Child and family

• Support for children and families
  • Support for parents and families
  • Independent person
    • Information for children and young people
    • Information for families
    • Information for independent persons
• Protecting children
  • About child protection
    • Reporting and referring concerns
    • Child protection legislation
    • Mandatory reporting
    • Children and young people's rights
    • Parents' rights
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • National approach to child protection
  • What is child abuse?
  • What is child sexual abuse?
  • How to prevent abuse
    • Protecting children from harm
    • Prevention and early intervention
  • Reporting child abuse
    • If you suspect harm
    • What happens when we are contacted?
    • What happens when a report is made?
    • Reporting child abuse in other states
  • Responding to child abuse
    • Moving a child to a safe place
    • Investigation and assessment
      • Unborn children
      • Assessment orders
    • Care Agreements
    • What you can expect
  • Ongoing intervention
    • Case planning
      • Service referrals
    • Support Service case
    • Intervention with Parental Agreement
    • Child Protection Order
    • Family group meetings
    • Court processes
    • Youth justice
    • Contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Family Group Meeting (FGM) Convenor Handbook
• Foster and kinship care
  • Carer training
    • Foster carer training
      • Foreword
      • Procedures and guidelines
      • Frequently asked questions
      • Orientation
      • Learning outcomes
      • Pre-service training
      • Water safety for carers
      • Learning journal
      • Standard training
      • Caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
      • Advanced training
        • Attachment
        • Whose problem is this?
        • Foster Parent College
        • Independence and connections
        • I'm an individual...
        • Infectious diseases
        • Ready, set, fly! A parent's guide to teaching life skills
        • Loss and grief for children in care
        • Participation
        • Positive and Protective series
        • Reality fostering
        • Strategies for Managing Abuse Related Trauma (SMART)
        • Whose job is this?
      • Recognition of prior learning (RPL)
      • Acknowledgements
  • Rights and responsibilities
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
    • Child Placement Principle
  • Regulation of care
    • Responding to concerns about the quality of care received by a child in a care arrangement
    • Community Visitors and Child Advocates
  • Contacts
    • Community foster care agency contacts
      • Brisbane Region
      • Central Queensland Region
      • Far North Queensland Region
      • North Coast Region
      • North Queensland Region
      • South East Region
      • South West Region
    • Indigenous foster care agency contacts
    • Peak body and advocacy group contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Information for existing carers
    • Information for prospective carers
    • Recruitment of foster carers
    • Children and Young People's Participation Strategy
• Adoption
  • Resources and publications
• Child and family reform
  • Sharing responsibility for children's safety and wellbeing
  • Supporting families earlier
  • Working better with families in contact with the child protection system
  • Meeting the needs and requirements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities
    • Empowering Families Innovation Fund
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service Reform Project
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Wellbeing Services
    • Family Participation Program
    • Indigenous career progression - cadetships and scholarships
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protection sector and service development
  • Improving care and post-care for children and young people
  • Delivering quality services to children and families through a capable, motivated workforce and client-focused organisations
    • Quality Improvement Program
  • Building an accountable, transparent and cost-effective system
  • Child protection legislation reform
  • History of child protection legislation reforms
  • Specialist Services
  • Using technology for business transformation
• Queensland Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
  • Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Taskforce
    • Taskforce members
  • National Redress Scheme in Queensland
• Queensland Government response to the death of Mason Jett Lee
• NDIS implementation
  • Information for young people with disability in care
  • Information for foster and kinship carers of children with disability
  • NDIS information for parents and families of children in care
  • NDIS information for Family Support Providers
  • NDIS information for Residential Care services
• Our performance
  • Summary statistics
    • Child protection orders
    • Protective orders
  • Family Support and Child Protection System Framework
  • Family Support Services
  • Intake phase
    • Child concern reports
    • Notifications
  • Investigation and assessment phase
    • Assessment orders
    • Investigation and assessment
    • Substantiations
  • Ongoing intervention phase
    • Intervention with parental agreement
    • Short-term child protection orders
    • Living away from home
    • Carer families
  • Ongoing intervention phase (Permanency planning)
    • Legal Permanency - Long-term child protection orders
    • Exiting out-of-home care
  • Improved safety
    • Re-entry
    • Standard of care reviews and harm reports
  • High quality services and improved wellbeing
    • Case plans
    • Child health passports
    • Physical Permanency: Stability and permanency of placements
    • Transition to adulthood
    • Relational Permanency – Placement with siblings
    • Cultural support plan
  • Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
    • Our Way Strategy and Action Plan
    • Placement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
  • Family and household characteristics
  • Demographics
  • System and Practice Reviews - Child deaths
  • Regional data
    • Central Queensland region
    • Moreton region
    • Northern region
    • South East region
    • South West region
  • Adoptions
  • Glossary of terms
  • Table notes
  • Contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Child protection partnerships reports
• Child Safety Practice Manual
• Child and family resources
  • Protecting children: an inquiry into abuse of children in foster care
  • Managing child safety information
  • Assessment of the OneSchool Referral Process
  • Evaluation of the Child Protection Joint Response Team Trial

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3. Protecting children
   • Adoption
   • Child and family reform
   • Child and family resources
   • Child Safety Practice Manual
   • Foster and kinship care
   • NDIS implementation
   • Our performance
   • Queensland Government response to the death of Mason Jett Lee
   • Queensland Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
   • Support for children and families
4. About child protection
   • How to prevent abuse
   • Ongoing intervention
   • Reporting child abuse
   • Resources and publications
   • Responding to child abuse
   • What is child abuse?
   • What is child sexual abuse?
5. National approach to child protection

The national approach to child protection project is tasked with developing a national theoretical framework for child protection and early intervention. All states and territories and the Australian Government were involved in developing the project's schedule of work, with the Department of Child Safety taking lead responsibility.

Ministers and chief executives with child protection responsibilities subsequently approved the project's scope which included the investigation of terms, definitions, approaches, strategic directions and challenges for government agencies delivering child protection and early intervention services in Australia.

The project identified common approaches and practices across jurisdictions in their delivery of child protection and early intervention services. This included jurisdictions' emphasis on enhanced early intervention services, a focus on increased stability for children in out-of-home care and improved child-centred practices.

Other common practices identified included child protection agencies assessment of both 'risks' and 'needs' of children and families, with these practices being enhanced  through the implementation of sophisticated information systems and evidence-based practice and policy.

Common challenges identified included difficulties in maintaining a skilled workforce, meeting community expectations and promoting child protection as a community-wide responsibility.

The project has released two key outputs:

• a fact sheet (PDF, 256 KB) which can be used as an educational tool to assist new staff in government agencies and NGOs to further develop an understanding of child protection trends and issues across Australia, and
• a research report (PDF, 756 KB) which can similarly be used to assist staff in attaining a more detailed understanding of key aspects of child protection practices within Australia, including important challenges confronting all jurisdictions.

The Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs have used the research report as an evidence base for the discussion paper Australia's children safe and well (April 2008). This paper is informing the development of a national child protection framework.