Non-government welfare agencies have a history of both service provision and advocating for social justice and welfare reform. Current economic and social changes have had an impact on our understanding of the role of welfare and the state. There has been a significant reconfiguration of community services, with important implications for the present and future role of welfare agencies.

This article seeks to identify questions confronting agencies that seek to maintain a commitment to social action by examining an 18-month child abuse prevention campaign conducted by a coalition of agencies in NSW. Significant insights and challenges that emerged from the campaign are identified. Questions about the role of non-government agencies are revisited and the value of welfare agencies’ contribution to social equity reasserted.

This article addresses the challenges facing the child welfare system in general, and child protection practice in particular, in responding to female genital mutilation (FGM) in an Australian context. Policy and programmatic responses to FGM are analysed to identify how child welfare concerns may be addressed in a culturally sensitive manner. PGM is depicted as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, related to a complex of inter-connected cultural, social, economic, religious, gender and migration issues. An appropriate response is one that acknowledges these antecedents through the utilisation of a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. Legal and child protection responses to FGM are inadequate if operating in isolation and are most effective as adjuncts to community development strategies that are aimed at education, information dissemination and consciousness raising among affected communities. More work needs to be undertaken to develop frameworks for practitioners in a cross-cultural context, particularly in the light of continued settlement within Australia of migrant and refugee communities from countries with different child-rearing practices and beliefs.

This is the second of two articles that present theoretical issues concerning mental health consultation. The first article looked at the question of what consultation is and how it differs from related processes such as supervision, therapy and staff development (Luntz 1999). This paper uses Kadushin’s six stage framework for social work consultation to look at some common issues which confront consultants in the process of mental health consultation as they establish, maintain and terminate consultative relationships with agencies and workers, giving an account of some of the complex issues which bedevil each of the stages.

This address was given at a forum in November J999 for practitioners in the juvenile justice, alcohol and drug, mental health and child protection services in Victoria as part of the Department of Human Services’ Working Together Strategy’ (WTS). The WTS is a quality improvement initiative of the DHS in partnership with adolescent mental health and drug treatment service providers.

WTS provides an organisational framework for the Community Care Division, the Aged, Community and Mental Health Division and the Public Health Division (specifically in reference to the mental health, child protection and care, juvenile justice and drug treatment services programs) to achieve better outcomes for shared clients. WTS is a response to perceived deficits in cross-program collaboration and communication in cases involving high need adolescent clients.