Driver for The needs The family unit Parents being neglectful individual child’s intervention in a present and future needs assistance and abusive towards needs children (maltreatment) perspective; society’s for healthy and contributory citizens Role of the Paternalistic/defamilialisation- Parental support; Sanctioning; the State State State assumes parent role; the state seeks to functions as ‘watchdog’ but seeks to refamilialise strengthen family to ensure safety child’s child by foster home/kinship relations care/adoption Problem and Social/psychological Individual/moralistic Child’s development frame unequal outcomes for (such as system, children poverty and racism) Aim of Promote wellbeing via social Prevention/social Protection/harm intervention investment and/or equal bonding reduction opportunity Substitutive/partnership Partnership Adversarial relationship Balance of rights to rights Children’s rights/parents’ Parents’ Children’s/parents’ rights responsibility family life mediated enforced through legal by professional means social workers See Table 8 in for an examination of how the different orientations to child protection translate in terms of service delivery the ‘on ground’. The review was unable to locate analysis or research, which considered how the different orientations to child protection translated in terms of legal services delivery. Australia has traditionally been viewed as a child protection oriented system. However, since 2002 the States and Territories have embarked on reforms to build capacity and strengthen families with a view to preventing abuse and neglect. This shift in focus was endorsed in the first National Framework for Protecting Children 2009–2020, which provides an overarching framework Australia’s for developments in policy and practice that acknowledges: Australia needs to move from seeing as a response to abuse and ‘protecting children’ merely neglect to one of promoting the safety and wellbeing of children. The 2016 Victorian to suggests an attempt to move further in this direction. ‘Road Map Reform’ Consideration is required as to how this shift in focus impacts upon legal service delivery,
Driver for intervention The individual child’s needs in a present and future perspective; society’s needs for healthy and contributory citizens The family unit needs assistance Parents being neglectful and abusive towards children (maltreatment) Role of the State Paternalistic/defamilialisation- State assumes parent role; but seeks to refamilialise child by foster home/kinship care/adoption Parental support; the state seeks to strengthen family relations Sanctioning; the State functions as ‘watchdog’ to ensure child’s safety Problem frame Child’s development and unequal outcomes for children Social/psychological (such as system, poverty and racism) Individual/moralistic Aim of intervention Promote wellbeing via social investment and/or equal opportunity Prevention/social bonding Protection/harm reduction relationship Substitutive/partnership Partnership Adversarial Balance of rights Children’s rights/parents’ responsibility Parents’ rights to family life mediated by professional social workers Children’s/parents’ rights enforced through legal means See Table 8 in for an examination of how the different orientations to child protection translate in terms of service delivery ‘on the ground’. The review was unable to locate analysis or research, which considered how the different orientations to child protection translated in terms of legal services delivery. Australia has traditionally been viewed as a child protection oriented system. However, since 2002 the States and Territories have embarked on reforms to build capacity and strengthen families with a view to preventing abuse and neglect. This shift in focus was endorsed in the first National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009–2020, which provides an overarching framework for developments in policy and practice that acknowledges: Australia needs to move from seeing ‘protecting children’ merely as a response to abuse and neglect to one of promoting the safety and wellbeing of children. The 2016 Victorian ‘Road Map to Reform’ suggests an attempt to move further in this direction. Consideration is required as to how this shift in focus impacts upon legal service delivery,
vla-child-protection-review-environmental-scan.docx