From journal articles to Quick Guides and webinars, you will find tools and information to support.
This report from the New South Wales Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People presents the experiences of 99 children and young people aged between 6-24 years old who spent time in the out-of-home care system in NSW. It covers their experiences of entering the care system and their education, health, and wellbeing; exiting the care system; and the advice they would provide to government. Further results are detailed in the report.
This report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) examines transitions from institutional settings, including out-of-home care, with the purpose of proposing policy directions to enhance housing supports. Findings are detailed in the report.
This article, published by Lancet Public Health, reports the outcomes of a longitudinal study that used linked data to investigate the extent to which trends in child poverty relate to trends in out-of-home care entry in England. The study found many trends, which are detailed in the report.
The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) has released this report aiming to increase understanding of the needs of young parents with experience of the care system and to identify how they can best be supported. The study identifies effective intervention opportunities to either prevent early pregnancy, or to support young care leavers to parent successfully. The report contains a summary of the needs of young parents, the opportunities available to reduce the incidence of intergenerational interaction with the child protection system, and evidence-informed principles and strategies for working with young parenting care leavers.
The School of Social Science at the University of Queensland released this report in December 2021. The report details an empirical study of Keeping Families Together, a supportive housing pilot project for families with a young child experiencing multiple vulnerabilities. The project assisted 20 families and the study found that all families exited homelessness in to housing with 95 per cent maintaining their housing for the duration of the 12-month pilot. The project also achieved reduced interactions with child safety and 31 per cent of families with children in out-of-home care had children returned. The study identified a range of success factors.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released this web report providing baseline data from a new national data collection on the safety and abuse of children in care. The report found that 1,442 children were the subject of a substantiation of abuse in care, of whom 46 per cent were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The AIHW will undertake ongoing monitoring and reporting of this issue, with improvements and expansion of data collection taking place over time.
The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has released this report outlining the results of a study into the service delivery pathways for young people transitioning from out-of-home care and the available opportunities to improve transition planning and housing outcomes. The study analysed linked administrative for all Victorian care leavers in 2013 and 2014 and found that smooth transitions are the exception, with most transitions resulting in housing instability, homelessness and other adverse outcomes. The report includes a range of policy development options.
Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) has released this scoping review of local and international evidence examining the factors that influence placement moves for children in out-of-home care. Factors found to increase the risk of a placement move include the age at which a child first enters care and the presence of externalising behaviour. CFCA found kinship care to be a factor that reduces the risk of placement moves. The paper identifies a lack of evidence on factors influencing placement moves relating specifically to Aboriginal children.
This article, published in the International Journal on Child Maltreatment, investigates care leaver early parenting in Victoria, Australia. The researchers interviewed service providers to gather insight into the factors that lead to a high prevalence of early parenting among care leavers, and the services that are available and necessary to assist young parents and their children. The study found that care leavers experience unique challenges arising from their care experience that impact their means to safely raise children, necessitating improved transition supports and parenting supports.
