This paper reviews the research on building safe and supportive families and communities for children in Australia. Based on assessments of 22 research and evaluation reports, it examines the evidence base in the areas of: community attitudes and awareness of child safety; parenting and family support; and child-friendly communities. The paper synthesises the findings and...

Between August 2007 and December 2011 more than 8,000 children were provided with over 14,000 dental services through the Closing the Gap Child Oral Health Program. This bulletin presents information on the dental health status and the dental services provided under the Closing the Gap (CtG) Child Oral Health Program to Indigenous children living in...

A child's social and emotional wellbeing is integral to their overall health, development and wellbeing. Children with high levels of social and emotional wellbeing are more likely to successfully negotiate physical, intellectual and social challenges during childhood and adolescence. This report describes the process of developing a Children's Headline Indicator to measure social and emotional...

Sentencing Children and Young People in Victoria covers the operation, functions, and philosophy of the Criminal Division of the Children’s Court. It presents a statistical profile of offences sentenced in the court, and identifies and analyses changes over a ten-year period (2000 to 2009 inclusive). The report also contains data on children and young people...

This paper reviews some of the complexities and issues surrounding the concept of resilience in order to ascertain its usefulness for practitioners working with children. Over recent years there has been a shift in research and service delivery from a deficits-based approach, which focuses on factors related to psychopathology and maladaptive functioning, to an approach...