News from the Australian Centre for Child Protection
Issue 4 November/December 2010
From the Director: new directions in
child protection
Student journalism
prize established
Meet the researcher:
Dr Sara McLean
Workforce development update
Knowledge transfer: our upcoming
presentations
Recent publications
From the Director
New directions in child protection
I
have now been at the Australian Centre for Child Protection for
three months. After 20 years in academia and directing two child
welfare research centres in the United States, I was ready for new
horizons and new adventures. So this girl from Kansas came to Oz to
step into the shoes of Dorothy (Scott).
What did I find in the Centre? A highly skilled staff with good
hearts, good brains, and the courage to ask the hard questions.
Asking the hard questions and working with practitioners concerning
the challenges of child maltreatment and the protection of children
are difficult paths to walk, but this team is excited and well
prepared to head down that road, knowing there is no magical wizard
at the end of that road who can solve all of our problems.
I chose to come to a Centre that has a well established profile and a
record of strong contributions to the national child maltreatment
prevention efforts in Australia, and the strong message that child
protection can only be addressed with a public health approach,
where a variety of preventive and supportive services are joined up
to best serve families, children and communities. The nation has
taken that message to heart, and Australia can boast one of the
strongest prevention networks in the world.
Where the Centre team can head now is into the dark forest of the
“pointy end” of child protection; those services for children at
highest risk of maltreatment and out of home placement. We are quite
excited about the prospect, and I will bring all my experience from
the US as well as my involvement in comparative international
research in children’s services to this effort.
Combining the national impact of the Centre with my international
expertise, it is our hope that we can help strengthen the child
protection system in Australia so that “there’s no place like home.”
Professor Marianne Berry
Director
Australian Centre for Child Protection
Student journalism prize established
The Centre has established a student journalism
prize to encourage sensitive reporting of child protection issues,
with the inaugural prize winner to be announced in December.
The Australian Centre for Child Protection Student Journalism Award
aims to help journalism students think beyond sensationalist
treatments and consider broader issues such as the underlying causes
of child abuse and neglect and preventative strategies.
Founded in partnership with journalism educators from UniSA’s School
of Communication, International Studies and Languages, the $1000
prize is embedded into the Journalism Ethics course as part of the
University’s prestigious Bachelor of Journalism degree. The prize
was open to undergraduate students in 2010, with another prize for
postgraduate journalism students to be offered from 2011.
As part of a lecture the journalism ethics students hear from two
guest speakers; this year it was the Australian Centre for Child
Protection Deputy Director Associate Professor Leah Bromfield, and
the Create Foundation’s Bethany Stewart. After writing an article
based on the lecture that goes towards assessment, the students have
the option of expanding the piece and entering it into the
competition.
Prize coordinator Charlotte Chalklen says the inaugural lecture
was inspiring.
“Both speakers had special insights into different aspects of child
protection – Leah, as one of Australia’s leading child protection
researchers, and Bethany, who as a community facilitator works with
young people who have been in out-of-home care.
“I’d like to thank the judges – Channel Seven senior reporter
Jessica Adamson, SA Guardian for Children and Young People Pam
Simmons, and the Director of the Australian Centre for Child
Protection Professor Marianne Berry.”
Meet the researcher: Dr Sara McLean
As a clinical child psychologist and a mother of four, it’s fair to
say that Dr Sara McLean (pictured) has more than a little insight into what it
is that makes kids and families tick.
The Australian College of Child and Family Protection Practitioners
(ACCFPP) wouldn’t disagree, having recently appointed the Australian
Centre for Child Protection researcher SA president of the
organisation.
ACCFPP is a professional body that promotes excellence in child and
family protection practice across Australia, through professional
development opportunities, fellowships and its conference.
Dr McLean, who is building a literature base to inform the
development of child and family inclusive practice across a range of
Centre projects, says she’s looking forward to her new role as a
chance to enhance links between research and practice in child
protection.
“An important part of my role with ACCFPP will be to disseminate
research and facilitate interagency forums on child protection that
are relevant to practitioners.
“I’m also excited about the opportunity to mentor a new generation
of graduate students, and together build our knowledge on how best
to protect and support vulnerable children.”
A registered clinical psychologist, Dr McLean worked as a senior
clinical psychologist supporting children with serious and
significant mental health and behavioural concerns before joining
the Centre earlier this year. Her PhD research examined real world
practice of collaborative case management in children in
out-of-home-care who expressed their distress through challenging
behaviour.
She sees the relationship between early deprivation and trauma and
brain development as a research area ripe for further exploration.
“The emerging research encouraged us to critically examine our
existing models of antisocial and challenging behaviour, and much
remains to be understood about the relationship between maltreatment
types and subsequent behaviour.”
Workforce development update
As many readers of this newsletter will be aware, the Centre has
been engaged to deliver a national project to help service providers
manage the complex needs of vulnerable children and families at 12
sites around Australia.
Entitled Protecting and Nurturing Children: Building Bridges
between Services, Building Capacity within Services, the
project has been funded by the Department of Families, Housing,
Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) as part of
National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children first three
year action plan.
Building Bridges, Building Capacity will see the national
roll out of specialist workforce development services to enhance the
knowledge and skills of practitioners in adult focused services to
work with adult clients as parents and work within a ‘child and
family inclusive framework’ (see below for a definition). The
project also aims to strengthen inter-sectoral collaboration between
adult services with a focus on domestic violence, mental health
and/or drug and alcohol support and child and family services.
The Communities for Children and Communities for Children Plus sites
involved in the project are: Cardinia (Vic), Lismore (NSW), Kempsey
(NSW), Campbelltown (NSW), Townsville (QLD), Ipswich (QLD) Alice
Springs (NT), Playford (SA), Onkaparinga (SA), Midland (WA),
Mirrabooka (WA) and Launceston (Tas). We recognise that each of the
sites are unique and so are working with each of them to develop
tailored responses to their local needs.
In recent months the project team has focussed on building
relationships with sites and providers, establishing communication
strategies, scoping training, drafting resources and competencies,
benchmarking current practice and identifying relevant evidence
based practice to support service improvement.
Workforce Development Coordinator, Leisha Olliver recently travelled
to Mirrabooka and Midland in WA to meet key staff and observe
service delivery in action. Leisha then went to Townsville, where
she participated in a strategic planning day with the Townsville
Communities for Children Committee.
Workforce Development Leader, Michael White visited the Campbelltown
site and met with the steering committee. He has visited a number of
services and community development projects being developed under
the Communities for Children Plus model, and travelled to the
Lismore site where he met with key staff from the facilitating
service, New South Wales North Coast Area Health Services, and
specialist adult and youth drug and alcohol services. Michael will
meet with staff at the Cardinia and Launceston sites in the near
future.
In developing the project, we have considered the meaning of child
and family inclusive practice and developed a working definition to
inform the project. Child and family inclusive practice is defined
as: a practice framework for working with families in adult services
which is supportive of parents in their parenting role and attends
to the needs of children and provided in the context of service
provision where the primary role of the practitioner is to treat or
respond to a presenting adult problem.
It is important to note that the strategy does not see adult
services as removing the need for child and family welfare services
but rather that they work in collaboration, sharing skills and
knowledge and facilitating the support of both adult and child
clients through referral, effective information sharing and case
management. This should mean that no matter where the initial
concern is observed or raised, a helping and protecting process can
begin immediately.
Leisha and Michael are bringing key staff from each of the sites
together in Adelaide for a workshop to further develop this
framework. We also look forward to seeing stakeholders at the
Children Communities Connections Conference on 25-26 at UniSA’s City
West campus to share more about the project.
Knowledge transfer calendar
25-26 November 2010
Children
Communities Connections conference
University of South Australia, City West campus
Various presentations by Centre staff, including:
▪ Keynote address by Centre Director Professor Marianne Berry
▪ How can we better support families through sharing information
without sabotaging relationships?: panel discussion featuring
Marianne Berry
▪ Responding to homeless children and their families:
Community Research Liaison Christine Gibson
▪ Information sharing: what do we mean by confidentiality?:
Workforce Development Coordinator Leisha Olliver with Donna Mayhew
from the Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People
▪ Building bridges between services, building capacity within
services: Workforce Development Leader Michael White and with
Leisha Olliver
▪ Navigating a way forward: integrated place-based support for
children and family services: Michael White with Manager of
Salisbury Communities for Children, Karl Brettig
▪ Q&A facilitated by Michael White
▪ Closing panel chaired by Centre Deputy Director Associate
Professor Leah Bromfiled
30 November 2010
November 30
The 6th National Family and Community Strengths Conference
University of Newcastle, Australia
Family Well Being: Building Strength, Engagement and
Partnership: Presentation by Professor Marianne Berry
7 April 7 2011
New Parent Infant Network
(NEWPIN) conference
Sydney
Decreasing risk across the generations: keynote address by
Professor Marianne Berry
Recent presentations: highlights
- Christine Gibson presented on the Centre’s Social Work curriculum mapping project and Dr Sara McLean gave two presentations, Residential care workers’ engagement with mental health and disruptive behaviour: unique tensions, and Stakeholders’ experiences of challenging behaviour in the out-of-home care sector: barriers to effective collaborative practice at the at the recent Australian College of Child and Family Protection Practitioners 5th National Conference in Canberra
- Associate Professor Leah Bromfield appeared on Kids at Risk on ABC1 on September 9 discussing issues surrounding child abuse and neglect as part of National Child Protection Week
- Professor Marianne Berry gave a keynote address
entitled Current Trends in Child Abuse and
Neglect in the United States: What Might
Non-Americans Learn from this Evidence Base? At
the Eleventh Biennial International EUSARF (European
Scientific Association on Residential and Foster
Care) EUSARF Conference in September 2010
Recent publications
Australian Centre for Child Protection researchers and adjuncts are
indicated in bold
Horsfall, B, Bromfield, L, & McDonald, M (2010).
Are social marketing campaigns effective in preventing child abuse
and neglect? Child Abuse Prevention Issues, 32
www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues/issues32/issues32.html
Lamont, A, & Bromfield, L. (2010). History of child
protection services. NCPC Resource Sheet.
www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs22/rs22.pdf
Lewig, K, Scott, D, Holzer, P, Arney, F,
Humphreys, C., & Bromfield, L. (2010). The role of
research in child protection policy reform: A case study of South
Australia. Evidence & Policy, Volume 6, Number 4, November
issue, p 461-482.
Berry M. (2010). Dentro l’intervento: Mattoni
evidence-based per servizi efficaci. Studi Zancan: Politiche e
Servizi alle Persone (September, 2010), 133-138.
Berry, M. & Reed, C. (2011, in press).
Understanding the nature, structure and context of services in
family support centers. In Maluccio, A.N., Canali, C., Vecchiato,
T., Lightburn, A., Aldgate, J, and Rose, W. (eds.), Improving
Outcomes for Children and Families: Finding and Using International
Evidence. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Funding for the Australian Centre for Child Protection has been
provided by the Australian Government through the Department of
Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. The views expressed in
this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Department.