The ISPCAN Melbourne 2026 Congress is the flagship international gathering of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), taking place 24–26 August 2026, with related events including pre-congress working grou

This article examines how children’s rights to participation, family connections, and cultural identity are supported in statutory out-of-home care through four case studies involving culturally diverse children and their families. It highlights the importance of intentional, collaborative approaches that center children’s voices and agency while supporting meaningful relationships with carers, birth families, and cultural communities.

This article reports on a major policy shift in Queensland, Australia, where the government has announced plans to remove children under the age of five from residential care settings following findings from a Child Safety Commission of Inquiry.

This Guardian article reports on a major inquiry into Victoria’s child protection system in Australia, which found that dozens of vulnerable children who later died had previously been assessed as “not at risk” despite repeated reports and warning signs.

This article explores how out-of-home care systems across five countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States) approach cultural care for children, examining the organisational structures, leadership, and practices that support or hinder children’s connections to their culture, family, and community. Drawing on interviews with service providers, it highlights key drivers of effective practice and offers practical tools and insights for strengthening culturally responsive, system-wide approaches to safeguarding children’s identity and wellbeing.

This article describes how the FAMS economic modelling project in Australia shows that greater investment in early intervention and family support services can significantly improve outcomes for children and families while reducing long-term gover

This study evaluates the quality of Care and Transition Plans for young people leaving out-of-home care in Victoria, Australia, finding most plans are of only moderate quality with significant variation based on factors such as placement type, age, and level of youth involvement. It identifies key gaps—particularly in housing, transition services, and cultural considerations—and calls for improved planning tools and system-wide reforms to better support young people transitioning from care.

This narrative review draws on 17 Australian public inquiry reports to examine systemic factors in residential care that increase risks of harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation. It identifies key issues—such as poor placement matching, an underprepared workforce, fragmented reporting systems, and disempowering practices—and calls for a shift from individual-focused responses to broader structural reforms.

This report presents findings from a four-year mixed-methods longitudinal study of the experiences of children, carers, and parents in the Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) system. It examines how and why the emotional, social and cultural wellbeing of children varies over the course of their journey through OOHC and provides insights into how policy and practice can better support them.

This study analyzed data from residential care settings in Victoria, Australia, to examine how missing episodes intersect with worker-identified concerns about sexual and criminal exploitation among children and young people. Findings suggest that going missing may signal ongoing, overlapping patterns of exploitation-related harm—rather than isolated vulnerability—highlighting the need to view these incidents as part of sustained exploitation trajectories.