There is growing concern in the child welfare sector with the quality of care being provided through Residential Care out-of-home care services. In Victoria, the recommended policy direction is to move away from standard Residential Care as much as possible (Auditor-General Victoria, 2014), largely because it is both expensive and largely seen as ineffective, or...

In some jurisdictions of Australia, the rate of Indigenous children in foster, kinship and residential care on any one night has reached almost one in ten. This rate is almost ten times higher than non-Aboriginal children and has steadily increased over the past decade. Contrast this with rates of non-Indigenous children in out-of-home care, which...

Under the current NSW Child Protection legislative reforms, there is increased emphasis on permanency arrangements including adoption and long-term guardianship orders. This paper provides an overview of the development of post-adoption support services in the US and UK; outlines research on the benefits of post-adoption support; and identifies the key elements of effective post-adoption support...

This paper reviews Australian and international policies and programs that are relevant to improving outcomes for young people who are transitioning from out-of-home care to adulthood. Information on any evaluation evidence of the effectiveness of the policy and programs is outlined where this is available.

Young people leaving care or who have left care are over-represented in the statistics on homelessness, early school leaving and contact with the criminal justice system. They are also more likely to have children at an early age and are at greater risk of having their own child taken into care. Improving outcomes for young...