Engaging Indigenous parents in their children’s education

This resource sheet identifies some of the key practices that have underpinned programs or practices for schools and early learning environments that have successfully engaged Indigenous parents with their children’s education. Introduction There is a considerable body of research documenting the poor student and school performance for Indigenous students. Engaging families, especially parents, in the education of their young children at home and at school is increasingly viewed as an important way to support better learning outcomes for children. This resource sheet reviews the available literature on ‘what works’ in supporting the involvement of Indigenous parents in their children’s education. In their review, Emerson et al. reported that ‘positive parental engagement in learning improves academic achievement, wellbeing and productivity’

The role of supervisory neglect in childhood injury

This paper explores the theoretical understandings of supervisory neglect and how these understandings might assist in delivering practical responses using a public health approach to child protection.Injury is the leading cause of death in Australians 1–44 years of age (McClure, Stevenson, & McEvoy, 2004). Transport-related injury, drowning, and assault/homicide were the three leading causes of injury-related deaths in Australian children between 2004 and 2006 (AIHW, 2009). Children are particularly vulnerable to different types of injury depending on their stage of growth and development. This vulnerability is dependent on a combination of the child’s developmental stage, exposure to environmental risk factors and the presence of protective factors (Towner & Dowswell, 2002). Due to the diverse nature of injury in the population, prevention programs are mainly targeted at similar types of injury or circumstances in specific population groups. Examples of such targeted programs include preventing car crashes in newly licensed young drivers or educating beach goers to swim between the flags

Adult responses to concerning sexual behaviours of young people in specialist school settings

[Extract] Descriptive in nature, the aim of this study was to obtain information about specialist school staff, regarding the factors found to be associated with responding to CSBs between students. Specific research questions of this study included: • What do staff know (or not know) about CSBs occurring peer-to-peer? And what are staff understandings of how to intervene to address associated risks? • What are the staff attitudes about CSBs occurring peer-to-peer (do they hold / demonstrate protective attitudes towards children, disability, and sexual behaviours)? • What are the perceived skills utilised in staff responses to issues/problems that arise when dealing with CSBs

Families, policy and the law: selected essays on contemporary issues for Australia

These collected essays explore the complexities that confront those who frame social policy and those involved in the social services and legal systems that intersect with child and family issues. Introduction There are few areas of policy that carry greater complexity than those that focus on families. The dynamics of family formation are, and have always been, intricately connected with the evolving conditions of societies and the constraints and values they embrace at any given era. Some things, however, are perennial. The functions families fulfil have remained essentially unchanged despite the shifts in the circumstances and challenges that families confront. Not surprisingly, the ways in which policy-makers seek to address the needs of families also evolve and, in turn, influence the changing social context. Broadly speaking, policy initiatives seek to support family stability, facilitate positive functioning, enhance their safety and security, and generally promote the wellbeing of family members to the benefit of their communities and the wider society. Family policy involves a complex mix of social, economic, educational, employment, housing and health policies, along with a range of other child- and family-focused priorities. These policy “levers” are used to enhance opportunities, build capacity and capitalise on individual and family strengths. Just as social policy is framed by the complexities of family and societal change, childand family-focused legal systems also confront the challenges of change. Changing social and policy contexts have far-reaching implications for the law. While legislation tends to follow such change, it can also drive change. The collected essays in this volume seek to explore some of the complexities that confront both those who frame social policy and those involved in the social services and legal systems that intersect with child and family issues. The genesis of the volume was in a set of papers presented to the 12th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference held in Melbourne from 25 to 27 July 2012. In reflecting on the wealth of material presented at the conference, we were impressed by the many papers that focused on topics at the intersection of policy and the law. We have added some invited essays to these conference presentations to provide succinct snapshots of some of the issues with which Australia, like many other nations, grapples in this first part of the 21st century. It is by no means an exhaustive coverage of the terrain, but a sampling of some of the contemporary issues at the forefront of thinking about the complexities of the lives of Australian children and families

Complex family issues: Collective awareness, common narratives and coordinated approaches to promoting resilience

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A safe and supportive environment for children: Key components and links to child outcomes

Families are the mainstay of safety and support for children. While most children live in safe and supportive environments, governments are aware that too many children are becoming known to child protection services. This has led to a shift in thinking away from solely concentrating on responding to ‘risk of harm’ reports towards a broader public health approach to protecting all of Australia’s children, reducing the likelihood of children coming to the attention of statutory authorities. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, this report aims to understand more about the prevalence of different types of family environments in society and to explore the influence of these environments on different child outcomes. The family environment (as measured in this report) was most strongly associated with children’s social and emotional wellbeing

Indigenous youth justice programs evaluation

In this report, four programs that were already being implemented by states and territories and identified by them under the National Indigenous Law & Justice Framework as promising practice in diversion are examined. Executive summary Diversion from the youth justice system is a critical goal for addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system. In this report, four programs that were already being implemented by states and territories and identified by them under the National Indigenous Law & Justice Framework as promising practice in diversion are examined. The programs were evaluated, as part of a broader initiative, to determine whether and on what basis they represent good practice (ie are supported by evidence). State and territory governments nominated the programs for evaluation. The four programs sit at different points along a continuum, ranging from prevention (addressing known risk factors for offending behaviour, such as disengagement from family, school, community or culture), early intervention (with identified at-risk young people), diversion (diverting from court process—usually for first or second time offenders) and tertiary intervention (treatment to prevent recidivism): • Aboriginal Power Cup (South Australia)—a sports-based program for engaging Indigenous young people in education and providing positive role models (prevention). • Tiwi Islands Youth Development and Diversion Unit (Northern Territory)—a diversion program that engages Tiwi youth who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system in prevention activities, such as a youth justice conference, school, cultural activities, sport and recreation (early intervention and diversion). • Woorabinda Early Intervention Panel Coordination Service (Queensland)—a program to assess needs and make referrals for young Indigenous people and their families who are at risk or have offended and have complex needs (early intervention and diversion). • Aggression Replacement Training (Queensland)—a 10 week group cognitivebehavioural program to control anger and develop pro-social skills, delivered to Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth assessed as ‘at risk’ of offending or reoffending (early intervention and tertiary intervention with offenders to reduce risk of reoffending). For each program, the evaluation team developed a ‘program logic’, identifying the activities and goals of the program, and how it articulates within a broader framework of criminal justice prevention. This informed the design of the evaluation and the approach to collecting both qualitative data (from young people participating in the program, program staff, family, or other service providers/community members) and quantitative data to identify any effects of the program on individuals, or the broader community

Safety survey data from Victorian youth-serving organisations: Survey data from workers, young people, and organisational leaders’ self-reflections after implementing the Victorian Child Safe Standards

In 2015, the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) introduced the Victorian Child Safe Standards (the Standards). The aim was to promote the safety of children and young people by supporting the way in which organisations, their workforce (staff and volunteers) and members work so that protecting children and young people is always considered, taken seriously and acted upon. These Standards became fully operational in 2017. In 2019 DHHS began a review of the extent to which the Standards promote improvements in the child-safe culture, and the extent to which the regulatory scheme supports compliance by organisations. As part of the review, DHHS commissioned the Australian Catholic University’s Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) to undertake surveys of staff, children, young people and leaders in a variety of youth-serving organisations. This report describes each survey in detail, presents an analysis of the participants, and describes the methodology. We It also presents our findings, addressing each standard individually, with a summary of overall findings related to the Standards as an overall regulatory framework for driving a culture of child-safety within all youth serving organisations across Victoria

Cumulative harm and chronic child maltreatment

In this paper, cumulative harm is defined, past approaches that have contributed to conceptualising maltreatment as an isolated event are discussed. Possible indicators of chronic maltreatment are highlighted and the potential for chronic maltreatment to have a cumulative impact on children is demonstrated using a case example. The paper focuses on the Victorian context, but the issues of cumulative harm and chronic child maltreatment have relevance to policy-makers and practitioners in other jurisdictions