The concept of Good Enough Parenting, introduced by Winnicott in 1965, has been useful to distinguish between care of children which is not ideal, and care which warrants removal of children from a family. There have been various attempts to turn the concept into practice guidelines, most notably by the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (Adcock & White 1985). However there is a dearth of Australian material and little which is concise.

Barnardos Australia believed that it was necessary to produce a short practice paper to address this critical issue in child protection practice. This paper was developed through a series of workshops with Barnardos workers which focused on their practice needs. It was designed to assist in decisions about parenting standards which are difficult, not the most obvious situations of neglect or abuse. The paper suggests ways of thinking about good enough parenting and practical questions to bear in mind in family assessment.

This article discusses the problems which confronted the Family Division of the Children’s Court, Victoria, in the management of cases in which there were mental health issues. Mental health issues were one of the major reasons for protective concerns in one in four cases presented to the Court during this study. They were cases which were often difficult to decide both because magistrates did not have knowledge about mental health problems and because there was a lack of expert information to assist them. Contributions by specialist mental health practitioners to the assessment of child protection applications were negligible and this meant the mental health problems were not identified for the Court. A more cooperative system which allows mental health professionals to work closely with the child protection service would be of greater assistance to the Court.

A recent, widely-publicised report based on a two year inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Equal Opportunity Commission highlighted a range of serious shortcomings in the provision of care and protection for some of Australia’s most vulnerable children and young people. According to the report, Australia’s child protection system has failed in its basic duty of protecting children and young people from abuse and exploitation. The report confirms the argument presented in this paper that the abuse and neglect experienced by children and young people while under the care and protection of the state is systemic and widespread. While the media prefers to devote attention to ‘spectacular’ instances of departmental failure in regard to care and protection, the extent of the failures is far more routine than was initially apparent. One of the more vulnerable groups of young people ‘in care’ are state wards. Unfortunately the government’s record in respect to these young people indicates that many may be placed at greater risk in terms of their health, safety and general well-being after they have been taken into state ‘care’.

This article reviews some recent US research into the impact of family poverty on child development. These studies report on the link between family poverty and children's early cognitive development. They also report on the impact of family and neighbourhood poverty on family structure, family process and problem behaviour in adolescence. This is important research as it goes some way toward unraveling the connection between individual behaviour and social conditions. Knowledge of this research is important for those advocating for measures to combat family poverty in Australia as it quantifies the issue and offers new ways to caste the argument for intervention.

The work environment that students leaving school will enter in the latter part of the nineties and the next decade is radically different to that in previous times. The skills that employers require of their staff imply certain teaching and facilitation approaches that are currently not seen as core in some Australian States. This article examines the needs of the ‘virtual workplace’, and the current pressures and job requirements that are imposed on young people, and highlights the values acquisition areas for youth and how the clarification of values sets is an important role for educational institutions.