circumstances of First Families Child welfare research shows that the biological parents of children in care are dis proportionately drawn from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds as well as single mother households (Bebbington & Miles 1989; Fernandez 1996; Harries 2008; Lindsey 1995; Fernandez et al. 2019). Many live in poverty or are supported by welfare payments; have low education levels and limited employment opportunities; and are living in gov ernment housing, transitional accommodation or are homeless. There is also often a higher than average prevalence of physical and or intellectual disabilities; mental health problems; substance abuse; and sometimes periods of criminal activity and incarceration (Fernandez 1996; Harries 2008; Marcenko, Lyons & Courtney 2011; Palmer, Maiter & Manji 2008; Sykes 2011; Taplin & Mattick 2014; Wells 2011). Other commonly reported circumstances include domestic violence and high rates of physical, emotional or sexual Engaging First Families 301 abuse in childhood as well as periods in statutory care (Taplin & Mattick 2014; Wells 2011). It is noteworthy that most of the households with these characteristics involved single mothers without the support of a partner which is known to be a factor that increases the risk of child removal (Sykes 2011; Wells & Marcenko 2011). The cluster of problems described makes it diﬃcult for mothers to balance caring and household responsibilities and there are usually few ﬁnancial resources available to obtain the service of baby-sitters as might be the case in middle-class families (Hanmer & Statham 1988). Their situation is further exacerbated upon the removal of their children because this removes their entitlement to many government bene ﬁts and often coincides with threats to their housing security if they are oﬀered less rental support and are currently unemployed. All of these factors are known to conspire to make the entry of children into care more likely, but also to reduce the likelihood of reuni ﬁcation once children are in care (Broadhurst & Mason, 2017; Welbourne 2012). On top of all these problems are the bureaucratic demands of government payments, obtaining welfare bene ﬁts and negotiating the employment market. Involvement in child protection decisions There are a number of particular areas where the child welfare system can have a sig niﬁcant impact on First Parents. Legal issues and the Court system In the United States, England and Australia, legislative reform in the area of child pro tection has seen a shift towards permanency planning, particularly in the case of young children who have been removed. In these reforms, this translates to a shorter allotted time frame for parents to demonstrate to the court that they can eﬀect changes in the parenting environment and provide a safe, stable environment for their children (Broad hurst & Mason 2017; Fernandez 2013). For example, under the Children and Young Person ’s (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW), while restoration to First Families is the ﬁrst preference for permanency, First Families now have six months to demonstrate change if their child is under two years of age, and 12 months if their child is over the age of two. These reforms have long-term consequences for First Families arising from failure to demonstrate signi ﬁcant change in parenting capacity in a shorter time frame, leading to their child being placed permanently in a foster family or adopted. As a result, par ental status is altered irrevocably and the parents ’ inability to access rehabilitative ser vices serves to increase the risk of removal of any other children in the home (Broadhurst & Mason 2017; Ross et al. 2017). Involvement in Court proceedings is frequently an inherently alienating experience for First Families. For example, Ross et al. (2017), using a mixed methods study of parents involved in the child protection system and court proceedings, found that parents were not commonly involved as active participants in decision-making processes. The ﬁndings of this and other studies reported that parents have few opportunities to be involved in proceedings, particularly due to the legal jargon and protocols that were unfamiliar, and a lack of knowledge about their rights during the process, including the right to have an advocate or support person or where to ﬁnd information about their rights (Broadhurst 302 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe & Mason 2017; Fernandez 1996; Harries 2008; Ross et al. 2017; Thorpe 2008). Parents reported feeling misunderstood and misrepresented in documents submitted to the court detailing their inability to parent and which included sensitive details about their personal lives that could be discussed during proceedings and that they might be questioned about should they wish to contest removal (Broadhurst & Mason 2017; Ross et al. 2017). For these reasons, social workers can play an important role in supporting parents to navi gate the legal system and interpret legal jargon while also providing emotional support to them in dealing with the grief and loss on removal of their child (Forrester et al. 2008; Kemp et al. 2013). Engagement and inclusion While literature and policy advocates that workers treat families/parents as partners, parents are rarely involved in decision making even though they have to live with the consequence of decisions. The absence of opportunities for communication through formal or informal mechanisms compounds their alienation from the care process. Stu dies have found that some workers were inclined to disparage parental capacities and not involve them in decision making or give them opportunities to express their views (Fer nandez 1996; Thorpe 1980). This is despite evidence that an atmosphere of trust, open ness and partnership in which workers share information, decisions and power with parents is known to contribute more eﬀective child welfare processes and outcomes (Thoburn, Lewis & Shemmings 1995). Although there is some evidence of eﬀective col laborative relationships between child protection agencies and First Families in some jurisdictions, the overwhelming characterisation of the relationship is one of ‘us and them ’, where child protection agencies and workers hold all the power and could control families ’ lives (Harries 2008). This dynamic is reinforced by Thorpe ’s (2008) review of the literature discussing the inclusion of First Families in the child protection system, citing one study that made reference to a parent who called child protection workers the ‘Gestapo ’ based on her perception of their use of power (MacKinnon 1998 cited in Thorpe 2008). Parents felt that they were expected to be subordinate and subservient, to simply accept the decisions that were being made for them by caseworkers without eli citing their contribution (Thorpe 2008; Smithson & Gibson 2017). Evidence has shown that the fear of becoming involved with the child protection system prompts families to avoid seeking help from other organisations at the risk of being reported to the statutory child protection department and subsequently having their children removed (Thorpe 2008). Accordingly, Ankersmit (2016) suggests that to address the power imbalance between families and child protection agencies, the model of engagement should be one that works from a strengths-based foundation to build on existing capacity of parents that supports restoration. The experiences of First Families ’ inclusion in case conferences and reuni ﬁcation deci sions reﬂects further concern. Smithson and Gibson (2017) conducted qualitative research that explored the perceptions of First Families ’ experiences of child protection con ferences and identi ﬁed concerns about the expectations and demeanour of caseworkers. Caseworkers were considered to pose obstacles to reuni ﬁcation rather than supporting the process, suggesting they were required to undertake more actions than they felt necessary, the undertakings required were vague, the relevance of such expected actions being poorly explained. Some were of the view that caseworkers often scheduled Engaging First Families 303 programs and activities that would interfere with their contact schedule (Ross et al. 2017: Smithson & Gibson 2017). Relationships with caseworkers First Parents are usually engaged with child protection caseworkers over an extended period of time from the initial assessment before a child is removed to determine par enting capacity and safety of the home environment, to developing and implementing case plans once a child is removed, and during permanency planning processes related to either reuni ﬁcation or guardianship or adoption. During this process caseworkers face the dual task of supporting the family and protecting the child (Hojer 2011). In circumstances where there is a positive relationship between the caseworker and First Families, parents are usually able to identify the attributes that have fostered this good relationship. Such factors include: treating the family humanely; taking a genuine interest in them; main taining good communication, working to build rapport; and, applying an empathic style of practice (Smithson & Gibson 2017). Parents also ﬁnd it helpful when caseworkers acknowledged the limitations of the service and established a collaborative and transparent relationship with them (Palmer, Maiter & Manji 2008; Slettebø 2013). However, the majority of parents involved in research eliciting their perspectives rarely report supportive responses from their caseworkers. Research by Hojer (2011), for example, conducting focus groups with First Families and social workers to discuss their experiences of the child protection system, found that mothers reported feeling they were continually being punished by their caseworker for failing to take care of their child. Mothers reported having had experienced caseworkers who questioned their parental knowledge and knowledge of their child; had experienced breaches of con ﬁdentiality and broken promises particularly regarding contact schedules; had services and information withheld from them and been excluded from decisions; or had workers who failed to follow through with decisions made at case planning meetings (Hojer 2011; Fernandez 1998, Palmer, et al. 2008; Sykes 2011; Smithson & Gibson 2017; Thorpe 2008). In a similar vein, Sykes (2011) found, in a qualitative study of 16 mothers, that caseworkers prefer to work with the ‘reforming parent ’ so parents take on a version of that role to appease the caseworker while still resisting the process of complying with expectations and ticking boxes on case plans (Sykes 2011). Another qualitative study conducted by Palmer, Maiter and Manji (2008) included interviews with 61 First Parents involved in two Child Protective Services agencies in Ontario to explore the experiences of First Parents in the child protection system and how the experiences could be used to shape practice. It highlighted the low rate of case workers providing emotional support to First Families whose child has been removed despite it being a central tenet of social work intervention. Those who received support spoke of workers who were easy to get in touch with, who listened without judgement, and who praised them for seeking help. Across a number of studies, it appears that the majority of parents reported how out ward manifestations of their grief at losing their child – anger, outbursts, and emotion ally loaded statements – could be used against them as evidence of being emotionally unstable and unsuitable caregivers. Depression, often resulting from the trauma of engagement with child protection services, was often seen as evidence of parents being lazy or unmotivated (Hojer 2011; Thorpe 2008). Such a tendency towards 304 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe misinterpretation and lack of attention towards the emotions of First Families is thought to be due to the bureaucratic approach to child protection that prioritises risk assessment and procedural documentation over a relational approach (Palmer et al. 2008). Other concerns expressed in some studies is that case-worker support is often not consistent or available once children are in care. For example, parents report that, once children have been placed permanently and the case as been closed, contact with case workers decreased or ceased despite it being a time when parents wanted more support to process the grief from permanently losing their child (Hojer 2011). As a counter-point to examples of poor practice, a study by Dumbrill (2006) highlighted how more engaged practice can lead to better outcomes for First Parents. They reported that clients reported greater satisfaction and parental engagement when social work interventions aligned with parents ’ goals for reuni ﬁcation, had clear expectations, prepared them for meetings, advocated for them, respected their culture and supported their active ongoing partici pation in decisions. Stronger parent –worker relationships are also identi ﬁed as being bene ﬁcial outcomes for their children. In summary, although some parents may be predisposed to view the worker appre hensively because of initial child protection interventions, it is evident that this predis position is reinforced by interactions with caseworkers during the care experience. The anger, sadness and powerlessness they experience from coercive court interventions and being separated from their children contributes to the distortion of the relationship and their perceptions and expectations of workers. In the absence of positive encouragement from workers, parents may feel that their parenting capacity may be undermined rather than given the supportive encouragement needed to break the pattern of alienation and marginalisation they experience (Fernandez 1996). This necessitates working with parents in partnership to sustain their continuing involvement in their children ’s lives when they are in care and facilitating reuni ﬁcation or permanent forms of shared care. Relationship with carers When a child is removed from their First Family the foster or kinship family with whom the child is placed either temporarily or permanently becomes an important part of the placement con ﬁguration. Typically, an ‘exclusive ’ model of care is employed, meaning that the caseworker mediates the arrangement between the carers and First Families who may never meet each other Three studies exploring First Families ’ relationships with carers are of interest (Ankersmit 2016; Harries 2008; Ross et al. 2017). Harries ’s (2008) exploration of the lived experience of First Parents involved in the child protection system through in-depth interviews with 42 First Parents identi ﬁed the issues that parents had with carers which prevented a constructive relationship from developing. Ankersmit (2016) ’s research which utilised the perceptions of caseworkers regarding the relationship between parents and carers highlights the diﬀerent positions in the relationship – active participant versus passive observer – that inﬂuence the potential for collaborative relationships. The parents interviewed in the study of Ross et al. (2017) acknowledged the impor tance of carers in their children ’s lives, but often felt as though they were viewing their child ’s life from the outside and found the experience very isolating. They spoke about the diﬃculty of hearing their child call their carer ‘mum ’ or ‘dad ’, and of wanting to share important information about their child ’s interests or services with carers but not Engaging First Families 305 being able to do so, or having it rejected. There were particular challenges for First Par ents whose child was placed in kinship care placements in having to navigate a new and unfamiliar familial relationship. If a relationship had been established between carers and First Parents, it was seen to have been initiated by the carers as they held the power in the situation due to having parental responsibility of the child (Ross et al. 2017). In comparison, a study by Ankersmit (2016) which utilised the perceptions of case workers regarding the relationship between carers and First Families focused primarily on how to develop a positive relationship and made little mention of the emotional impact the situation can have on First Parents. It acknowledges the probability of distrust and animosity between parents and carers, further encouraged by stories featured in the media and from friends who have been in a similar situation. However, the main ﬁndings of the study were that to establish a positive relationship between carers and First Par ents, foster carers must have trust in the reuni ﬁcation process and those involved, must be motivated and willing participants, and that clarity of the responsibilities and roles of each party will help to build trust. Foster carers can be inﬂuential in maintaining biolo gical bonds when they are active in the visitation and reuni ﬁcation process (Sanchiro & Jablonka 2000). However, such carers need to be supported in both their task of building relationships with their foster child but also in promoting the child ’s need for an active relationship with their First Parents and extended family (Fernandez 2009). Experience of contact Grounded in a theoretical understanding of attachment, family contact is viewed as essential to nurturing the parent –child connection, building and maintaining attachments (Scott, O’Neill & Ming 2005) and fostering children ’s identity and their wellbeing (Bullen et al. 2017; Haight, Kagle & Black 2003; Salveron & Arney 2013). As Tregeagle and Mason (2008) point out, an important element of case-work and legal decision making is determining the frequency of contact between children and their First Family and recognising the type of contact is integral to future stability of placements and permanency outcomes. In practice, parental participation in their child ’s life is often restricted following removal and usually only involves contact visits, phone calls and emails (Ross et al. 2017), and this is generally consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which provides that children should have the right to maintain relationships with their parents, unless it is not in their best interests (United Nations General Assembly 1989, cited in Saini, Van Wert & Gofman, 2012). In their review of the literature available regarding supervised visitation between First Parents and their child in both a custody dispute and child welfare context, Saini, Van Wert & Gofman (2012) highlighted the purpose of contact visits is to facilitate relationships between parent and child, and to allow for evaluation of interaction by caseworkers. First Par ents playasigni ﬁcant role in their children ’s lives in care through contact. Children ’s right to contact is outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in article 9.3. Studies have shown that maintaining children ’s contact with their biological families yields important bene ﬁts for children, including fewer placements, stability of care, lower risk of mental heath diﬃculties, strengthened emotional and behavioural development and increased potential for reuni ﬁcation (Broadhurst & Sen 2011; Fernandez & Atwool 2013; McWey, Acock & Porter 2010). Contact provides an opportunity for parents to 306 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe exercise some parental responsibility and participation (Atwool 2013). Thus, by sup porting parents through contact arrangements, out-of-home care systems can enable families to ‘remain an important potential source of support for their children especially when support from State care is withdrawn in later adolescence ’ (Taplin 2005: 16). Most studies of family contact have been focused on the impact that it has on the child involved, and very little attention is paid to the experience of the First Families involved in contact visits. This is true of the research studies involved in this review. Most studies drew reference to attachment theory as the principal theoretical foundation for contact visits on the assumption that family connections can assist in decreasing the distress experienced by children when they are separated from their primary caregiver, and that contact visits can help to foster a sense of identity and emotional and behavioural devel opment in children, and help to stabilise a placement (Saini et al. 2012; Taplin & Mattick 2014). At the same time, the studies also presented the contrasting view that contact visits can also be seen to be detrimental to children ’s well-being if they lead to disruptions in the development of a relationship with their principal carer and are emotionally chal lenging for the children contributing to disruptions in behaviour following the visits (Saini et al. 2012; Taplin & Mattick 2013). A number of studies have examined family contact. For example, Taplin and Mattick (2013) presented ﬁndings from a larger cross-sectional study on 171 mothers who had been involved in an Opioid Treatment Program in Sydney. Through interviews and data collected from child protection records, it was found that supervised contact was likely to occur less frequently than unsupervised contact, children in kinship care were likely to have contact frequently, and that mothers who reported regular cannabis use were more likely to have supervised visitation which meant less frequent contact. However, as the study was cross-sectional in nature, it was diﬃcult to determine whe ther the drug use led to supervised contact or whether supervised contact led to increased drug use (Taplin & Mattick 2013). Where parents were questioned about their experiences of contact, it was apparent that they were unsure of their role during contact, and that they tried to squeeze as much direct care into a session as the sessions were insu ﬃcient for them to help build a proper parent –child relationship (Ross et al. 2017; Saini, et al. 2012). Bullen et al. (2017) reported that the family contact literature currently available is generally mostly descriptive. In response to this concern, the authors conducted a sys tematic review of the limited quantitative studies available examining supervised visita tion. Of the 12 eligible studies, when examined using the model in Hudson et al. (2010) to grade the evidence according the rigour of study design and analysis, eight studies received the lowest grade, often for not including comparison groups, clear explanation of their evaluation methods or detailed child outcomes. The study concluded that, while there are some interventions that appear to be bene ﬁcial in improving supervised visita tion, more research is required with particular focus on parents who are unlikely to have their children restored (Bullen et al. 2017; García-Martin et al. 2019). Another study by Davis et al. (1996) took a more holistic view of reuni ﬁcation and emphasised the impor tance of children being able to re-establish a sense of belonging and connection to the family on an emotional, psychological and physical level. Such ﬁndings challenge the assumption that parental contact is merely important to eﬀect reuni ﬁcation, overlooking its importance in enabling the child to re-establish a sense of belonging and continuing engagement. Other reported positive outcomes of contact include building long-term Engaging First Families 307 attachments, better psychosocial wellbeing, fostering a sense of culture and identity and helping children resolve issues of loss and trauma (Broadhurst & Sen 2011). Personal impact The removal of children can also impose speci ﬁc personal costs on parents. Some of the most important of these are as follows. Grief and loss As already noted, a signi ﬁcant consequence of the removal of children from the family home is the grief and loss experienced by First Families. It is common for First Families to experience ambiguous loss due to the uncertainty of the period immediately following removal, and then to experience further loss if the child is permanently placed in another family. This ambiguous loss can stall the onset of grieving and prevent coping mechan isms and decision-making skills from working (Boss 2007). Parents also grieve the loss of the daily interactions with children, especially around special events and occasions, and the loss of seeing their child grow and develop (Thorpe 2008). People grieving often look to their support networks for solace; however, parents who have had their children removed often feel very isolated from their support networks due to the stigma and shame associated with the removal of a child. This can be exacerbated when a child is placed in a kinship placement as the relationships have been forced to change (Broadhurst & Mason 2017; Ross et al. 2017). Manifestations of this grief could include anger, and emotional outbursts which, as previously mentioned, can be viewed as evidence of an emotionally unstable parent incapable of suitable parenting (Ross et al. 2017). Identity Furthering the notion of loss is the loss of identity that a mother experiences when they are no longer taking care of their child on a regular basis. As there is a lack of available research about First fathers, it is the mother who is labelled as a ‘bad parent ’ (Harries 2008). At the point of removal, a mother has already lost the identity of being considered a ‘good mother ’. This is a moniker that they will struggle to regain and the label that they are an ‘unsuitable ’ mother will likely follow them in any other child protection cases (Broadhurst & Mason 2017). To reconcile the loss of the label of ‘good mother ’, mothers will distance themselves from the allegations of child maltreatment and reject the child protection agency ’s reason for intervention. They will also distance themselves from association with what they consider to be ‘bad mothers ’ and highlight the worse aspects of other cases (Sykes 2011). Being labelled as a ‘bad mother ’ commonly sees mothers stigmatised by their families and communities as they seem to have ‘failed ’ what it means to be a responsible adult. Evidence has shown that stigma can increase aggression and self-defeating behaviour which can impact the chances of reuni ﬁcation (Wells 2011). Trauma Many First Parents who become involved in the child protection system have experienced trauma in their life before they have contact with child protection agencies. Adolescent 308 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe trauma has been proven to have an impact on adult relationships and parenting capacity. If unaddressed, the trauma can manifest as troublesome behaviours which may be used as evidence to support removal of their child (Broadhurst, Mason & Webb 2018; Ross et al. 2017). The removal of a child is a traumatic experience in itself and can trigger mala daptive coping mechanisms which can hinder the possibility of reuni ﬁcation (Broadhurst et al. 2018). Some research participants also found court proceedings to be traumatic as they compounded the impacts of other trauma experiences in their history (Ross et al. 2017). Experiences of trauma while involved in the child protection system can serve to alienate First Families from services that are trying to support their reuni ﬁcation with their children. Access to services Parents who felt they had been working with a good caseworker identi ﬁed receiving good referrals to appropriate services to counselling, education and treatment, and concrete help such as food, ﬁnancial assistance and shelter, as important factors that demonstrated to them that their worker was also working towards reuni ﬁcation of their child (Palmer et al. 2008). Unfortunately, the research reviewed demonstrated that this was an uncom mon experience among parents whose children had been removed. Marcenko et al. (2011), for example, conducted a cross-sectional study of the demographic and psycho social characteristics and service needs of primary caregivers in Washington State who had had an open welfare case within 30 to 120 days prior to the study. Their results showed that parents were more likely to have their service needs met when their child was still in the home than once the child was removed as child protection agencies were working to keep at-risk children in their home (Marcenko et al. 2011). This idea was reinforced in Broadhurst and Mason ’s (2017) review of the literature available regarding the impact of child removal on First Parents and the development of a comprehensive framework for practice. While children are in care, the absence of adequate services emerged as a common theme and this is known to be detrimental for parental wellbeing and reduces the prospect of reuni ﬁcation (Broadhurst & Mason 2017). Other problems include high worker turnover (Harries 2008; Palmer et al. 2008) or the problem of parents not wanting to ask for support as they fear it being used against them as evidence of poor parenting capability in court proceedings (Thorpe 2008). As previously discussed, legislative reforms promoting permanency planning have led to a shortened time frame in which First Parents can demonstrate change supporting the reuni ﬁcation of their children, so the cessation of important rehabilitative services occurs earlier (Broadhurst & Mason 2017). This has long-term impacts for First Parents as within the shortened time frames they are unlikely to have resolved all of the issues that led to removal of their child so if they have another baby, it will likely re-involve child protection services in their life, or they may have another child already in their care removed (Broadhurst & Mason 2017). Grandparents and extended family As the environment of child protection services includes First Parents, grandparents, foster carers and other professionals it is crucial that social workers deliver support in a way that evaluates all ecological systems and is inclusive of all the child ’s networks. Engaging First Families 309 As child protection services increasingly seek placements with kin, grandparents are challenged by new full-time caring responsibilities while surviving on limited economic resources and social supports. Social workers need to work closely with grandparents to support their parenting capabilities, and in particular be attuned to a gender lens, and address the needs of grandmothers who are disproportionately burdened by caring responsibilities with sparse support (Bunch et al. 2007). Gender and child protection The experience of mothers in the child protection system has been a concern and is the subject of a body of literature (Callahan & Lumb 1995; Swift 1991) which examines the dominant assumptions underpinning child welfare interventions, given the strong pre sence of women as clients, carers, frontline workers and that child welfare focuses on women ’s domain of caring for children. Swift (1995) argues for a reconceptualization of child welfare as a feminist issue, challenging the dominant ideologies and assumptions underpinning child welfare interventions and the institution of motherhood and its socially determined conditions. Mothers carry several visible and invisible responsibilities and are not allowed to fail these obligations. Chesler (1987) observes that the ideal mother is expected to choose married motherhood, become pregnant, give birth, bond with, assume full responsibility for her child ’s physical, emotional, economic and safety needs, and asserts mothers more than fathers are condemned for being psychologically imperfect, for performing parental work inadequately and for failing the parental ideal. The assessment of mothers as being inadequate reﬂects assumptions that ‘normal ’ mothers cope (Parton 1990). The realities of parenting are rarely acknowledged. Material disadvantage such as poor housing, ﬁnancial diﬃculties and the lack of emotional and social support for parenting tasks and threatened and actual violence contribute to phy sical and emotional stress that compromise their physical and mental health, their par enting potential and the care of their children (Fernandez 1996). Conceptions of mothers and attitudes to them range from holding them responsible for the outcomes of their children to portraying them as inadequate and incapable of pro tecting them. The Social Science literature portrays them as primarily responsible for the quality of care of their children. Since Bowlby ’s (1953) early conceptions viewed parent ing in terms of rigid sex role conceptions with mothers having continuous responsibility for child care in the early years, the psychopathology of the child is attributed to mothers. This is reinforced in the legal literature, as King and Trowell note ‘It is, to mothers that the system looks as having primary responsibility for any harm that might have been caused, and to rectify that harm ’ (King & Trowell 1992: 21). Issues in research Although there is limited research available on the experiences of First Families involved in the child protection system, there are common issues evident in the studies that have been conducted. Some studies utilised child protection caseworkers and client ﬁles as a means of obtaining information about the First Parent experience. This creates a risk of misinterpretation as it is a second-hand view of the client ’s experience, and it can be clouded by bias if the caseworker had a poor working relationship with the client. In circumstances where First Families were involved in the research study, it was common 310 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe for them to be recruited through the caseworkers or the programs they had been referred to by caseworkers. It is possible that having caseworkers involved in the recruitment process may have prevented First Parents from speaking freely about their experiences as they feared potential consequences of speaking negatively. However, it was noted that First Families were more likely to be involved in a study if they had a negative experience (Hojer 2011). Despite these potential biases, recruiting participants through caseworkers and parenting programs is currently the most eﬀective means as First Families are a dif ﬁcult population to access for research for several reasons, such as a general mistrust of the system, fear of further ‘punishment ’ for speaking out, and a desire to move on from their experience (Ankersmit 2016). The sample populations of the studies reviewed which involved members of First Families predominantly consisted of mothers who had had their children removed which may be representative of the tendency of child protection agencies ’ focus on mothers as primary caregivers and thus in need of the most support (Sykes 2011; Palmer et al. 2008; Sykes 2011). However, studies commonly ignore the experience of First Fathers involved in the child protection system who may have an ongoing impact in the life of their child after removal. This tendency towards samples of predominantly mothers also excludes the experience of the extended family, such as sib lings and grandparents. In particular cultures, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and in some Asian cultures, the extended family has a large role in the upbringing of a child, so they are likely to have an important role in the child protection process. As there is an over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander chil dren in Australia in out-of-home care (OOHC) currently – Aboriginal children enter OOHC at ten times the rate of non-Indigenous children, it is important that research also explores the experiences of extended family members (Burns, Burns & Menzies 2004; CFCA 2019; Davis 2018). While there is a breadth of research available in the area of child protection, and research available examining the impact of the involvement of First Families in the lives of children who have been removed, there is limited research currently available that explores the child protection process through the eyes of the First Parents. The informa tion that is available is often informed by the views of caseworkers and oﬃcial docu ments, or the parents that have participated in the research have been recruited through caseworkers and programs, so are unlikely to speak freely for fear of retribution. The overwhelming feeling from First Families is that they are often excluded from the system due to their lack of knowledge and power, and are not given the opportunities to demonstrate or improve their parenting capabilities. The research reviewed also demon strated that little focus is given to the First Fathers or extended families of children who have been removed which is a signi ﬁcant gap in the research, particularly due to the overwhelming number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in OOHC in Australia and the importance the cultures place on the role of the extended family in raising a child (Bamblett & Lewis 2006; McDowall 2016). Implications for policy, programs, practice and further research Notwithstanding issues in the research with First Families involved with the child pro tection system, there is suﬃcient consistency among the ﬁndings of the studies reviewed to be able to identify some salient implications for improvements, not only in direct Engaging First Families 311 practice with First Families but also at the levels of program development, and policy formulation. Implications at a structural, broader policy level are particularly signi ﬁcant in relation to the challenging circumstances in which many First Families live before, during and following child protection intervention. Poverty is a continuing issue for families in which children are seen to be at risk and, while Parenting Payments in Australia are barely adequate for day to day living, the requirements of the ParentsNext program make life harder for many single parents (mostly single mothers) of pre-school aged children, and the penalties can lead many families into deepening poverty. When children are taken into care, parents are forced oﬀ Parenting Payments onto the NewStart Allowance which they ﬁnd is grossly inadequate to cover shelter and food, let alone costs associated with complying with requirements laid on them to work towards their children returning home. Social advocacy with regard to securing improvements in the income security and housing systems is thus a clear, highly desirable implication for action emerging from the research. Meanwhile, programs and practice need to be ever mindful of the structural reasons for families living in poverty and, when specifying requirements placed on First Families, consider the realities of living in poverty. Judgements and unrealistic or punitive expectations are harmful rather than helpful. Moreover, the need for material and prac tical assistance at times (including trauma cleaning and regular ongoing home help – in the past called Family Aides ) should be regarded as invaluable, given the structural con straints which blight families ’ socio-economic circumstances and may lead to debilitating depression. With regard to direct practice, child protection workers ’ lack of (or limited) experience of living in poverty indicates a need to work hard at critical reﬂexivity in order to walk in their families ’ shoes to achieve a greater understanding and acceptance of physically oppressed living conditions and the possible lack of skills a worker may regard as ‘common sense ’, like hygiene or budgeting. Clearly, cross-cultural understanding is also vital in order to appreciate the use, meaning and value of diﬀerent, but culturally appropriate, strategies for coping with poverty. Far greater culturally aware practice is needed urgently as part of a range of strategies to reduce the massive over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care. Research ﬁndings in relation to gendered issues in child protection add another important dimension to the need for greater awareness of structural forces largely beyond the immediate control of individuals. On top of living in poverty, traditional expectations of women, and super ﬁcial analyses of domestic violence and family abuse provide a ‘mother blaming ’ pitfall for front line child protection workers and their supervisors. Hence there also is an urgent need for direct practitioners to be better informed by cri tical analyses of motherhood and by the latest reviews of research on family abuse (see, for example, Hill 2019) in order to work with women in strengths-based, empowering ways rather than imposing the pejorative label ‘failure to protect ’. In addition, moving from the personal to the political, there is a need for child protection workers to add their voices to social action campaigns for policy changes with regard to domestic vio lence and child protection, and for changes to the Family Court Act, given that ‘mother blaming ’ is a salient feature in many current Family Court judgements when mothers are often typecast as liars and/or mad (Hill 2019). The need is pressing for professionals in child protection, be they social workers, police, psychologists, lawyers or Family Report writers, to have in-depth knowledge of the complexity of domestic abuse and be alert to 312 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe their own exposure to being ‘groomed ’ by perpetrators, who may present as rational and calm in contrast to their ex partners who are battle worn and desperate for the welfare of their children. Plainly, at the direct practice level, there is a need to fully understand the personal impacts which First Parents experience when child protection agencies get involved in their lives. Fear and anxiety become added to the stress of living with poverty and/or with domestic abuse, and when children are removed into care loss, grief and long-term chronic sorrow are to be expected. While for many decades research with First Families has identi ﬁed loss and grief as highly signi ﬁcant (initially referred to as ﬁlial deprivation (Jenkins & Norman 1972), the recognition of trauma as important in the previous life experience of First Parents has only recently become explicit. For many, this may result from one or more of childhood abuse, childhood or adult sexual assault, and childhood or adult domestic abuse. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Parents, trauma may also result from the intergenerational trauma of the Stolen Generations, plus past and ongoing racism in society generally and sometimes, also, in child protection processes themselves. The need for direct practice to be trauma-informed is pressing in order to enable First Parents to become active survivors, enabled to resume care for their children (Atkinson 2002; Herman 1997). Practitioners need understand the inevitability of First Parents becoming deeply depressed and/or angry and not label these as indications of unsuitability to care for their children. Reaching out to the distressed person behind the depression or anger is an essential, advanced skill in building a respectful relationship which, research studies consistently have found, is a key to working constructively with First Parents. Respect for the dignity and worth (AASW 2010 clause 3.1) of First Parents is a foun dation for every aspect of child protection casework, be it facilitating First Parents ’ active participation in legal proceedings and case planning, having good contact with their children in care, working together with carers and, in a timely manner, accessing services which provide assistance and support. The research studies reviewed in this chapter provide clear guidance on what works more eﬀectively and, importantly, provide insight into what doesn ’t work well and should be avoided in practice. Since research ﬁndings indicate that less than best practice appears to be widespread, there is a need to identify the conditions which might facilitate improvements in direct practice with First Parents. Conditions in working environments – government and non government – can often stiﬂe good practice through managerialist requirements of workers and supervision which is largely organisational and administrative rather than professional. One implication from research ﬁndings is to focus attention within organi sations on building a working environment which is conducive to and supportive of research-informed good practice. Encouraging a knowledge of relevant research ﬁndings and their application in practice through, for example, discussion lunches is a practice we have seen in one government oﬃce; enabling professional (rather than bureaucratic) supervision within or external to the organisation is another practice which some non government agencies use. A further implication for child protection organisations might be to enable good practitioners to remain working at the front line but with remunera tion which recognises their advanced skills, particularly in working with First Families. While new workers may have energy and commitment, their limited experience is often a stumbling block to good practice. Rather than expected to adapt to what may be an entrenched oﬃce culture, new child protection workers need to be enabled by the Engaging First Families 313 organisation to examine their own possibly unhelpful attitudes and values, and be sup ported in working respectfully and in culturally appropriate ways with First Families, including First Grandparents who may become kinship carers. Respectful relationship-based social work practices (Ruch, Turney & Ward 2018), as indicated by the ﬁndings from the research studies reviewed, not only are greatly appre ciated by First Families, they also lead to better outcomes for children and families and, even when children and young people remain in care, First Families are enabled to have a more constructive approach to maintaining contact with family, community, culture and country. They also may be less prone to crippling levels of chronic sorrow and better able to rebuild their lives. This latter hypothesis is an area for future research, since to date, it has been diﬃcult to ﬁnd enough First Parents with such positive experiences to undertake meaningful research beyond isolated qualitative case studies. Other areas warranting further research have been identi ﬁed throughout this research review, including an emerging impression that research with First Parents to date has been culturally bland. Given the huge over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed into out-of-home care there is a need for studies which focus speci ﬁcally on Indigenous Australian extended First Families ’ experiences of the full range of child protection processes. While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protec tion workers are able to articulate the needs and interests of their people, the whole dis course underpinning new research needs to be re-framed within an appropriate non- western cultural perspective. Another neglected area of research is that of First Fathers (Campbell et al. 2015; Gordon et al. 2012; Scour ﬁeld, Cheung & MacDonald 2014). This should include not only biological fathers who may have had little or no involvement in caring for their child/ren, but also step-fathers who may be important psychological parents of the chil dren with whom they have highly signi ﬁcant attachments which, too often, may be dis regarded in child protection processes. Instead, once in care, children may be introduced to their little or unknown biological father who may have perpetrated violence against their mother and even themselves. While, arguably, it is important for all children in care or adoption to know their biological origins, it also is important for their ongoing well being to maintain important relationships with signi ﬁcant other father ﬁgures The com plexities surrounding fathers and stepfathers of children entering care need to be explored in detailed research in order to identify implications for practice which are in a child ’s best interests, emotionally as well as biologically. A fourth area for further research identi ﬁed in this review is the experience and impact of contact for First Parents themselves. Thus far, most research has focused on whether and how contact aﬀects children, with bene ﬁcial eﬀects identi ﬁed regardless of whether reuni ﬁcation is accomplished. The perspective of First Parents and their wider family has yet to be explored in depth, particularly with regard to their experience when children are in long term or permanent care. As always, such research needs to be culturally appro priate in full recognition of the signi ﬁcance of wider family and community for Abori ginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and also adapted appropriately for children in care in Australia from diverse other cultural backgrounds with diﬀerent values and traditions. 314 Elizabeth Fernadez and Ros Thorpe Conclusion In this chapter the state of research knowledge concerning First Parents of children at risk of entry into state care, or already in care, has been reviewed, with implications for direct practice, programs, policy and further research explored. With the trend for child pro tection agencies around Australia to focus on permanency planning for vulnerable chil dren, the time frame for First Parents to change suﬃciently for their children to return to their care has shortened and, accordingly, practice needs to become more intense in order to enable as many children as possible to return home safely to their First Families in a timely manner. While always there is a need for further research, already enough is known to be able to transform child protection processes to work more constructively and eﬀectively with First Families. What is needed is vision and courage on the part of organisations and individual practitioners to implement changes to a truly family-focused approach to child-centred practice. Note 1 In this chapter the term First Parents is used to refer to what more commonly in academic and professional literature are called Biological parents or Birth parents. Both of these latter terms can have the eﬀect of minimising the reality that First Parents, grandparents and signi ﬁcant others have ties that bind with their children way beyond biological heredity or merely the act of giving birth/life. Invariably, First Parents are the child ’s psychological parents and important primary attachments connect them and their children. Even when such attachments are new (as at birth) or complicated, First attachments confer a sense of belonging to family, community, culture, and country. Just as First Nations People are the custodians of the land and all that is sacred so, we argue, First Parents are custodians of a Child ’s identity, the sacredness of which must be supported. In our view, the term First Parents conveys the importance of this truth far more strongly than the terms used hitherto. References Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)2010, Code of ethics , Canberra: Australian Association of Social Workers. 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United Nations General Assembly (UN), 1989, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Geneva: United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, no. 3. Welbourne, P., 2012, Social work with children and families: Developing advanced practice , New York: Routledge. Wells, K., 2011, ‘A narrative analysis of one mother ’s story of child custody loss and regain ’, Children and Youth Services Review , vol. 33, pp. 439 –447. Wells, K. & Marcenko, M., 2011, ‘Introduction to the Special Issue: Mothers of children in foster care ’, Children and Youth Services Review , vol. 33, pp. 419 –423. 318 Chapter 20 Responding to carers ’ needs Jill Duerr Berrick In most countries, child welfare policy is clear: Children should be cared for safely in their home of origin. Some circumstances, however, compromise children ’s safety or well-being such that they must be separated from their birth parents or other caregivers. In these instances, children are typically placed in out-of-home care while their parents or caregivers make changes to the circumstances that precipitated the separation. These substitute care arrangements may be with a relative or close family friend (referred to as relative care or kinship care), with a non-relative (a stranger to the child), or children may be placed in a congregate care setting with 24-hour sta ﬀ. In most Western, indus trialized countries, kinship caregivers and non-relative foster caregivers are preferred placement settings for children and will therefore be the focus of this chapter. They will be referred to, globally, as ‘foster care ’,or ‘foster caregivers ’, though they may be refer red to as ‘carers ’ or ‘resource families ’, depending on the country context in which they reside. In Australia, approximately 55,000 children were living in out-of-home care in 2017 – 18, or about 1 in every 100 children (AIHW 2018). Of these, about half were living with relatives and almost 40% were living with foster parents (less than 10% were in resi dential/group care). Similar to the U.S. and England, Australian infants and other young children predominate in out-of-home care. This, in contrast to many Western European nations where older children are more likely to be in the out-of-home care system (Ber rick, Gilbert & Skivenes 2021). And similar to other Western industrialized nations, indigenous children in Australia were heavily over-represented in care at a rate 17 times greater than non-indigenous children (AIHW 2018). Foster care is designed as a temporary caregiving arrangement until children can be reuni ﬁed with their birth parent or, if impossible, they are transitioned to a permanent alternative living situation. In some countries, foster care is designed as a short-term arrangement (e.g., England, U.S.A.); whereas in other countries (e.g., Australia, Norway), foster caring may be a long-term setting for children who are unlikely to go home. In Australia, for example, over two-thirds of children in out-of-home care have been there for over two years (AIHW 2018). In a typical foster care arrangement, custody is trans ferred from the birth parent to the state with the foster parent acting on the state ’s behalf to secure the child ’s safety and promote his/her well-being. Children are placed in foster care either voluntarily or involuntarily. Some countries rely more heavily on voluntary care (e.g., Finland) than involuntary care (e.g., Australia). Involuntary cases proceed upon the recommendation of a child welfare professional and the concurrence of a judge or other judicial decision maker. During the time children Responding to carers ’ needs 319 reside in foster care, their birth parent is usually required to participate in services designed to secure the child ’s safe return. These services might include drug treatment, parent training, counseling, or other customized activities. In many countries, regular agency or court reviews assess whether circumstances in the birth home have changed suﬃciently to ensure children ’s safe return. As the foundation for children ’s substitute care, foster care should be recognized as the backbone of the child welfare system. Without it, children would either remain with parents who were unable or unwilling to provide safe care, or they would be placed in congregate care settings, largely viewed by child development experts as inappropriate settings for the large majority of children served by the child welfare system. Because of its centrality to the child welfare system and to children ’s health and well-being, this chapter examines the nature of the care required of foster carers, who provides this care to children, and their needs for social work supports. Roles and responsibilities of foster parents Foster carers play two essential roles in the lives of children; they also play contested roles in relation to child welfare professionals. With regard to children, foster parents have both a ‘bureaucratic ’ and a ‘familial ’ role (Berrick 2015). With regard to child wel fare professionals, foster parents may be considered a colleague, a contractor, or even a client. In the bureaucratic ,or ‘public role ’ (Rymph 2017) vis-à-vis children, foster parents serve as agents of the state, attending to the needs of the child and responding to the needs of the system on behalf of the government. Ideally, they serve as a ‘professional team member ’ (Rymph 2017: 185), working in collaboration with child welfare profes sionals. In their bureaucratic role, foster carers might be required, for example, to transport a child to therapy or visitation sessions with the parent. They are also required to ful ﬁll all of the requirements of the case plan, to ﬁle appropriate documents with child welfare professionals, or to attend meetings at the child welfare agency. If the child ’s court-mandated case plan includes reuni ﬁcation, the foster carer is required to support the birth parents in their eﬀorts to reunify with their child. In the familial or ‘private ’ role, foster parents serve as substitute parents to the child, engaging in behaviors that would be typical among highly eﬀective parents. Features of ‘successful ’ foster carers suggest that they are warm and child-centered; they are stable, loving, nurturing, fair, respectful, and their relationship is enduring (Sinclair & Wilson 2003). Caregivers support children ’s development, their cultural heritage, and the birth and extended families (Buehler et al. 2006; Shlonsky & Berrick 2001). Since the majority of studies on carers focus on foster mothers, an emerging literature on foster fathers also suggests that they may play a particularly intentional role in oﬀering foster children a positive role model, and in showcasing a range of parenting tasks in which men can be involved (Riggs, Delfabbro & Augoustinos 2010). In addition to these parenting qualities, it is widely understood that the requirements of foster parents extend beyond typical parenting (Megahead & Soliday 2013). The circumstances of children ’s separation from their parents, the court and child welfare agency ’s involvement with their family, and the unique behavioral and emotional challenges posed by children who have usually experi enced trauma create an exceptional care environment, referred to by some authors as ‘parenting plus ’ (Berrick & Skivenes 2012). 320 Jill Duerr Berrick Children in foster care may exhibit a range of physical, emotional, and educational challenges that require greater than average advocacy on the part of foster parents. According to one U.S. study including a nationally representative sample of children having contact with the child welfare system, almost one-third (27%) of children entering foster care have a chronic or recurrent health condition (Administration on Children and Families 2007). Two-thirds of children have a signi ﬁcant cognitive, social, or behavioral need in the clinical range (Administration on Children and Families 2007). One study indicated the prevalence of ﬁve mental health conditions among children ages 12–17.5. Findings suggested that 43% of youth reported at least one mental health concern including substance abuse/use (23%), ADHD (19%), suicidality (14%), anxiety (14%), or depression, (9%) (Horwitz et al. 2012). Children and youth in out-of-home care typically evidence higher rates of mental health problems than peers of a similar age not in care (Leslie et al. 2000; Sawyer et al. 2007). And depending on the study, between 35% and 85% of all children in out-of-home care suﬀer from a mental health condition (Farmer et al. 2001; Vasileva & Petermann 2016). These circumstances not only require a thoughtful parenting response in the home, but they also require signi ﬁcant advocacy eﬀorts to ensure children ’s needs are met by a range of service providers in the community (Fergeus et al. 2018). Given children ’s special needs, the demands placed on foster carers are signi ﬁcant, but perhaps none so great as the emotional requirements of care. Foster carers are asked to make an unconditional commitment to the children in their care, loving them as though they were a child from their original family. At the same time, foster parents are expected to release the child to the birth parent if reuni ﬁcation is required by the courts. Approximately half of children placed in foster care in the U.S. are reuni ﬁed with their birth parent (Child Welfare Information Gateway 2011). Although data regarding reuni ﬁcation in Australia are not as clear, approximately one-third of children remain in care for fewer than two years, suggesting that most of these children likely return home (AIHW 2018). Given these data, it’s clear that foster parents, in general, experience a high degree of loss and resulting grief in the reuni ﬁcation process (Buehler, Cox & Cuddeback 2003; Rhodes, Orme & Buehler 2001). As such, the familial role they play is essential to children ’s development and well-being, but it exacts a toll on caregivers when they are required to say ‘good-bye ’. Foster parents ’ role vis-à-vis child welfare agencies is less clear. While the academic literature suggests that foster parents can and should be considered important partners, collaborators and colleagues with child welfare professionals, relied on for their knowl edge, expertise, and relationship to the child (Buehler et al. 2006), the evidence suggests that many foster parents do not experience that role when they are in contact with child welfare professionals (Hudson & Levasseur 2002). Instead, many foster parents experi ence their role as a hired contractor, serving children largely in isolation with little sup port or recognition for their eﬀorts (Shlonsky & Berrick 2001). Public messaging about the foster parent role is also ambiguous. Foster parents who are treated as contractors in the intimate process and experience of care nonetheless largely serve as volunteers, receiving a modest subsidy for some of the expenses incurred, but they typically do not enjoy the advantages of employment that might include a salary and associated bene ﬁts. Because the typical foster parent cares for challenging children, many foster parents need advice, help, and support from child welfare professionals. In that regard, they may Responding to carers ’ needs 321 sometimes be viewed as additional clients of the child welfare system whose needs also require the time and attention of busy social workers. Characteristics of foster parents Who are these adults who step in to care for children? It is diﬃcult to make cross- national comparisons of foster parent characteristics as limited information is available from most countries. We know, however, that the majority of Australian carers are middle income, with no post-school education, and they are between ages 35 and 54 (McHugh et al. 2004). Kinship caregivers are typically about ten years older, on average, than foster parents (Butcher 2005). The majority of Canadian carers are Caucasian and married, with one parent working outside of the home (Rodger 2006). And in Norway, the typical foster home consists of a two-parent heterosexual couple, both of whom work outside the home. About two-in- ﬁve have a high school diploma and another two-in- ﬁve have completed college. About half of foster parents in Norway would be characterized as middle class (Berrick & Skivenes 2012). Non-relative and kinship foster carers in the U.S. are, on average, socio-economically vulnerable compared to average U.S. parents. Studies suggest that they are older, have a lower level of education, and have lower incomes (Barth et al. 2008; Berrick & Boyd 2016; O’Hare 2008). Research on caregivers ’ motivations suggest that carers are generally altruistic (Colton, Roberts & Williams 2008; Kirton, Beecham & Ogilvie 2007). Foster parents serve because of their love of children, because they want to make a diﬀerence (Tyebjee 2003), and in some cases because their own children have grown and left their home and they want to continue the parenting role (Gillis-Arnold et al. 1998). No doubt a substantial proportion of caregivers oﬀer children a caring environment that matches foster parents ’ aspirations for positive care. In fact, a review of studies highlighting the characteristics of ‘successful caregivers ’ (those whose care promoted permanency or placement stability) for older youth indicated the following qualities associated with success: having a sense of humor, belief in a higher power, the capacity to tolerate rejection, and having ﬂexible expecta tions (Day et al. 2018). Of concern, however, some evidence suggests that a minority of U.S. caregivers do not oﬀer children the sensitive caregiving environment they require. According to one study, about one- ﬁfth of caregivers in the U.S. have ‘problems in their home environment, family functioning, and parenting ’ (Orme & Buehler 2001:12). Other studies indicate that a similar proportion of caregivers can be characterized as ‘highly aggravated ’ or living with poor mental health (Kortenkamp & Ehrle 2002). On average, the home environment of foster care is considered ‘much less stimulating ’ than the average U.S. household (Barth et al. 2008). Although a minority of caregivers, these data are concerning and suggest that greater eﬀorts may be required to recruit adults who are likely to provide eﬀective care, and to support caregivers in this essential work. Support for eﬀective foster parents Foster caregiving is typically a lonely activity as caregivers conduct their work in private homes across many communities. In Australia, children who live in remote or very remote areas of the country are twice as likely to be in out-of-home care (AIHW 2018). These foster parents likely experience considerable isolation. But a signi ﬁcant body of 322 Jill Duerr Berrick evidence suggests that foster parents need support in order to routinely care for children thoughtfully and responsively. Unlike typical professionals whose employment is limited to certain hours or days of the week, foster carers ‘work ’ every day and night, throughout the year, usually with few or any breaks. In addition to the isolation and constant nature of the experience, the work itself is very challenging. The children, many with special needs, have high demands for care; relationships with birth parents may be diﬃcult; children may be taken from their care with little notice; and some children, upset or confused by their circumstances, may lodge child maltreatment allegations against the caregiver. Caregiving also takes its toll on the foster carer ’s family. Studies show that caregiving can increase family and marital con ﬂict (Brown & Calder 2000; Poland & Groze 1993; Seaburg & Harrigan 1999). Caring for others ’ children while caring for one ’s own also poses challenges. Research indicates that caregivers worry about the eﬀects foster children may have on their own children: Will their children feel a need to compete for their attention? Will their own children be pre maturely exposed to mature life circumstances? Will their children learn inappropriate behaviors (Broady et al. 2010; Pugh 1996; Younes & Harp 2007)? Studies of birth children indicate that they feel the eﬀects of foster children on their family life, noting a reduced sense of closeness among family members and increased family tension (Thompson & McPherson 2011). When carers already have birth children at home, children ’s foster care placements are more likely to be disrupted and this can lead to placement instability (Rock et al. 2013). Substantial evidence suggests that instability – moving from one home to another during a spell in out-of-home care – is especially hard on children, leading to a range of deleterious short- and long-term eﬀects (Rubin et al. 2007). Among foster carers, serial caregiving – caring for multiple children over a long period of time – is especially hard on children and families as new routines and activities must be employed to respond to the unique needs of each individual child (Seaburg & Harrigan 1997; 1999). In spite of these diﬃculties, other evidence suggests bene ﬁcial eﬀects on carers ’ birth children. Carers describe their children as more empathic, accepting, generous, and mature following a foster child ’s placement (Broady et al. 2010; Hojer 2004; Younes & Harp 2007). Carers who remain in the ﬁeld, after reﬂecting on the challenges and their successes, routinely point to their love for the children in their care as the fundamental reason they stay (Buehler, Cox & Cuddeback 2003: Coakley et al. 2007). The sometimes turbulent emotional landscape of family life requires thoughtful sup port and consideration, from child welfare professionals, family, friends, and other treatment team providers. Foster parents can bene ﬁt from support groups with others, and intentional responsiveness from child welfare professionals. Implications for child welfare professionals Because foster carers play such a vital role in children ’s care and protection, child welfare professionals, agency managers, and researchers should consider four areas where tar geted, intensive eﬀorts could reap rewards. Eﬀorts to improve recruitment, screening, support ,and retention would have lasting eﬀects for children. New recruitment strategies are necessary if we hope to change the dismal supply/ demand equation in foster care. Ample evidence suggests that the supply of available foster parents does not meet the demand for care (Kelly et al. 2018), and that this phe nomenon is global (Ciarrochi et al. 2012). In addition to the shortage of foster parents in Responding to carers ’ needs 323 most jurisdictions, only a minority of caregivers in any given community provide care to the majority of children. These ‘vital few ’, estimated at about one- ﬁfth of the foster parent pool, care for about three-quarters of the foster children needing care. These caregivers are especially important to the child welfare system as the children in these homes experience fewer placement changes, and the care they receive is considered more eﬀective than the care provided by the large majority of foster parents. In addi tion, the vital few are especially likely to accept children with special needs, so they are particularly responsive to the population served by child welfare agencies (Cherry & Orme 2013; Orme & Cherry 2015). Recruitment for eﬀective caregivers must target adults who are likely to oﬀer highly responsive care. A growing body of evidence informs our understanding of the char acteristics of those most likely to show interest in caring (Ciarrochi et al. 2012), and the characteristics of those most likely to provide eﬀective care (Berrick, Shau ﬀer & Rodri guez 2011). This research helps in targeting an appropriate recruitment message. But in spite of these important advancements, we know little about the messaging that would be most likely to appeal to prospective caregiver applicants. Because the applicant pool is usually limited, child welfare agencies typically use rather few criteria for screening applicants. In the U.S., each state sets licencing criteria that focus largely on the safety of the caregiver ’s home. A child welfare professional usually conducts a home study to assess the parenting of the caregiver using a ‘minimum ade quacy ’ standard. Although some have argued that standards of care should be raised to ensure that only the most eﬀective caregivers are selected as foster parents (Crea, Gri ﬃn & Barth 2011), there is an equal reluctance to do so out of concern that higher standards will further shrink the pool of available caregivers (Colton, Roberts & Williams 2008). Screening tools have been developed by researchers that include positive aspects of care such as commitment, con ﬁdence, aﬀection, and acceptance. They also include negative qualities or behaviors that might suggest areas of concern (Orme et al. 2007). In spite of the promise these tools oﬀer the ﬁeld, they are not in widespread use, and standardized cut-o ﬀ points for eligibility have not yet been established. Among the adults who step forward to serve, many will need support to provide the eﬀective care that children need. In a cross-national study of eﬀective foster parents in the U.S. and in Norway (Berrick & Skivenes 2012), the authors determined that the nature of foster parents ’ care for children can be characterized as having aﬀective and behavioral components (similar to Polgar ’s assessment of caregivers ’ abilities and capacities (2001)). The behavioral qualities of care (i.e., capacities ) – including advocacy skills, transition planning, and positive reinforcement strategies – may be responsive to training. Alter natively, child welfare sta ﬀ may ﬁnd that the aﬀective qualities of care (i.e., abilities ) – including empathy for children, or parenting with respect and humility – may be char acteristics adults bring to care naturally. Adults may be able to learn these traits, but perhaps not so readily. Research involving foster carers routinely indicates a preference for responsive support. In most jurisdictions, however, caregivers receive little support to prepare them for their role and responsibilities. In many countries, foster parents are required to participate in basic training. In a study conducted in Queensland, Australia, however, the majority of kinship caregivers and an important minority of foster parents (15%) had received no training prior to a child ’s placement in their care (Butcher 2005). Recent research suggests bene ﬁts may accrue to caregivers who participate in training including perceptions of 324 Jill Duerr Berrick improved parenting skills (Akin et al. 2017), increased satisfaction with the foster par enting role (Randle, Miller & Dolnicar 2017), reductions in children ’s behavior problems (Solomon, Niec & Schoonover 2017), and stronger relationships with children ’s birth parents (Cooley & Petren 2011). Research on two of the most widely used training models in the world, PRIDE and MAPP, however, show few eﬀects (Dorsey et al. 2008). Instead, new research is emerging indicating that caregivers and children may ﬁrst bene ﬁt from training, but thereafter experience positive eﬀects from close consultation and ongoing coaching from social work sta ﬀ (Linares et al. 2006; McNeil et al. 2005; Timmer, Urquiza & Zebell 2006). These programs, showing eﬀects when delivered to foster carers or to birth parents, reduce children ’s behavior problems and improve positive parenting behaviors. The programs are usually delivered in vivo so that parents can practice newly developing skills and receive feedback and support to strengthen and reinforce these skills (Chamberlain & Mihalic 1998; Dozier, Dozier & Manni 2002; Dozier et al. 2002; 2006). Implementation of the KEEP program (a modi ﬁed version of Multidimensional Treat ment Foster Care (MTFC)), involving a 16-week training program, regular telephone calls and homework, has shown important eﬀects in randomized trials, increasing posi tive parenting, placement stability, and improving the odds of reuni ﬁcation (Chamberlain et al. 2008; Price et al. 2008). In addition to the support caregivers need in responding to their foster child ’s special needs and behavioral diﬃculties, they may also need assistance managing the emotions associated with the role. Carers may need to consider how the introduction of a foster child will change their role as a parent, and how they will introduce and support a foster child into their existing family. Relationships with family members and with friends may change. Therefore, having formal and informal support can help to reduce foster parent stress, and co-parenting stress in couples (Richardson et al. 2018). Developing new sup port networks among other foster parents can also be helpful. In fact, some evidence suggests that support networks are critical for some groups. The work of Brown et al. (2013) indicates that Aboriginal foster parents may be especially responsive to a supportive network. But beyond training, coaching, and articulated models of support, ample evidence shows that foster carers need to enjoy a relationship with the child welfare professional that is built on respect, accurate information, and responsiveness. In short, they need the child welfare professional they work with to visit and to listen; to oﬀer advice about the children in their care and about community resources; to follow through on their com mitments; and to serve as an eﬀective problem solver (Fisher et al. 2000). Moreover, they want the care they provide to children to be well informed. For these reasons, they want timely and accurate information about the child and his or her family circumstances and history (Geiger, Hayes & Lietz 2013; MacGregor et al. 2006), and they want to enjoy a relationship of clear and open communication (Denlinger & Dorius 2018). Caregiving is emotionally gratifying, but the work is diﬃcult. As a result, many of the best foster carers leave the ﬁeld. Turnover rates of between 30% and 50% are not uncommon (Christian 2002; Whenan, Oxlad & Lushington 2009), and the median dura tion foster carers remain in the ﬁeld is only 8–14 months (Gibbs & Wild ﬁre 2007). Retention is fueled, in part, by the bureaucratic features of foster care that do not cor respond with the familial experiences of raising children (Rind ﬂeisch, Bean & Denby 1998; Shlonsky & Berrick 2001). In addition, many public and private foster care agencies struggle to treat caregivers in ways that carers would prefer: with respect as valued team Responding to carers ’ needs 325 members or with appreciation for caregivers ’ heroic eﬀorts (Burgess, McDonald & Smith 2003; Fisher et al. 2000). And seemingly simple acts of professional courtesy, for example, promptly returning phone calls, appear to be a perennial problem (Rhodes, Orme & Buehler 2001; Triseliotis, Borland & Hill 1998). Of course, reimbursement rates that are so low that carers must subsidize children ’s care can contribute to a caregiver ’sdi ﬃculties continuing in the ﬁeld (Ahn et al. 2018; Rhodes, Orme & Buehler 2001). Nations across the globe now rely heavily upon kinship or relative carers to provide children with care and support. But most child welfare systems will always rely on foster care with non-relatives for some children. Given the central role foster care plays in the child welfare system, improved eﬀorts to recruit, screen, support, and retain the best among these will serve child welfare agencies and the children and families in their care. Case study Kay and Steven Denton called to inquire about foster parenting after they saw a sign about foster care on a local bus stop. First, they ﬁlled out lots of forms and then they participated in a lengthy interview with a social worker to determine their appropriate ness to serve as foster parents. The social worker wanted to know a lot about the phy sical safety of their home; she only asked a few questions about how they saw themselves as parents. Kay and Steven knew they would be good caregivers, though, as they had both performed a lot of babysitting when they were young. Once approved, they installed locks on their medicine closet and attended to other safety hazards in their home; they also participated in the 30-hour foster parent training course. Kay and Steven thought they were ready to take on the challenge of foster care. Tabitha and her little brother, Roger, were four and two respectively when they came to live with the Dentons. Everything about Kay and Steven ’s home was foreign to the siblings. The foods, smells, and sounds of the home were diﬀerent, the routines were diﬀerent, their clothes, toys, and books were diﬀerent. Nonetheless, the children settled into their new routine fairly quickly and the Dentons felt pretty con ﬁdent in their caregiving. Steven was away at work most days, leaving Kay to tend to the children alone. She called her social worker a couple of times a week during the ﬁrst few weeks. She had all sorts of unanticipated questions about the children, about what she was allowed (and not allowed) to do, and how she should handle certain situations. She knew her social worker was busy, so she was unsurprised that most of her voice mail messages were left unanswered. As the weeks turned to months, Kay fell in love with the children. They were sweet and funny, and each of them had their own, unique personality. Her feelings of aﬀection seemed to carry her through the diﬃcult moments: a crying ﬁt, an angry outburst, a deﬁant ‘no! ’ But in spite of her generally positive feelings, Kay felt as though she could bene ﬁt from more structured and intentional strategies to manage the children ’s behavior. What was that she had learned about positive reinforcement in her foster parent training? When was it appropriate to use a time-out? Should she expect diﬀerent behaviors from little Roger than from his big sister? She called her social worker a couple of times to ﬁnd out more about support groups or extra training. She got a call back, once, with a pro mise to send some brochures, but they never arrived. 326 Jill Duerr Berrick Kay shuttled the children to weekly visits with their mother, Diana. Kay was shy and didn ’t know if she could or should interact with her. Kay wanted to talk with Diana and reassure her about her children ’s well-being; she wanted to ask Diana about her chil dren ’s needs and desires; and she wanted to oﬀer Diana support as she imagined the diﬃculties of her circumstances. But they hadn ’t been formally introduced and she didn ’t know what role was appropriate, so she usually waited in the car while the children enjoyed time with their mother. The social worker visited Kay and Steven ’s home about once a month. She regularly inquired about the children, their health and well-being. But she always ran out of time, and infrequently asked about Kay, Steven, or about their views of the family and the family ’s needs. Kay thought that foster parenting was going to be a partnership. She thought that she had been invited onto a team to help Diana and her family. Instead, she felt like a poorly paid employee, minus the pay or the bene ﬁts. She noticed that her social worker rarely expressed her appreciation to either Kay or Steven. One evening, at the end of a lovely visit with their mother, Tabitha and Roger did not want to go home with Kay. They cried and begged to be left with their mother. Diana couldn ’t have been more helpful. She told the children how much she loved them and that she would see them soon; she helped transfer them to the car seats in Kay ’s car; and she assured them that Kay would take good care of them in her absence. Crying turned into screaming as the children called out for the mother, but Diana assured Kay that they would settle down. Diana hugged the children one more time and walked away. The children didn ’t settle down. Their screaming was relentless. Steven was working late, so Kay knew there was no one to help her at home. She pulled the car over for a moment to call her social worker. No answer. The on-call social worker assured her the children would settle down as soon as they got home. As they pulled into the driveway, Kay wondered what her neighbors might think. Tabitha screamed as she was pulled out of her car seat; Roger wailed as Kay carried him into the house. Nothing worked. Story- time, songs, an evening snack, nothing. Kay felt helpless, isolated, and utterly incompe tent. She vowed to herself that she would call the agency in the morning and quit. Kay remembered a neighbor down the street who once told her he was a children ’s therapist. At the end of her rope, she called, desperately hoping he might oﬀer a sugges tion or at least a friendly, adult voice. He came over, quietly oﬀered Kay some sugges tions about how to respond to the children ’s emotions and behaviors. Kay tried them out, and within a short time, the children were quiet, they were snuggled in bed, and they were fast asleep. 1 Kay and Steven learned about foster care from a public sign. What other strategies might be employed to recruit highly eﬀective foster parents? 2 The social worker who screened Kay and Steven applied a ‘minimal adequacy ’ stan dard. What additional standards, if any, should be applied in the screening process ? 3 What are some of the emotional challenges of care Kay is experiencing? 4 What could the social worker do to oﬀer Kay a collaborative role in supporting Diana, Tabitha, and Roger? 5 What are some of the positive, aﬀective characteristics Kay brought to her caregiving? 6 What are some additional behavioral characteristics Kay could have bene ﬁtted from learning? 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Tyebjee, T., 2003, ‘Attitude, interest, and motivation for adoption and foster care ’, Child Welfare , vol. 82, no. 6, pp. 685 –706. Vasileva, M. & Petermann, F., 2016, ‘Attachment, development, and mental health in abused and neglected preschool children in foster care: A meta-analysis ’, Trauma, Violence, & Abuse , vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 1–16. Responding to carers ’ needs 331 Whenan, R., Oxlad, M. & Lushington, K., 2009, ‘Factors associated with foster carer well-being, satisfaction and intention to continue providing out-of-home care ’, Children & Youth Services Review , vol. 31, pp. 752 –760. Younes, M.N. & Harp, M., 2007, ‘Addressing the impact of foster care on birth children and their families ’, Child Welfare , vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 21–40. 332 Index Page numbers in italics refer to ﬁgures. Page numbers in bold refer to tables. AAI see Adult Attachment Interview Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children: child placement principle 57, 292 ; factors causing over-representation of 295 ; Family Matters campaign and 293 –294 ; formal kinship care 180 ; intergenerational trauma 293 –294 ; measures to address disparities in access to services by 57–58;in OOHC 84; over-representation in child welfare system 6, 8, 12–13, 57–58, 289 –290 ; placement in out-of-home care 290 ; rights framework for 291 –293 ; self-determination commitment 8, 291 , 295 , 297 Aboriginal Care Circles 281 Aboriginal Child Placement Principle 13, 114 –115 , 116 , 181 Aboriginal children 296 ; in OOHC 310 ; reuni ﬁcation patterns 229 ; transfer into white care 44 Aboriginal parenting, Bowlby ’s theory of attachment 32 ‘absent parenting ’ 211 ‘absent presence ’ see child neglect abuse see child abuse abusive behaviour towards child: attachment- based trauma and 74; defence mechanism to cope with 74; triggered by baby cry 73 accommodation process 28 ACEs see Adverse Childhood Experiences ACEs adults 40 ACLSA see Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment ACT see Australian Capital Territory Action for Children 68 ‘Active eﬀorts, ’ concept of 293 activity scheduling and play therapies 139 –140 actuarial approaches 103 , 104 Additional Child Care Subsidy for Grandparents 178 adoption 11; associated questions 243 –244 ; attachment impact on 244 –245 ; challenges to 241 ; developmental recovery in 249 –250 ; development of 241 –242 ; evolution of 249 ; growth of 242 ; lawful 246 ; legal status of 242 ; lifelong impact on child 242 –243 ; origins in UK 241 ; risk factors of 244 Adoption of Children Act 1926 242 Adult Attachment Interview 33 Adverse Childhood Experiences 40, 41, 246 advocacy coalitions 280 –281 aﬀectional bonds, disruption of 32 aﬀectional relationships 34 after-care support 253 age of children: age of 5–629; age of 10–12 29; age of 15–17 29; and reuni ﬁcation patterns, link between 228 –229 Ages and Stages Questionnaire 106 Ainsworth, Mary 31 alternative education 212 ambiguous loss, grief reactions associated with 33 anger management 138 Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment 106 ASQ see Ages and Stages Questionnaire assimilation process 28 attachment: Aboriginal parenting 32; behaviours, complexity of 31; vs. bonding 33–34; Bowlby ’s conceptualisations of 32; and brain development, link between 39–40; classi ﬁcation across cultures 31; cognitive theory of 30–31;de ﬁnition of 30, 140 ; development phases 31; ethological theory of 30; learning theory of 31; manifestations of 31; nurturing and supporting 32; for optimum development 30; psychodynamic theory of 30; relationship and mentalization 74; stages of 31; see also child welfare Index 333 attachment-based trauma 75 attachment disorder 135 attachment-style interviews 33 attachment system 31 attachment therapy 140–141 Australia 53–54; Care and Protection orders 7; Children ’s Courts in 123– 124; feminist activism 81; NSW advertising campaign 79; social democratic welfare model 55–56; TRC pilot program 194–197, 201–203 Australia, kinship care in 175; children in 176– 177; formal 179–185; informal 178–179; lack of government support 179; perspectives of children and parents 185–186; services to families 176 Australian Association of Young People in Care 273 Australian Capital Territory: legislative basis for cumulative harm 125–126; mandatory reporting requirements 124 Australian Family Law Act 1975 59 Australian Government: children’s participation in court 59–60; measures to address disparities 57; neoliberal and market- oriented policies 56; programme to support parents 56; responses to CSA 91–92 ; Third Action Plan (2015–2018) 56 Australian Personal Safety Study (PSS 2016) 82 Australian ‘social investment state’ 56 ‘ baby farming ’ 242 balancing perspectives 45–46 ‘ battered child syndrome ’ 4 Behavioural and Emotional Scale 106 behavioural problems, in CP populations: ‘ attachment disorder’ 135; behavioural therapy for 135– 136; cognitive-behavioural therapy for 137; internalising problems 135; multidimensional treatment foster care for 136– 137; prevalence of 134 behaviour modiﬁcation 135–136 Berrick, Jill Duerr 318 Berry Street 252, 256 BERS see Behavioural and Emotional Scale best interest principle/standard see child ’s best interests, standard of Best Interests Case Practice Model 277 Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures approach 155 biological parents see First Families birth parents see First Families bonding 32; vs. attachment 33–34;de ﬁnition 33; early and extended contact on 34; empirical and sociological bases of 34; factors in ﬂuencing assessment of 34; theorising 33– 34 book-gifting programmes 216 brain alterations and child abuse, relationship between 41 brain development: and attachment, link between 39–40; trauma impact on 39–41 brain regions and stress managing functions 39 brainwashing 72 CAF see Common Assessment Framework California Family Risk Assessment 105 CAPI see Child Abuse Potential Inventory Care and Protection Orders 7 caregivers 67 care leavers: assistance to 255; backgrounds and experiences 252–253; classi ﬁcation of 253; from disadvantaged families 253; experiencing inadequacies in state care 253– 254; experiencing poor outcomes 256; family relationships 263–264; funding available to 255– 256; lack of family support to 254 ; ‘moving-on group’ 253; public inquiries 256; reasons for vulnerability of 253– 254; social exclusion barriers to 252; ‘ strugglers’ 253; ‘survivors ’ 253 ; transition from care plan 255; Victorian policy and 255– 256; see also leaving care CARE model 204n2 ‘ caretaker ’ movement 273 case management 114 Casey Family Services Demonstration project 234 CASPARS see Clinical Assessment Package for Assessing Clients’ Risks and Strengths CBT see cognitive behavioural therapy CCYP see Commission for Children and Young People CDI see Child-Directed Interaction Central Statistics Oﬃce 154 Centrelink 178 CFRA see California Family Risk Assessment child abuse 35–36; and brain alterations, relationship between 40–41;de ﬁnitions of 4, 5, 6;di ﬃculty in deciding matters of 127– 129; at institutional and structural levels 5; reporting pattern 6; reports 7; see also child sexual abuse Child Abuse Potential Inventory 110 child and childhood self, connection between 73 child behaviour management strategies 139 child behaviour therapy 135–136 child-centred and child-inclusive research 35 child development: attachment and bonding 29– 33; attachment impact on 244– 245; contextual relationships inﬂuencing 36;of intelligence 28; key features of 245 ; proponents of stages of 27– 28; risk and 334 Index protective factors aﬀecting 38; stage theory 28; see also developmental theories Child-Directed Interaction 141 childhood: conceptualized as vulnerable 272 ; sociology of 35 childhood abuse 153 childhood adversity: deﬁnition of 40; examples of 40; responses to 41 childhood trauma: eﬀect on brain development 39–41; neurological harm associated with 39; stimuli in context of 40 child maltreatment 14, 107 ; ATSI children 290 ; ‘battered child syndrome ’ 4;de ﬁnitions of 3, 4, 5; exposure to physical, sexual and emotional abuse 4; framed in legislation 125 –126 ; impact on child developmental health 245 –246 ; longer-term negative outcomes of 153 ; and low-income families, association between 5; parental inadequacies in 9; protective factors in relation to 152 ; reporting pattern 6; reporting requirements 5; risk factors for 153 ; social conditions associated with 112 ; state and media interest in 6; stressful stimuli 40; structural bases of 5; and structural disadvantage, link between 5; trauma from 4–5; see also child abuse child needs: changes in 27; and family needs, sociological frameworks of 36; lack of awareness of 71 child neglect: case examples of 69–76; case review issues 69; cumulative harm associated with 128 –129 ;de ﬁnitions of 67; generalised assessments 70; of identity 70; impact on brain development 40; lack of awareness of needs 71; legislation connected to 68; parameters of 67; prevalence in UK 68; psychological and physical consequences of 5; ‘relational poverty ’ 67; reporting pattern 6; re-referral rate of 69 Child Placement Principle 13, 57, 114 –115 , 116 , 181 , 292 , 293 child pornography 5 child protection 10, 14, 271 ; agenda mobilisation 4; approach 38; concerns 126 ; co-production in 283 ; framework of Australia 125 ; historical context and trends in 6–10; ideological goals of 11; interventions in 96; jurisdiction 126 ; lists of actions 71; neglect as ground for 128 –129 ; noti ﬁcations 125 ; participation principle in 277 –278 ; reports/noti ﬁcations for 96; stages of 277 ; State and Territory governments role in 96; work in divided society 42–43 Child Protection Act 1999 126 child protection assessment 34, 96; analytical 115 ; approaches to 99; child-centred approach to 116 –117 ; conceptualisation of 100 –101 ; culturally appropriate 113 –115 ; deﬁnition of 97; ecological approach to 112 ; engaging parents 117 ; in environment of uncertainty 112 –113 ; factors with respect to child and family 100 –101 ; family assessment 107 –111 ; focus of 97; in linear model 98; nature of 97–98; need for best practice in 100 ; qualitative and quantitative methods 99; questions to be considered in 101 ; responding to diversity 113 –115 ; risk assessment 101 –105 ; safety assessment 100 ; sequential steps 98; structured decision-making tools for 105 ; using knowledge in 115 –116 ; wellbeing asessment 105 –107 child protection intervention: ATSI children 289 –290 ;eﬀectiveness and impact of 8;as legal enterprise 125 ; and removals 13; statutory legal powers 125 child protection legislation 124 ; Australian 124 ; child abuse matters and 127 –129 ; child maltreatment framed in 125 –126 ; legal criterion of signi ﬁcant harm 128 ; and legal systems, tension between 126 child protection national policy 9 child protection practices: advocacy coalitions 280 –281 ; children and practitioners positioning in 275 –277 ; focus on risk of harm to children 272 ; relational participation in 278 –279 ; rising demand for 125 ; and socio-economic disadvantage, relationship between 126 ; threats of risk to children 272 child protection systems 3, 5, 125 , 127 , 277 , 290 ; challenges in design and delivery of 7; changes in 10;de ﬁcits and inadequacies 7–8; dilemmas confronting 3; discourses around operation of 7; First Families involved with 301 –313 ; forensically dominated responses to 7;paradigm shift in operation of 9–10; preoccupation with focus of 7; public interest in 9;reviewof 7, 126 –127 ; systemic failures in 56 children: conceptualisations of 35; looked after by local authority, special needs of 169 Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 126 , 256 Children and Young People Act 2008 126 Children and Young Persons Act 1933 68 Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 277 , 301 children in out-of-home care (OOHC), educational progress of: in Australia 209 , 211 ; education liaison personnel 215 ;in England 209 –213 ; foster carer/family-focused interventions 217 –218 ; mentoring programme 216 ; policy and practice implications 218 –219 ; poorer outcomes 210 ; provision for supporting 211 –212 ; reading Index 335 interventions 216–217; systemic interventions for 212– 215; trauma training 213; tutoring programmes 215–216;in US 209– 211; young people’ s experience 210; see also out-of-home care children ’s capacities and age, link between 28 Children ’s Court for Care and Protection Orders 7 Children ’s Courts: challenges to 129– 131; innovations in jurisprudence approaches 126; judicial oﬃ cers 129–130; jurisdiction in Australia 123–124; need for shared enterprise 131; operation of 129– 130; problem-solving approach 126–127; problem-solving courts 130; workload of 130 children ’s participation 271; analytical models for 274– 275; in care and protection system 273; in child protection and care systems 272; deliberative democracy and 281– 283;in protective care continuum 12; relational 278– 279; rights in court proceedings 59–60; typology relating to techniques of 275 children ’s rights: arguments for 43; and child liberation 43–44; codi ﬁcation in Convention 274; and leaving care 61; and parental duties 42; to participate in assessment 116–117;to participate in decision making 59–60;to participation in care systems 272–275;to protection 271–272; recognition of 12, 55; signiﬁ cance of awarding 53; to voice, liberal conceptualization of 273 children ’s rights movement 4, 35; patriarchal view of society 52; self-determination claims 52; and UNCRC 53, 55 children ’s wishes and feelings 59 child safe organisations 84 child safety problems 57 child’s best interests 58–59, 129 child ’s best interests, standard of: alternative approaches to implementation of 45; indeterminacy of 44– 45, 58; open-endedness of 44; signiﬁ cance in decision making 44 child sexual abuse: deﬁnitions of 80– 82; disclosure of 80, 85–86; feminist activism 81; gendered nature of 80; grooming and 86–87; harmful sexual behaviour and 89–90; issues surrounding 81; journey to recovery from 88; NSW advertising campaign 79; prevalence of 82, 92; recognition of 81; resistance to 79, 80; responses to, in Australian context 91–92; vulnerable populations at risk of 82–85 see also child abuse; child sexual abuse child sexual assault 80 child sexual exploitation 5 child ’s network, membership determinants of child ’s perception of security and personal adequacy 28 child ’s viewpoint 43 child traﬃcking and institutional abuse 5 child welfare 14; central element of 3; inequality 154, 289; resilience and strengths- based approaches in 37– 38; strengths-based practice 38– 39; trauma and neurobiological perspectives 39–41; variation for children population 27; see also attachment child welfare continuum: deﬁnition of 3; priority in 3–4; variations in 4 child welfare legislation 131; see also child protection legislation child welfare policy 14, 42, 44, 155, 223, 292, 318; conditions inﬂuencing 3; focus of 11 child welfare practice 4, 5, 6, 9, 35, 37, 46, 96, 151; ecological principles relevant in thinking about 37; focused at tertiary level 9; important points of 29; for mentalization 75, 76; see also resilience-based approaches; reuni ﬁcation; strengths-based practice; value frameworks, child welfare child welfare professionals, implications for 322– 325 child welfare system 7, 27; entry into 125; with indigenous families 13; orientation of 291 child wellbeing assessment 105–107 child with complex needs 36 ‘ Circle of Security ’ 32 client gender considerations 114 Clinical Assessment Package for Assessing Clients ’ Risks and Strengths 110 cognitive behavioural therapy 76, 137, 200 cognitive development: children under 12 29; environmental stimuli for 28; epigenetic stages of 28–29; key stages of 28; see also child development cognitive reframing 139 collaboration 99 colonisation legacy, indigenous and non- indigenous wellbeing 13 Commission for Children and Young People 197, 202 Common Assessment Framework 111, 117 ‘ community caring’ model 291 complex behaviour 37, 39, 141, 199, 257; see also behavioural problems, in CP populations concrete operations 28 conditioning see grooming of sexually abused children con ﬂict resolution 138 consensus-based approach to risk assessment 102– 105 conservative model of social policy systems 55 152 336 Index corporativist model see conservative model of social policy systems court proceedings 129; children ’s participation rights in 59– 60; experience of First Families 301, 308; legal vs welfare approaches 124– 125; see also Children ’s Courts CP see child protection CREATE Foundation 12, 273 CSO see Central Statistics Oﬃce cultural awareness 114 culturally appropriate assessment 113–114, 311, 313 culture-appropriate case management 115–116 cumulative harm 101, 125; associated with neglect 128–129; legislative basis to address 128 DBT see Dialectical Behavioural Therapy defence of birth family and parent rights 43 deinstitutionalisation 128, 192 Delfabbro, Paul 3, 27, 134, 223 Devaney, Carmel 151 developmental approach for child welfare 27 developmental disorders 29 developmental processes of personality and thinking 14 developmental tasks 27–28 developmental theories: caution when applying 116; childhood 35; contextual approaches 36; epigenetic stages of development 28–29; Eurocentric bias 116; knowledge of 115 ; see also child development development of children see child development Dialectical Behavioural Therapy 200 disclosures of CSA 85–86 Double Orphan’s Allowance 179 Driscoll, Jennifer 52 early developmental harm, dealing with 139 early intervention approaches, for child maltreatment 9–10, 14; content and focus of 151– 152; family structures and 152; focus on family practices 152; in Ireland 155–160; outcomes of 153; protective factors and 152; shift of investment towards 153 ; social and economic conditions 154–155; support for parents 152; timing importance in 153 early relationships 34 EBP see evidence-based practice ecological approach to assessment 112 ecological principles 37 ecomaps 109 educational interventions, in OOHC: education and schooling issues 11; education liaison personnel 215; foster carer/family-focused interventions 217–218; mentoring 216; policy and practice implications 218–219; reading interventions 216–217 ; systemic 212–215; tutoring programmes 215–216 Education Champions 217–218 education liaison personnel 215 emotional abuse: case examples of 69– 76; deﬁ nitions of 68; forms of 71–72; legislation connected to 68; and neglect, transmission rates of 72– 73; prevalence in UK 68; reporting pattern 6; towards eldest child 75 emotional and behavioural development 40 emotionally abused child 28 Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities 58 English Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 256 EPEC see Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities epigenetic stages of development 28–29 Erikson ’s developmental theory 28–29 Escape from Childhood (Holt) 52 European Union (EU) Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 154 evidence-based practice 201 exchange model 99 ‘ exclusive fostering’ 43 explicit online material, harm from 91 extended care 254 eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy 76 FACN see Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families FAF see Family Assessment Form Families First 235 family and child welfare challenges 3 family assessment: challenges 107; cross- cultural perspective 116; disadvantaged families 107–108; frameworks 108–111 ; purpose of 107 , 108; strengths and protective factors 108 Family Assessment Form 110 family-based, early intervention 9, 11 family-based foster care 10 Family Centred Out of Home Care Program 234 Family Court of Australia 91 Family Drug Treatment Courts 126 family functioning, environmental factors inﬂ uencing 35–36 family group conferences 58, 281 Family Matters campaign 293–294 family practices, notion of 152 family preservation programme 108, 127, 234– 235 family relationship, minimal intervention and intrusion into 42 Index 337 family reuniﬁcation see reuni ﬁcation Family Reuniﬁcation Service 234 Family Strengths and Needs Assessment 105 family structure and reuni ﬁcation patterns 230 Family Support orientation 7 family support services 108, 125 Farmer, Elaine 175 Fattore, Tobia 271 Federal Circuit Court of Australia 123 Fernandez, Elizabeth 3, 27, 96, 223, 300 First Families: access to services 308; engagement and inclusion 302–303; family contact 305–307; grief and loss experienced by 307 , 312; involvement in court proceedings 301–302; issues in research of 309– 310, 312– 313; legal issues aﬀ ecting 301; loss of identity 307; need for material and practical assistance 311; poverty of 311; relationships with carers 304–305; relationships with caseworkers 303–304; respect for dignity and worth of 312; restoration to 301 ; socio-economic circumstances of 300– 301, 311; traumatic experience 307–308 formalised risk assessments systems 100 formal kinship care 175–176, 179; care arrangements 182–183; child and carer, relationship between 181; children ’s contact with parents 183–184; children ’s restoration to parents from 184; ﬁnancial support for carers 183; Indigenous children 180; permanency planning legislation 185; pressure to keep children out of 185 ; regulation and support 181–182; stability and quality of care 184 formal operations 28 foster carers: aﬀective and behavioural qualities of 323 ; applicant screening criteria 323; family-focused interventions 217–218; parenting assessment 323; recruitment strategies 322–323 ; roles and responsibilities of 319 –321; training programs for 323–324 foster family care 4, 10, 42, 211; child ’s experience in 45; custody in 318 ; reuni ﬁcation from 230–231; services and birth parent 319; signiﬁcance of 319 ; state- provided 163; voluntary and involuntary 318 foster family care service: children and families requiring 163–165, 164, 165; foster care roles and tasks 165–166; foster carers 166–167; informal 163; long-term 167; ‘mixed economy ’ of provision 166–167; scoping the research on 168– 171; services required to support 167; wellbeing outcomes 167–168 foster parents: case study 325–327; characteristics of 321; support for 321–322 Framework for Reuni ﬁcation (tool) 233–234 Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families 111 FRS see Family Reuniﬁcation Service FSNA see Family Strengths and Needs Assessment ‘ future risk of emotional harm,’ notion of 68 gender and child protection 309 genogram 109 ‘ ghosts in the nursery, ’ experiencing 73 Grandparent Advisor program 178 grandparent care 177–179 ‘ Grandparent Inquiry’ 179 grief reactions 33 grooming of sexually abused children 86–87 Guardian ’s Allowance 178 Harding, Fox 42–43 harmful sexual behaviour 80; of children towards other children 89–90; exposure to explicit online material 91 holistic ecological assessments 105 Holt, John 273 HOME see Home Observation for Measurement of Environment home-based care 211 home-based tutoring programme 216 HOMEBUILDERS program 235 ‘ home-grown model’ 194 Home Observation for Measurement of Environment 110 HSB see harmful sexual behaviour human development, normative course of 27 Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 53 ‘ hypo arousal ’ state 74 identity, Erikson’s theorising on 29 ‘ inclusive fostering’ 43 Incredible Years programs 142 indigenous children: formal kinship care 180;in out-of-home care 10; overrepresentation in child welfare system 12–13, 125, 290; role of relatives in care of 116 ; wellbeing of 13 indiscriminate attachment 31 individual diﬀerences and resilience 37 infants, attachment in: developmental phases of 31; development theories of 30– 31; manifestations of 31 informal foster care 163 informal kinship care 176, 178–179 insecure attachment 31 institutional forms of care 4 intelligence, development of 28 interactionism 37 338 Index inter-generational abuse 12 intergenerational trauma 293 international child welfare literature 5 inter-professional collaboration 127 interventive approaches 41 ‘ invisible trauma’ see child neglect Ireland, prevention and early intervention in practice in 155– 160; family-based care placements 155; foster care arrangements 155; Meitheal activity 156–160; Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS) 156; Tusla and 155– 156 KEEP program 324 kinship care 211, 318; bene ﬁts of 177; challenges for carers in 177– 178;de ﬁnition of 175; vs. foster care 177; kinship foster care 10–11, 166; reuni ﬁcation from 230–231; terminology 175 kinship care, in Australia and UK 175; children in 176– 177; formal 175–176, 179– 185; informal 178–179; lack of government support 179; perspectives of children and parents 185– 186; services to families 176 Kiraly, Meredith 175 KITS programme 217 knowledge, child protection assessments 115– 116 Kor, Kenny 192 laissez-faire value position 42 lawful adoption 246 leaving care: deﬁnition of 252; extended till at least 21 years of age 254; legislative provisions 255–256; Stand By Me program 256– 260; see also care leavers legal approaches, for child protection cases 124– 125 legislation and agency policies 99 Letterbox Club (Griﬃths), The 216 Lewis, Natalie 289 liberal model of social policy systems 55 local authority care 211 Locke, John 272–273 London Fostering Achievement 217 looked-after children 211 Loving, Alice 67 loving caregivers 40 lower socio-economic areas: diﬃcult living circumstances in 36 magistrates 126 maltreatment see child maltreatment mandatory reporting requirements 124 marginalisation 8 Mason, Jan 271 maternal bonding: concept 30; development of 33– 34 maternal deprivation thesis 30 maternal infant attachment, theory of 29– 30 McNamara, Patricia 192 ‘ Meitheal ’ model 156–160 Mendes, Philip 252 mental health treatment approaches 200–201; implications for policy 202–203; implications for practice 201–202; milieu-based and 194 mentalization and parenting 74–76 mentoring 216 milieu-based models: aims of 197 ; implications for policy 202–203; implications for practice 201– 202; key ﬁndings of 197– 198, 198; strengths and limitations 199–200; young people’ s experience 198 mind-control techniques 72 minority status and reuni ﬁcation patterns, link between 229 mother –infant bond see maternal bonding MST see multisystemic therapy MTFC see multidimensional treatment foster care multidimensional treatment foster care 136–137 multisystemic therapy 37, 143, 235 natal and neonatal experience, humanising 34 National Association of Young People in Care 273 National Child Protection Framework Action Plan for 2015 –18 255 National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 9, 56 , 58– 59, 125 National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE 2017) 68 National Oﬃce for Child Safety 92 National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC 2014) 68 National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing 105 NCFAS see North Carolina Family Assessment Scale NCFAS for Reuni ﬁcation 109–110 NCFAS-R see NCFAS for Reuni ﬁcation neglect see child neglect neglected child: cognitive development 28; smaller brain of 41 neglectful emotional experiences 73 neglectful parenting 69 neoliberal policy 55 neurobiological perspective, child welfare decision making 41 neuroscience 246–249 ‘ new sociology of childhood ’ 273 New South Wales 81; legislative basis for cumulative harm 125–126 Index 339 2006 New South Wales Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce Report 81 New Street Services in NSW 90 non-Aboriginal societies, over-representation of 13 non-Indigenous children 6, 10, 57, 180, 229, 255, 290, 310 non-mainstream schools 212 North Carolina Family Assessment Scale 109– 110, 231– 233, 232 Northern Ireland: foster children in 217; milieu- based models evaluated in 197 –200, 198; reading interventions 216 NSCAW see National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing NSW Association of Child Caring Agencies 273 NSW Care and Protection Practice Standards 277 nuclear family and child protection 152 O ﬃce of the Victorian Ombudsman 126 online technologies, sexual development associated with 90–92 OOHC see out-of-home care optimum parenting, materially favourable environment for 43 Osborn, Alexandra 134 out-of-home care 4, 155, 163, 255, 300, 318; ATSI in 84; carers 84; CSA prevention in 84; CSA risk for children in 83– 84;di ﬃculties in leaving 12; formal and informal care 10–11; goals of 11; growing numbers of children in 224; intensive approaches to 11; outcomes 11; pattern of disproportionality 10; placement consideration 7; quality and instability of 42; see also children in out-of home care (OOHC), educational progress of paired reading 216 parental employment and reuni ﬁcation patterns 230 parental engagement 117 parental separation: article 9 of UNCRC and 54; factors associated with negative eﬀ ects of 30; types and lengths of 30 parental skill training: Incredible Years programs 142; multisystemic therapy 143; Parent –Child Interaction therapy 141; parent management training 142; positive parenting program 143 –144 Parent –Child Interaction therapy 141 parent child relationship 42 Parent-Directed Interaction 141 parent –infant bond 34 Parent –infant psychotherapy 76 parenting 32, 36, 117 Parenting Payments 311 Parenting Stress Index 110 parent management training 142 Parent Partner Program 235 parents: and carers, responses to children by 87– 88; primary responsibility of 54, 55 ; rights and defence of birth family 43 ParentsNext initiative 56, 311 paternalism 44, 55 PCIT see Parent –Child Interaction therapy PDI see Parent-Directed Interaction PEP see Personal Education Plan permanency planning legislation 185 Personal Adviser (PA) model 257 Personal Education Plan 211–213 personality traits: of excessive frustration 28;of overly indulged gratiﬁcation 28 physical battery, phenomenon of 4 Piaget ’s stage theory 27–28 Play therapy 139–140 PMT see parent management training Poor Law Amendment Act of 1868 68 pornography and harmful sexual behaviour, link between 90 positive parenting program 143–144 poverty: and child abuse, link between 5, 36; reuni ﬁcation aﬀected by 229 –230; SILC ﬁ gures on 154 PPFS see Prevention, Partnership and Family Support PPP see positive parenting program preoperational development 28 preventative and supportive services 8 Prevention, Partnership and Family Support 156 preventive and supportive work with families and children 43 preventive interventions, for child maltreatment: content and focus of 151– 152; family structures and 152; focus on family practices 152; in Ireland 155–160; outcomes of 153 ; protective factors and 152; shift of investment towards 153; social and economic conditions 154–155; support for parents 152; timing importance in 153 private spaces, CSA in 84 privatisation 55 , 56 procedural model 99 Protecting Children: The Child Protection Outcomes Project 126 Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry 128 protectionism 272 protective care continuum, guiding principles in decision making in 58– 60 PSI see Parenting Stress Index psychoeducation 139 99 340 Index psychological disturbance 5 psychometric instruments 103–104 psychosocial development of children 27 PTSD-type symptoms 73 public care 9 public health 9–10, 14 Pupil Premium Plus grant 212 Purtell, Jade 252 qualitative and quantitative assessment methods Queensland: legislative basis for cumulative harm 125–126; reuni ﬁcation patterns in 229 questioning model 99 radicalization processes 71 reading interventions 216–217 reframing 45 relational experiences with caregivers: brain development shaped by 39–40; trusting relationship 117; undermined 88 relational participation 278–279 relational recovery, model for 88 relationships: aﬀectional 34; and resilience 37; trustful 29; unconventional networks of 152 relative care 230–231, 318 Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protective Services in NSW 127 residency and reuni ﬁcation patterns 230 residential care, in OOHC context 4, 211; challenges 192; paradox of 192; shift to smaller group homes 192; vs. therapeutic residential care 192– 193 resilience 37 resilience-based approaches 37–38 ‘ restoration ’ see reuni ﬁcation restorative justice 89 reuni ﬁcation 11, 32, 211, 236; assessments 115; case-planning and practice issues 231–234; challenge of re-entry to care following 235– 236; decision making 109–110;de ﬁnition of 223 , 224; demographic risk factors of 228– 229; destination after exit from care 225; duration of 226 ; vs. exit from care 225; familial factors 228–230; framework for 234; legal status 226; outcome 226; passive vs. active process 227; screening tool for 231– 233; services designed to focus on 234– 235; statistical and research issues 227; statistical patterns of 224– 225; system factors 228; timing 226 ‘ rights-based ’ approach to children issues 53 rights framework 291–292 risk assessment: actuarial approaches 103, 104; balanced approach 113;in child abuse 101– 102; consensus-based approaches 102–104; constraints 112–113; decision-making tools 290;de ﬁnition 100; environment of 112– 113; ethical considerations 104–105; evidence-based frameworks 104; identi ﬁcation of situational hazards 102; likelihood of harm estimation 100, 101; models 128; practitioners ’ decision making 113; psychometric instruments for 103– 104 risk management 38 role-modelling 138 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 79, 192;de ﬁnition of child sexual abuse 81–82; limitations of 91 ‘ rule of optimism ’ 42 SA see Safety Assessment Safety Assessment 105 SAICA see Social Adjustment Inventory for Children and Adolescents SBM program see Stand By Me program school climate 212 SDM see structured decision-making tools Sebba, Judy 209 secure attachment 31–32 ‘ selective social smiling ’ 31 self-assertiveness training 138 self-discipline and obligations 138 sensorimotor development 28 separation and loss, notions of 33 separation anxiety 31 separation at birth 34 sex education 91 sexual abuse 12, 71; see also child sexual abuse sexual behaviours 81–82 sexual development, with online technologies 90– 91 sexual exploitation gangs 71–72 sexually abused children: grooming of 86– 87; harming person facilitating recovery of 88– 89; journey to recovery for 88; response from parents or carers 87–88 ‘ sexually harmful behaviour ’ 80 sexual safety of children 80 SGOs see Special Guardianship Orders Sheehan, Rosemary 123 Shemmings, David 67 sibling sexual abuse 83 Signs of Safety 111 SILC see Survey on Income and Living Conditions Simmonds, John 241 single parents, situational prevention for 84–85 situational prevention 84–85 skin to skin contact to infants 33–34 Social Adjustment Inventory for Children and Adolescents 106 Index 341 social and economic conditions 154–155 social-behavioural problems 139 social care and education, liaison between 215 social competency and resilience issues 137; activity scheduling and play therapies 139– 140; attachment therapy for 140– 141; early developmental harm 139; social skills training for 137– 138; trauma-informed counselling 139 social democratic welfare model 55 social learning 138 socially acceptable behaviour 28 social policy systems, models of 55 social skills training 137–138 Social Support Networks map 109 social welfare policies 55 social work practitioners 69, 134 social work with children and families 7 socio-economic disadvantage and contact with child protection services, relationship between 126 socio-economic stress and maltreatment, link between 6 South Australia: children in OOHC in 229; Children ’s Courts 123, 129; kinship carers 183; reuni ﬁcation patterns in 229 Special Guardianship Orders 181 ‘ speci ﬁc attachment ’ 31 ‘ spotters’ 71–72 ‘ stage, ’ concept of 27 standard model of family life and operation 152 Stand By Me program 252, 265; aims and objectives of 256– 257; case study 260; evaluation 257–259; family relationships 263– 264; holistic support 259–260; leaving care and post-care anxiety reduction 259; leaving care planning and implementation 259; SBM worker roles 257; strengthened housing assistance 262–263; worker –client relationship 259 state duties, to support child care 54–58; prioritizing resource allocation 55; social policy models and 55–56; support to parents 55 state institutions, investment in 55 state intervention 291; birth family defence and parent rights 43–44; child family relationship and 42; for child protection 42– 43; children ’s right to protection through 271–272 state paternalism and child protection position 42– 43 Statutory child protection agencies 124 Staying Put extended foster care program 254 stranger anxiety 31 ‘ Strange Situation ’ framework 31 strengths-based practice 38–39 stressful early experiences and brain development 39 stress managing functions, brain regions associated with 39 stress responsive systems 40 structured decision-making tools 105 Survey on Income and Living Conditions 154 Tasmania: Children’s Courts in 123 ; reuni ﬁcation patterns in 211, 224, 229 teenager, child welfare needs of 27 TF-CBT see Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy therapeutic residential care: case study of 203– 204;de ﬁnitions of 193, 194; vs. general residential care 192–193; home-grown approach 194–197, 196; implications for policy 202–203; implications for practice 201– 202; mental health treatment approaches 200– 201; milieu-based models approach 197– 200, 198; principles for designing and implementing 193; research evidence 193– 194 therapeutic residential care pilot program 194; vs. general residential care group 196; implications for policy 202–203; implications for practice 201–202; mental health and wellbeing outcomes 195; strengths and limitations 195–197; young people’s perspectives 195 Third Action Plan (2015 –2018) 56 Thoburn, June 163 Thorpe, Ros 300 TILA see Transition to Independent Living Allowance Tilbury, Clare 289 ‘ token economy ’ procedure 136 Tolliday, Dale 79 ‘ trait trap’ 37 transactionism 37 Transition to Independent Living Allowance 255 trauma see childhood trauma Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy 200 trauma-informed care 41 trauma-informed counselling 139 traumatic childhood abuse 72–73 traumatic memories 73 TRC pilot program see therapeutic residential care pilot program triangulation of knowledge 45–46 trustful relationships 29 Tusla 155–156 TutorBright 216 tutoring programmes 215–216 342 Index UK, kinship care in 175 ; children in 176 , 177 ; formal 179 –185 ; informal 178 –179 ; perspectives of children and parents 185 –186 ; services to families 176 UK family assessment frameworks 111 UK Looking After Children Initiative 107 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2013 58–59 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 44 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 15, 53, 272 ; article 2 of 59; article 3–1 of 58; article 4 of 55; article 9 of 54; article 12 of 59, 116 ; article 12–1 of 59; article 18 of 54; article 18–2 of 55; article 26 of 55; article 27 of 55; children ’s rights and 52–53; child ’s best interests in 58; core principles of 35; on disparities in access to services 57; General Principles of 53; implications 62; incorporated into domestic law 53–54; prioritization of ‘early intervention approaches 53; recommendations to strengthen family support 53; reporting mechanism 54; state ’s duties to support children care 54–58 USA mental health treatment approaches 200 –201 value frameworks, child welfare 41; children ’s rights and child liberation 43–44; defence of birth family and parent rights 43; laissez faire 42; state paternalism and child protection 42–43 Verso 194 Victoria: child protection system 127 ; children on care and protection orders in 125 ; legislative basis for cumulative harm 125 –126 ; mandatory reporting requirements 124 ; reuni ﬁcation patterns in 229 Victorian Law Reform Commission 126 , 131 Victorian policy 255 –256 Virtual Schools 211 –213 vulnerable children 82; policies to protect 272 ; resilience 37; sibling sexual abuse 83; and young people 83 vulnerable families of children: risk factors experienced by 8; trend of ignoring 7, 8 ‘welfare to work ’ model 56 wellbeing of child 11 wellbeing of indigenous children 13 Western Australia: Children ’s Courts in 123 , 129 ; mandatory reporting requirements 124 ‘Who Cares ’ conference, 273 ‘whole of community ’ approach 125 ‘women ’s movement ’ 4 ‘Young People in Care Speakout ’ 273

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