This paper looks at the specific issues facing those responsible for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children in the context of parental separation, and the two separate legal systems: family law and child protection.

The purpose of this Resource Sheet is to outline the different approaches used to assess whether children are at risk of maltreatment, as well as to explore some of the issues and criticisms surrounding the use of standardised risk assessment instruments in child protection.

This resource sheet provides a brief history of developments in child protection services in Australia and internationally. Social and political interest in the protection of children from abuse or neglect at the hands of caregivers is a relatively recent phenomenon. Since the early colonial days in Australia, there have been some forms of protection for...

A high proportion of families with a parent with an intellectual disability will come to the attention of child protection and support agencies due to allegations that a child has been or is at risk of abuse or neglect. However, prejudice and lack of understanding have contributed to these heightened rates. This paper examines parental...

The idealisation of infancy in our culture is in part a defence against recognising the intense powerlessness, helplessness and dependency of the human infant. Despite the fantasy of infancy as being a time of nirvana, the first 12 months of life pose the highest risk of death from homicide; the most frequent form being fatal...