Child & Family

Children and families

Alcohol and other drugs

Report – Provision of drug rehabilitation services in regional, rural and remote New South Wales

This report, by the Parliament of New South Wales, examines the provision and availability of drug rehabilitation services in rural New South Wales.

Child abuse and neglect

Event – FRSA National Conference: Program now available

20-23 November 2018, Cairns, Queensland.

Hosted by Family and Relationship Services Australia (FRSA), this year’s theme is Be the change: leave no-one behind, the conference aims to share knowledge and inspiration with practitioners, managers, researchers and policy makers who work with children, families and communities.

News – Launch of Kids First

The Children’s Protection Society (Victoria) has rebranded itself as Kids First with the launch of a new website, branding and service model. Visit the Kids First website.

Training – Supporting your client through child protection

30 August 2018, Melbourne, Victoria.

This workshop, hosted by Women’s Legal Service Victoria, is aimed at family violence practitioners who have clients involved with child protection matters.

Culturally and linguistically diverse families

Report – Anti-racism in 2018 and beyond: A report on the activities of the national anti-racism
strategy (2015-18)

This report, published by the Australian Human Rights Commission, reviews and evaluates the National Anti-racism Strategy, and provides an overview of the state of play on race in Australia.

Disability and carers

Report – Improving educational outcomes for children with disability in Victoria

This research, published by the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University, applies a human rights analysis to the experiences of children with disability in the Victorian mainstream government school system.

Early and middle childhood

Report – Managing rehabilitation services in youth detention (Vic)

This report, published by Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, examines how well rehabilitation services are meeting the needs of children and young people in the youth detention system.

Family Violence

Event – International Domestic Violence and Health Conference: Sustainable Change in the Health Sector

20–21 November 2018, Melbourne, Victoria.

This event is hosted by the Centre of Research Excellence to promote Safer Families. The conference will focus on early intervention for domestic violence in health settings.

Report – Research summary: The impacts of domestic and family violence on children (2nd ed.)

This report, published by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, summarises research on domestic and family violence in Australia for practitioners and policy makers.

Financial disadvantage

Event – Anti Poverty Week

14–20 October 2018, National.

Upcoming Anti-Poverty Week is a national event coordinated by Australian organisations and social welfare services.

Report – Discussion paper: House of Representatives Select Committee on Intergenerational Welfare Dependence

This report, published by the Commonwealth of Australia, examines matters relating to intergenerational welfare dependence of families and outcomes for children.

Report – Australian Government response to the Senate Economic References Committee Report: ‘A husband is not a retirement plan’

This report, published by the Commonwealth of Australia, is the Australian Government’s response to the senate inquiry examining gender inequality in Australian retirement incomes.

Housing and homelessness

Report – Homelessness in WA: A review of the research and statistical evidence report

This report, published by the Department of Communities, Western Australia, presents an overview of homelessness in Western Australia and suggested policy and practice responses to address it.

Report – Chronic homelessness in Melbourne: First-year outcomes of Journey to Social Inclusion Phase 2 Study Participants

This report, published by Sacred Heart Mission, in collaboration with the Centre for Social Impact, the University of Western Australia and Swinburne University, provides an evaluation of the survey component of the Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) research study

Indigenous families

Report – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and descendants: Numbers, demographic characteristics and selected outcomes

This report, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), in partnership with The Healing Foundation, presents key statistics on the Stolen Generations and their descendants.

Mental health

Event – Victorian Mental Health Social Work Conference 2018

10 October 2018, Melbourne, Victoria.

This event is hosted by the Victorian Mental Health Social Work Practice Group. This year’s theme is The Unique Contribution of Social Work to Mental Health Practice.

Report—Australia’s welfare 2017 This AIHW report provides an overview of the wellbeing of Australians, examining a wide range of relevant topics.

Communities and neighbourhoods

Report—Data use and governance in collective impact programs

These reports focus on approaches to using data to program design and monitoring, and governance and collaboration models.

Report—Emerging patterns in place-based approaches: International perspectives

This report from the Centre for Community Child Health brings together presentations and recommendations from a policy roundtable on place-based approaches to improving outcomes for children.

Drug and alcohol abuse

Resource—Cracks in the ice

This resource provides information and resources about crystal methamphetamine (ice).

Resource—FASD Hub

This website provides a range of information, tools and resources relating to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

Early and middle childhood

Report—Quality is key in early childhood education in Australia

This report from the Mitchell Institute examines the importance of providing quality early childhood education to Australian children.

Family violence

Report—Domestic and family violence protection orders in Australia

This report from ANROWS summarises findings of research into information sharing and the enforcement of domestic violence protection orders.

Report—Personal safety survey results, Australia 2016

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released results from the 2016 Personal Safety Survey, which examines experiences of violence and safety.

Report—Swift, certain and fair approaches to sentencing family violence offenders (Vic)

This report from the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council examines approaches to the management of family violence offenders.

Training—Understanding domestic and family violence across migrant & refugee communities

21 November 2017, 1–5pm, Springvale, Vic.

This half day workshop aims to build capacity and sector development for local service providers engaging and responding to migrant and refugee families who experience domestic and family violence.

Event—White Ribbon Day

25 November 2017, National.

White Ribbon Day is an annual event held on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It aims to raise awareness, and to seek changes to the attitudes and behaviours that lead to and perpetuate men’s violence against women.

Financial disadvantage

Report—A future for all children: Addressing child poverty in Australia

This report from ACOSS presents statistics on children living in poverty in Australia, highlighting that 1 in 6 children under the age of 15 are living in poverty.

Report—Intergenerational disadvantage: Learning about equal opportunity from social assistance receipt

This report examines the factors contributing to intergenerational disadvantage.

Housing and homelessness

Report—Ageing and homelessness: Solutions to a growing problem

This report from Mission Australia provides a list of recommendations that address the issue of older people experiencing homelessness and housing stress in Australia.

Mental health and illness

Report—Digital me: A survey exploring the effect of social media and digital technology on Australians’ wellbeing

This report from the Australian Psychological Society presents findings of a survey examining the effects of social media on Australians’ wellbeing.

Natural disasters and drought

Event—Diversity in Disaster Conference

17–18 April 2018, Melbourne, Vic.

This conference is designed to examine how communities can be empowered to be more resilient following natural disasters.

Out-of-home care

Report—Educational engagement of children and young people in out-of-home care in NSW

This report from ACWA gives a snapshot of the level of engagement in education of children and young people in out-of-home care in New South Wales.

Prevention of child abuse and neglect This week is National Child Protection Week, 3-9 September 2017.
This new resource has been produced in partnership with NAPCAN, as part of National Child Protection Week. The resource provides an overview of the prevention of child abuse and neglect, with a focus on primary prevention.
Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect This updated resource sheet examines legal provisions requiring specified people to report suspected abuse and neglect to government child protection services in Australia.
Survey finds parents don’t always know if their kids are struggling emotionally This short article reflects on research that revealed parents didn’t always know how adolescents were feeling, and considers implications for practice.

Social Media Ratings – a site that has reviews and ratings on all of the popular social media sites and apps that kids are using. Parents share how appropriate each site is (by age), features on the site that pose risks for kids and safety advice.
Digital Safety: Staying Safe Online – an informational guide to internet safety that has specific sections on common safety concerns; it covers things like social media use, keeping kids safe online and password security.
NS Teens – a good website with games, videos, quizzes and comics that teach young teens internet safety.