This article outlines an approach to assessing the quality of relationships between young foster children and their carers.

The multidimensional standardised assessment tool, the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale—Reunification (NCFAS-R) was used in this study by practitioners to assess family strengths and needs in case planning and reunification decision making. The current paper examined (1) whether NCFAS-R domain ratings at intake and closure differ by characteristics of parents and children; and (2) whether reunification is predicted by NCFAS-R score at closure.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination during the sixty-second session (14 January- 1 February 2013) of Niue’s initial report to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

This document is the 16th annual report on child protection in Australia. The report includes detailed statistical information on child protection services provided on the state and territory level as well as demographic and background information on the children receiving services.

This article provides an outline of the early development of care and protection in Australia and New Zealand as a backdrop to an overview of child protection systems and policies and the current child protection profile in both countries. An overview of trends in relation to out of home care, including routes into care, care arrangements and permanency policies is provided.

Although the relationship between child sexual abuse and mental disorders life has been well established, the health consequences of other forms of child maltreatment, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect have not been systematically examined. This study summarizes the evidence relating to the possible relationship between child physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect, and subsequent mental and physical health outcomes.

This article describes the results of a meta-analytic review aimed at providing an estimate of the prevalence of physical and emotional neglect by integrating prevalence figures from the body of research reporting on neglect. It discusses and makes recommendations on the dearth of studies investigating the prevalence of child neglect, despite evidence of its severe consequences on millions of children, and a global prevalence estimated to be above 15%.

This is an article about therapeutic residential care.  Therapeutic residential care (TRC) is becoming an increasingly relevant out-of-home care option for children and young people with multiple and complex needs.

Parental leave and early childhood education and care have gained a high profile in child and family policy fields, and both have been the subject of substantial cross-national mapping, describing and comparing their main features across a range of countries. This article provides overviews on parental leave and early childhood services in affluent countries, and reflections on this mapping.

This paper synthesizes the conceptual and empirical literature on place-based approaches to meeting the needs of young children and their families.