Current Issues in Child Protection Policy and Practice: Informing the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services Child Protection Review

Abstract:

The aim of this report is to provide an overview of current issues for Australian child protection systems, and in particular, to inform the child protection review currently being undertaken in the Northern Territory (NT). In response to requests from the NT Department of Health and Community Services, the author draws on Australian and overseas experiences to describe trends that are currently shaping child protection services, and to discuss a number of key aspects of service delivery. This report has been developed as an amalgam of a number of National Child Protection Clearinghouse publications, in order to meet specific requests for information received from the NT Department of Health and Community Services. The report is divided into a number of chapters designed to explore aspects of policy directions and service delivery in the child protection and family support fields.