Our Mission
Every day in Australia there are approximately 30,000 children in state care, with Indigenous children being more than eight times more likely to be in state care than other children. This is more than double the number of children in state care in Australia a decade ago. Unless urgent action is taken, this trend is very likely to continue.
While removing children from their parents may provide short term safety, the most recent international research suggests that bringing children into systems such as ours with very high levels of foster placement turnover, has serious long term psychological effects. In addition, there is an insufficient number of foster carers able to meet the needs of such an overloaded system. Our current ‘cure’ for the problem of child abuse and neglect may therefore be inflicting significant harm on an ever increasing number of Australian children. Research tells us the effects of this are likely to be intergenerational.
The children in state care are only the tip of the child protection iceberg. A far greater number of children are notified to statutory child protection authorities each year. n most Australian states one in five children is the subject of a notification to statutory child protection services by the age of eighteen, with approximately 20% of these being ‘substantiated’ as cases of child abuse or neglect. There is currently insufficient assistance for the 80% of families in the ‘unsubstantiated’ cases to prevent the situation deteriorating and eventually coming back into the child protection system. Our current child protection services are overwhelmed and with escalating demand, and serious problems of staff recruitment and retention, they have become unsustainable.
In two thirds of substantiated cases the primary problem is emotional abuse or neglect. In the remaining third, the primary problem is physical or sexual abuse. Parental mental health problems, drug and alcohol dependence, family violence and social disadvantage are among the most common factors involved.
In the wider community, beyond the child protection system, there are even greater numbers of vulnerable children. For example, it has been estimated that 13% of Australian children, or over 450,000 children, live in a household in which at least one adult is regularly binge drinking. This is a problem for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia. Parental alcohol abuse greatly increases the risk of all forms of child maltreatment and neglect. Problems on this scale cannot be solved by the provision of more services. They require whole of population strategies such as taxing liquor according to its alcohol content, advertising restrictions and ‘alcohol and children don’t mix’ media campaigns.
To meet these challenges, the Centre is working with other researchers, governments, key NGOs and the wider community to promote a broad range of evidence-informed strategies to tackle the issues related to parenting in the context of poverty, mental health problems, social isolation, parental alcohol and drug dependence, and domestic violence. At the same time we are contributing to knowledge-informed ways of responding to children who have been hurt by abuse and neglect.
The Australian Centre for Child Protection aims to improve the lives of children in Australia who have experienced, or who are at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect.
This is achieved through:
- Educating professionals by building the capacity of educators to prepare a new generation of practitioners across a broad range of disciplines and sectors, to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect.
- Creating and applying knowledge by undertaking research and strategic evaluation on effective strategies, and communicating the findings in ways that maximise their impact on policy and practice.
- Engaging our communities through advocacy for evidence-informed policy and practice, contributing to a deeper community understanding of child abuse and neglect and a stronger commitment to the well-being of all of Australia’s children
Through research, professional education and advocacy, the Centre aims to enhance life opportunities for children in Australia who are at risk of abuse or neglect.
Our vision
To develop and drive knowledge-based approaches for protecting and nurturing vulnerable children.
Our University location
The mission of the Australian Centre for Child Protection mirrors the mission of the University of South Australia: Educating professionals, creating and applying knowledge and engaging our communities.
The Centre’s physical and academic home within UniSA is providing rich opportunities for collaboration in related disciplines including health economics, communications, health promotion, Indigenous studies, psychology, social work, education, nursing, allied health, epidemiology, and information technology.