Reunification is a primary goal of foster care systems and the most common permanency planning decision. It is defined as the return of children placed in protective care to the home of their birth family and used to describe the act of restoring a child in out-of-home care back to the biological family. Yet reunification decision-making and the process of reintegrating children into birth families remains under researched. This Brief takes a look at family reunification knowledge and research in Australia where there is evidence that most children placed in protective care are eventually reunited with their birth parents. It explores how a knowledge of reunification decision making and outcomes can contribute to strengthening practice and informing policy formulation and program planning in Child Welfare.​

Reunification is a primary goal of foster care systems and the most common permanency planning decision. It is defined as the return of children placed in protective care to the home of their birth family and used to describe the act of restoring a child in out-of-home care back to the biological family. Yet reunification decision-making and the process of reintegrating children into birth families remains under researched. This Brief takes a look at family reunification knowledge and research in Australia where there is evidence that most children placed in protective care are eventually reunited with their birth parents. It explores how a knowledge of reunification decision making and outcomes can contribute to strengthening practice and informing policy formulation and program planning in Child Welfare.​

This important new book critically examines the complex policy and practice issues surrounding child protection, including the impact of theoretical orientations, contemporary debates, policy initiatives and research findings, and maintains an emphasis on the ethics and values underpinning child welfare interventions. The book introduces policies that are central to understanding the position and needs of children and young people, and how policy and practice have been influenced by developments including the children’s rights agenda. It also explores the most significant issues in child welfare. These include: the experience of maltreatment by children, the systems of child protection to safeguard them, the methods and challenges of risk assessment, and the wide range of policy and therapeutic interventions to respond to children’s needs. The book also examines family support to promote children’s wellbeing before considering provision for children and young people who are looked after in out-of-home care. There is also a final section that focuses on best practice in communicating and working with children and young people, drawing on participatory, rights-oriented and resilience-based approaches, and supporting foster and adoptive carers and biological parents. Contributing in a substantive and clear manner to a growing international conversation about the present function and future directions for child welfare in contemporary societies, this textbook will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate social work students and those from allied disciplines, and professionals who are engaged in child welfare services.

This Handbook provides an accessible resource for all social work students, educators, practitioners, and policymakers to increase their knowledge and understanding of how research into the diversity and impact of child and family social work interventions might underpin and drive policy and practice. Divided into six sections The Context of Child and Family Social Work Research Preventive and Reparative Responses to Children and Families Child Maltreatment: Causes, Consequences, and Responses Alternate Care as an Approach to Safeguarding Children and Young People Intervention: Therapeutic Responses to Vulnerable Children, Youth, and Families Child and Family Social Work in the Global Context and comprising 52 newly written chapters by experts in the field, it provides a foundational overview of the field of child and family social work, including defining concepts, sentinel historical milestones, and the scope of practice. It also identifies developments in auxiliary fields such as neuroscience, psychology, education, health, poverty, and media By illustrating diverse research endeavours in parenting, maltreatment, prevention, child protection, and substitutive interventions including foster care, residential care, adoption, and juvenile corrections and elaborating child welfare research methods, measures, and impacts on practice, it analyses evidence-based interventions and policies in early intervention, child protection, child placement, adoption, and advocacy. It will be required reading for anyone working in social work and child protection.

Focusing on children who are subject to welfare intervention, Protecting Children addresses the challenges and issues of the child welfare system and provides foundational knowledge on the theoretical and practical aspects of the field. This edited collection begins with a review of key concepts, including child development, attachment, and resilience theories; social policies; family law; and ethics. Highlighting the translation of theory into practice, the contributors discuss current services and the search for best practice internationally, as well as explore Indigenous child welfare and offer conclusions and recommendations to promote positive outcomes for children and families involved in the system. Scholars, researchers, and practitioners from across the globe provide insight on a wide range of timely issues, such as the risk of reductionism, limits to predictability, pragmatic issues, as well as the disproportional presence in the care system of minority groups, including Indigenous children, children of new immigrants and refugees, children in LGBTQ communities, and children of the poor. This foundational volume is an important resource for courses in social work and child welfare. FEATURES - includes contributions from researchers, practitioners, and scholars from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States - highlights Indigenous authors and personal stories of service users, and includes figures and tables throughout the text, as well as section introductions and conclusions to situate main theories and concepts for students

Since the key developments that policy and research have undergone over the course of the past years, meeting the specific needs of looked after children is a priority for modern social work policy and practice. This comprehensive text combines an accessible overview of statutory policy and legislation with analysis of core theories and interventions to provide a guide for effective practice with children in all care settings by: - Covering legislation as well as research-based analysis of the key interventions and practice methods in the field - Meeting market needs: students and practitioners struggle with the dearth of specific material on looked after children - this text supports them in a core component of social work study and practice - Consolidating learning through its use of reflective questions, case studies, exercises and research analysis This book offers an accessible overview of the care context in Britain and is essential reading for students and practitioners wishing to develop effective practice within childcare.

1. The book sets a context for the background of the care population in Wales, and charts research that explores educational experiences, outcomes, and the interventions put in place that seek to alleviate the educational disadvantages experienced by children and young people in care. 2. The book draws on empirical research to explore the lived experiences of care experienced children and young people, in a range of contexts and sites, including the home, the school, alternative educational institutions, contact centres, and the natural environment. 3. The book documents the ‘doing’ of research and methodological approaches that work directly with participants, involving participatory, qualitative, reflexive and collaborative techniques and innovative research methodologies.