Kinship-care placements in Australia are now more prevalent than foster care and are the fastest growing form of out-of-home care in this country (AIHW, 2014). On 30 June 2013, 93% of Australian children in out-of-home care were in home-based care, with 43% of these in foster care and 48% in relative/kinship care (AIHW, 2014). The past decade has seen a greater understanding of children's needs in out-of-home care, with models of therapeutic care showing promise in Australia and internationally. These models, however, are designed almost exclusively for children placed in foster care or residential care, and as such do not consider the unique features of kinship care. This paper will identify the needs of children in out-of-home care, before briefly examining the concepts of therapeutic foster care as a response to children who have experienced trauma. Key distinctions between foster care and kinship care will be highlighted and implications for a conceptual model of therapeutic kinship care discussed.

The media coverage of foster care in Australia is replete with adoration for foster carers who look after disadvantaged and difficult children and youth. As this article is being written, New South Wales is holding a ‘foster care week’ with enhanced media coverage and praise for foster carers, the recruitment of new foster carers and acclaim for the ‘foster carer of the year’. Yet, there is another side to foster care that offers less than ideal circumstances for children in care. There is the worrying issue of multiple placements, the problem with children and young people running away from foster care before they reach the legal age for discharge, and evidence of increased incidence of poor educational attainment and involvement in juvenile offending for young people in foster care. In addition, there are cases of foster children being abused by foster carers. As adults, former foster-care children and youth are over-represented among the homeless, in adult correction centres, the unemployed and the users of mental health services. This article documents these negative outcomes of entering the foster-care system, and asks whether family (or non-relative) foster care can survive this evidence. For too many children and young people, family foster care may not provide better outcomes than less-than-optimal parental care from which the children were removed. An alternative is to reduce the use of family foster care and increase intensive support and parenting education services for birth parents who have limited parenting capacity. The aim should be to limit the number of children being taken into care.

In the past 20 years, social change and expectations for both maternal and paternal responsibilities have highlighted the need for services for families to better understand the role of a father in family relationships. In Australia, as well as internationally, there have been many contested understandings about what constitutes ‘good fathering’ in research, social media and in the political sphere. More specifically, there has also been an emerging trend to understand the challenging task of recruiting and maintaining men's involvement in child and family services programmes, particularly those fathers who are deemed a risk to children and mothers, violent or have been separated from their children. That many child and family/welfare services have exercised dedicated effort to work with fathers is still a relatively recent phenomenon, and has only emerged following criticism that services have been too geared towards working only with mothers. Despite this increasing interest, there is still ongoing need for more research to be undertaken in Australia. An important area of focus is the views of professionals about their perception and engagement of fathers, particularly the views of fathers who are described as being absent from family-based services. The purpose of this article is to report briefly on a study undertaken to examine how child and family welfare workers engage fathers in their work. First, this paper will describe some of the social and health benefits to fathers and their children, focusing on the key role of attachment through play. Research into effective service delivery involving fathers will then be presented, concluding with key practice factors necessary for fathers to be involved in family life.

Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) has attracted increasing interest in Australia, as a specialised out-of-home care option for children with complex needs. Extending beyond the limitations of traditional residential programmes, TRC aims to address the impact of trauma and promote positive development and wellbeing. The Lighthouse Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne, providing a long-term programme of TRC to young people aged 15 to 22 at intake. The organisation has developed an attachment and trauma-informed therapeutic community approach, embodied in the Therapeutic Family Model of Care. This discussion paper explores how the therapeutic community approach taken by Lighthouse provides a different experience of the cultural ‘sites’ in which early traumatic experiences occur – including the home environment, experiences of family, and the wider community. In doing so, we propose that an important dimension of TRC is the capacity to challenge traumatic relational blueprints of abuse and neglect. This, in turn, supports children to form and sustain positive and reciprocal relationships, and to live inter-dependently in the community.

While there is a popular belief that the digital generation is immersed in and adept at using digital media, recent studies point to a large variation among young people in their appropriation of digital technologies. This study examined the patterns of, and reasons for, infrequent use of digital technology among the younger generation, by conducting semi-structured interviews with 19 school-aged Australian youth. Infrequent users focused narrowly on a small number of applications and did not explore the wide range of available activities. This was mainly due to their lack of confidence and the perceived irrelevance of digital technologies to their lives. Most participants in this study had chosen a vocational path where computers and the internet were not integral to their everyday learning experience. This deterred them from improving their digital media literacy. Based on observations, I argue that it is not sufficient merely to provide access to digital media; rather, users need motivation, skills and perceived benefits in order to utilise this technology fully. In the case of school-aged youth, schoolwork as well as their peer group culture influences how they situate themselves in the digital environment that surrounds them.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that at 31 December 2011 there were 5,098,694 children and young people in Australia under the age of 18 years, while for the period 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report on child protection indicates that there were 48,420 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect in Australia. The likelihood is that almost 95 (94.96) per cent of Australian children and young people were not abused or neglected in that period; and this is a cause for national celebration. These figures are good reason to praise the parents and caregivers of the 5,050,274 children who were not abused or neglected. We argue that there is a need for an emphasis in the political debate about child protection that focuses on children who are not abused, in order for the issue of child abuse and neglect to be placed in proper perspective. The lack of perspective in the current dialogue simply results in an unending demand for more resources for detection-focused services. Instead, there has to be increased emphasis on preventative services for vulnerable families who fail to meet community child-rearing standards. These exacting standards of parenting can only be achieved through parent education and the provision of intensive and extensive family support services, combined with sensitive monitoring of at-risk families. Accordingly, this article is written in a dissenting voice.

Children who experience ongoing abuse, violence and homelessness often develop social, emotional, health and behavioural problems which are frequently manifested in trauma-based behaviours including self harming and suicidal behaviours, aggressive and criminal behaviours, and drug and alcohol problems. These children often do not engage with traditional therapeutic services. Their persistent fear associated with fleeing the violence and their subsequent transient living situations prevents them from engaging with professionals.

An innovative therapeutic program using animals in an activity based group setting was implemented by a family violence housing and support agency to engage these children. As part of its commitment to improving responses to children this agency funded a preliminary, independent evaluation of the program.

The objective of this evaluation was to obtain feedback from the children who had attended the group on their experiences of the animal therapy group. This paper reports on the children’s views of the benefits of the group.

“. . . .and when we’re holding the animals, makes you feel more calmer and stuff” (13-year-old girl)

The challenges to providing healthy and appropriate developmental experiences to vulnerable children in an institutionalised setting remain enormous. At Udayan Care orphanage, children arrive at our doorstep with unimaginable trauma. Udayan Care, a non-governmental organisation in India, has modelled its 13 Children's Homes and three Aftercare facilities on a holistic group care model; where small numbers of children are placed together in an apartment in a community to address their traumatic experiences and other life adversities within the context of this new environment. This paper details how, with limited funds, Udayan Care has been able to tackle the challenges of providing homes where children can undergo the slow process of healing, surrounded by supportive and dedicated professionals (carers) who do their best to meet their ongoing developmental needs. These carers work on obstacles affecting the children, concentrating their energies on aiding them in developing more secure and healthy attachments, adaptive emotional regulation skills, and capacities for resilience within the context of holding a vision for their futures. Our homes draw upon staff and the local community in unique ways to foster these developmental goals. This paper focuses especially on how issues of retention and lack of sufficient funds impact on recruiting lifetime volunteers (Mentor Parents), training volunteers and supporting them in their ongoing work. Additionally, this paper highlights ways in which we have addressed coping with these obstacles, through recruiting experts trained abroad to lead in-person and online workshops for our carers. These adjustments have led to better outcomes overall for the children we care for.

Parents are instrumental in the healthy development of their children, and consequently future generations, and should therefore be supported in their parental role. Using a Grounded Theory framework, 24 parents of 0- to 10-year-olds were interviewed about their experiences and preparation for parenthood. Despite their overall satisfaction, many felt underprepared, unsure, alone and inadequate during their transition to parenthood. Most of them felt like they struggled unnecessarily during the first year of parenthood, commenting on changes that would help support new parents. This paper reports the preliminary findings of the study.

The aim of this study was to explore the role that professional foster care – and specifically Individual Packages of Care (IPC) in South Australia – plays in providing an alternative care option for young people who are unable to live with their birth parents due to issues of abuse or neglect, but who also, due to behavioural concerns, are not well suited to a traditional foster care placement. Participants in the study were nine young people who had previously lived in an IPC placement. The findings highlight participants’ experiences of living in the context of an IPC placement, experiences that were at times challenging, but which also provided opportunities for growth and positive change that may not have been possible in a traditional foster care placement.

The adoption of the Sanctuary Model within Churches of Christ Care Pathways, an Australian non-government organisation in the child protection sector, has influenced a fundamental attitudinal shift towards enhanced wellbeing for clients, employees and carers alike. By drawing on the four pillars of Sanctuary, which incorporate theoretical and practical strategies, a safe environment can be created to heal trauma on an individual, organisational and community level, with the view towards a future of growth, change and resilience. The four pillars; Theory, SELF (Safety, Emotion Management, Loss and Future), the Seven Commitments and the Tools, support healing from trauma, and bring about organisational change. Examples from Pathways Residential Care and Fostering Services are used to illustrate the way in which the Sanctuary Model has enhanced safety within this out-of-home care community.

Parenting programmes are very much a part of the international landscape in Western communities. Coping skills provide a useful resource for parents and children in managing their everyday lives, both together and individually. Following a 5-year research programme with parents and children in an early years setting, Families Can Do Coping was developed as a comprehensive parenting skills programme that incorporates parents’ understanding of their own coping and that of their children. The programme was delivered with the twin aims of teaching communication and coping skills to parents. In 2012, five 2-hour sessions were delivered to 19 parents in an Early Learning Centre at the University of Melbourne. The five-session programme focused on providing parents with information regarding coping skills and the use of visual tools to assist parents to engage with their children in conversations about coping. Additionally, parents completed a pencil-and-paper coping skills evaluation for their child. The programme outcomes included perceptions of parents’ enhancement of their wellbeing, and development of proactive and productive coping skills in both parents and children. After a 3-month period three parents provided feedback on their progress and use of the new tools and strategies for maintaining helpful parenting.

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

There is a lack of research data about children with disabilities across the range of child and family welfare services. The study reported in this paper explored the extent and nature of disabilities in children in a variety of programmes within OzChild, an Australian welfare agency. Caseworkers and teachers working with children at the beginning of 2012 considered all children receiving services from their programmes. Of these 475 children, 200 were identified as having a disability. This article presents data on these 200 children and recommendations for improving outcomes for them. A major finding was that disability added further layers of complexity to already complex child–carer/family situations presenting to under-resourced practitioners and programmes. There was an extensive variety of disabilities across all programme areas, and varying proportions across programmes ranging from 29 per cent in kinship care and family services to 44 per cent of children in foster care. Data were suggestive of problems with some diagnoses, and the need for further research in these areas. The need to address questions of causation of environmentally based disability through preventative programmes, and a more targeted approach to families with multiple and complex needs were indicated. Lack of respite care was jeopardising some placements of children with severe disability. Lack of educational achievement and participation in social, cultural and recreational activities were identified, as were inequities in funding across different programme areas – all of which resulted in some children with disabilities continuing to be substantially disadvantaged. These data led to the generation of recommendations for changes to practice, programme and policy to improve outcomes for children.

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care are known to have poor educational outcomes compared to their non-care peers. Yet little is known about the experiences or needs of the small numbers of Australian care leavers who enter higher education. This article critically examines existing Australian and international research on the access of care leavers to higher education. A group of pre-care, in-care, transition from care and post-care factors are identified as either hindering or assisting care leavers to maximise their educational opportunities. Some specific policy and practice reforms are recommended to enhance opportunities for Australian care leavers to participate in and complete higher education.

The emerging phenomenon of youth ‘sexting’ presents a range of unique legal, policy and educative challenges. In this article we consider four key issues in recent responses to youth sexting behaviours: (1) the definitional dilemmas surrounding the term ‘sexting’; (2) the inadequacy of existing legislative frameworks for responding to these behaviours; (3) the problematic messages conveyed in anti-sexting campaigns; and (4) the relative silence around gender-based violence in non-consensual and abusive encounters. We argue that the non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images has largely been framed in public debates as a problem of youth naiveté, with the effect of censuring young women's ‘risky’ sexual behaviour, and leaving unproblematised gender-based violence. We suggest that more nuanced understandings of sexting that distinguishes between the consensual and non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images must inform legal, policy and education-based prevention responses to the misuse of new technologies.