BEYOND CHILD RESCUE - NEW MODELS IN CHILD WELFARE
by DR. DOROTHY SCOTT, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

A. Child Protection Policy in Historical Perspective
   
   First Wave of Child Rescue Movement - nineteenth century

   Second Wave of Child Rescue Movement - 1970's to 1990's

   Historical an Cultural Relativism : what is normative and deviant
 behaviour toward children (eg. differences attitudes to physical
 discipline, sexual boundaries)?	

B. Recent shifts in Policy in Many Countries

   Deinstitutionalisation - long process away from congregate care
 starting in 1960's despite some organisational resistance to deinstitutionalisation.
 Research on its damaging effects, particularly on very young children.
 Move toward foster care but specialist supports may be needed.

   Permanency Planning - starting in US in 1970's to combat problems of
 "drift" and children becoming "lost in the system", multiple placements
and "revolving door" cases, attention to early and careful case planning
based on good quality family and child assessments.

   Children's and Parents' Rights - tension re role of the State and rights
of individual child vs family autonomy. Shift from "needs" to "rights" : 
separation of "welfare" and "justice" for adolescents ; with more legalistic 
systems come appeal mechanisms, more emphasis on due process.

  Mandatory Reporting - attempt to deal with hidden abuse, very counter-
productive effects in  most jurisdictions.   

C. Primary Prevention Strategies

   Mass media Campaigns - aimed at increasing awareness of abuse or changing
 attitudes and behaviour eg. "Don't Shake the Baby". Might this type of
 strategy work in HK for children left unattended and at risk of fire and
 neglect?

   Personal Safety Programs for Children - "Portective Behaviours" programs
 in schools but some concerns are their unintended consequences eg. eroding
 trust, contamination of normal sexuality and net windening re "abuse".

  Outreach via Maternal and Child Health/Schools - using professionals and
 institutions which are unstigmatised and close to the community to provid
 parent education programs and reach out to vulnerable families. Volunteers
 can also be used in such programs eg. mother to mother peer befriending 
 schemes, home tutoring schemes.

D. Secondary Prevention Strategies

   Family support Programs - targetted at vulnerable families where there
 are risk indicators but before abuse has occurred. A range of innovative
 programs aimed at families with infants have been developed such as :
 Professional, Paraprofessional and Volunteer Home Visiting Programs; 
 Mentoring / Befriending Programs for adolescent mothers.

   Family Mediation - new models of parent-adolescent peer mediation
 to combat family breakdown and youth homelessness

E. Tertiary Prevention Strategies

   Family Participation in Decision Making - a range of model including
: New Zealand style family Conferences with extended family participation;
 pre-court conciliation meetings; parental participation in case conferences.

   Intensive Family Preservation Programs - based on US programs. These
 highly itensive, short term, home-based programs are used to prevent 
unnecessary placement or to facilitate family reunifications after a 
child has been in care. Range of interventions including" cognitive
-behavioural, solution focused family therapy.

   Agency Example - St Luke's Family Care - emphasis on skilful engagement
 and empowerment of families and the development of "family friendly" 
 innovative techniques eg. Strengths Cards, tools for measuring change.

F. Challenges for Child Welfare Policy and Practice

   - need to have a broad strategy in relation to families in stress
 and see the many social factors involved eg. poverty, social attitudes,
 domestic violence etc.

   -develop a balanced system in which there are adequately resourced and
 well integrated primary, secondary and tertiary level interventions.

   -enhance system co-ordination and collaboration across:
	
	program boundaries (eg. danger of single input services based on
        categorical funding)

	agency boundaries (for example, statutory and NGO's)

	service sector boundaries (eg. interface of child welfare with
        services in the fields of education, health , alcohol and drug
        rehabilitation, adult mental health, intellectual disability,
        and corrections.

   -strong research foundation for policy and practice