Establishing Adoption as a Route Out of Care in New South Wales: A Commentary

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Ainsworth ◽  
Patricia Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Open Adoption ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Us ◽  
Realistic Possibility ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

Over the last 25 years (1990–2015), the number of adoptions of children (and young persons) in Australia declined from 1,142 to 292 (25.5 %). Of the 292 adoptions that took place in 2014–15, 83 (28%) were inter country adoptions, with the remaining 209 (72 %) adoptions of Australian children. Very few of the adoptions of Australian children were in New South Wales. In amendments in 2014 to the New South Wales Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 and the Adoptions Act 2000, a new emphasis on ‘open’ adoption was introduced. The focus of these amendments is on adoption of children who are in foster care where the New South Wales Children's Court has ruled that there is no realistic possibility of restoration of the child to parental care. This article is about the implementation of this new legislative emphasis on adoption. It does not examine the benefit or otherwise of adoption for children who cannot be safely restored to parental care as this issue has been extensively canvassed elsewhere. This article also highlights the US and English experience of adoption from care in order to place the New South Wales development in perspective. The article concludes with discussion of the issues adoption raises for the parents of a child who is being considered for adoption from care.

Rescission or Variation of Children's Court Orders: A Study of Section 90 Applications in New South Wales

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Hansen
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Parental Responsibility ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Court Orders ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

This article reports on a study of Children's Court files relating to completed applications for variation of care orders (section 90 applications) in three specialised Children's Courts in New South Wales. All files that could be located for completed applications were reviewed and nonidentifying data was recorded. The study attempted to examine the type of applications, the characteristics of applicants and the outcomes of the applications. One hundred and seventeen applications were reviewed: almost half of these were made by the then Department of Community Services (DoCS), and about the same proportion of applications were made by parents. After the section 90 applications were determined there was an increase in care orders allocating parental responsibility to the Minister for Community Services with 73% of the children placed under the care of the minister to age 18.

scholarly journals ‘“problem” children of this community’: Christ Church St Laurence and the Children’s Court, Sydney, 1936-41

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-98
Author(s):  
Patricia Curthoys
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Delinquency ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Christ Church ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

This article seeks to explore the experiences of those boys who, in late 1930s/ early 1940s Sydney, were considered, by the courts and the churches, amongst others, to be 'the "problem" children of this community'. The sources for this exploration are the records of the Metropolitan Children's Court, Surry Hills and the Christ Church St Laurence Boys' Welfare Bureau. Children's courts were established in New South Wales in 1905. From 1934 onwards all metropolitan cases were heard at Surry Hills. The Boys' Welfare Bureau was established in April 1936 by Christ Church St Laurence, an Anglican church situated near Central Railway Station, Sydney. The records of the Bureau and the Court provide insights into the ways in which both religion and the law attempted to shape the lived experience of these boys, in inner city Sydney, within the context of current ideas about juvenile delinquency and its treatment.

A Study of the Children’s Court of New South Wales

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fernandez ◽  
Jane Bolitho ◽  
Patricia Hansen ◽  
Myvanwy Hudson ◽  
Sacha Kendall
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

The Children’s Court in New South Wales

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fernandez ◽  
Jane Bolitho ◽  
Patricia Hansen ◽  
Myvanwy Hudson
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

A Study of the use of Section 106a of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 in the New South\Wales Children's Court

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Ainsworth ◽  
Patricia Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Significant Relationship ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
The Other ◽  
Significant Finding ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Born Child ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

This study examines the use of section 106A of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 in the New South Wales in Children's Court. Section 106A was inserted into the Act by way of an amendment in November 2006. This amendment establishes that if a child has previously been removed from parental care and not restored to the parents, then that is prima facie evidence that any subsequent child born to these parents is in need of care and protection and can be subject to removal. The parents must then rebut this evidence if they are to recover or retain custody of the new born child. To date, no data exists about the use of this section of the Act, hence this study. The only significant finding was that if section 106A was cited in Court documents, then restoration of a child to family is less likely. The analysis did not show any significant relationship between Aboriginality and any of the other variables in the study.

Behind the Closed Door: A Guide and Parents' Comments on the Workings of the New South Wales Children's Court

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Frank Ainsworth ◽  
Patricia Hansen
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Family Division ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court ◽  
Guardian Ad Litem ◽  
Closed Door ◽  
The Way

The New South Wales Children's Court, like other state and territory Children's Courts, is a closed court. This means that the public cannot attend court hearings when care and protection matters are before the court. The exception is Victoria where even in the Family Division of the Children's Court that deals with care and protection matters an application has to be made to a magistrate for the court to be closed. This article is designed to take the reader behind the closed door and provide information about court processes and procedures as well as present parents' comments on the way in which the court works.In New South Wales there are seven specialist children's courts at Parramatta, Glebe (Bidura), Campbeltown, Newcastle (Broadmeadow), Wyong, Woy Woy and in the Illawarra (Port Kembla). In other places children's care matters are dealt with by local magistrates supported by specialist Children's Court magistrates from Parramatta who staff a country Children's Court circuit.Parents' views on these processes and procedures are troubling as many see the court as unfair in the way that decisions are made. The parents' views have been obtained, through interviews with parents over a number of years, as part of the authors' professional duties, as a Guardian ad Litem and solicitor in the New South Wales Children's Court.From this experience it is clear that many professional staff who have contact with parents involved in Children's Court matters are also unclear about the court processes, and as a result they are less able to support parents through this stressful process. This article aims to assist staff to understand the court processes so that they may in turn support parents.

The Children’s Court in New South Wales

2013 ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fernandez ◽  
Jane Bolitho ◽  
Patricia Hansen ◽  
Myvanwy Hudson
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

Care-criminalisation: The involvement of children in out-of-home care in the New South Wales criminal justice system

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kath McFarlane
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

This article discusses the involvement in the New South Wales criminal justice system of a cohort of children in out-of-home care. The paper reports the findings of a four-year research project that investigated the relationship between the child welfare and justice systems as experienced by a cohort of children in the New South Wales Children’s Court criminal jurisdiction. Analysis of 160 case files identified that children in out-of-home care appeared before the Children’s Court on criminal charges at disproportionate rates compared to children who were not in out-of-home care. The out-of-home care cohort had a different and negative experience of the justice system, entering it at a significantly younger age and being more likely to experience custodial remand, than children who had not been in out-of-home care. While both cohorts shared many of the risk factors common to young offenders appearing before the Children’s Court, the out-of-home care cohort experienced significant additional disadvantage within the care environment (‘care-criminalisation’), such that living arrangements designed to protect them from harm instead created the environment for offending. The paper concludes by arguing that a paucity of research exists regarding the drivers and dynamics of care-criminalisation and that more research is needed to explore the criminogenic impacts of a childhood spent in out-of-home care.

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