This paper reports on a small study in the south west region of Sydney, in which mothers discussed their experiences as recipients of child welfare interventions for alleged child abuse.

The research methodology is within a feminist framework, utilising qualitative data and placing importance on the impact of the implementation specific public policy on aspects of private functioning.

Data was obtained from focused interviews conducted by students on placement. The analysis highlights major themes of women's experiences of service delivery, using their own words. Themes concern feelings of powerlessness, factors determining the perception of interventions as ‘helpful’ or otherwise and issues of rights to information and access.

The findings of this study are considered in relation to feminist analysis of ‘mothering’ and State intervention; previous research on recipient experiences of service delivery and implications for future policy development and research.

Family support agencies that undertake work with families where protective concerns are evident, are frequently placed in the difficult situation of deciding whether to involve Protective Services, and if so, how to do this and remain a helping agency in the eyes of the parents.

Alys Key Family Care has found it immensely valuable to meet with a group of service users to consider the issues of (1) passage of information from the agency to Protective Services, and (2) circumstances which warrant involvement of Protective Services.

Unlike many professionals, the client group expressed clear and consistent views about what situations warranted notification to a Protective Service, and as a result, the agency has now developed a pamphlet for all new client families that outlines how the agency handles these issues.

The paper describes the difficult situations faced by professionals in family support services when Protective Services become involved with their client families and a clear and open policy does not exist between the agency and its clientele. It outlines the process adopted by Alys Key Family Care to actively involve service users in the development of agency policy, and describes the specific guidelines for Protective Service involvement generated by the client advisory group.

Participation in parent education appears to be becoming more acceptable and legitimate for many Victorian parents over the past decade. The experience of parenting or ‘being a parent’ has been recognised as potentially confusing and difficult for many adults (Allen and Schultz, 1987: 14). In response to parents' perceived difficulties and expression of need for assistance with the parenting role, professionals who work with children and families have devised a diverse range of approaches to working with parents from informal, often unstructured, individualised, needs based reading and/or discussion type programs to the more formal and structured approaches which employ the often imported pre packaged programs with groups of parents in a variety of settings. Although little systematic information is available concerning the basis and nature of the burgeoning parent education programs currently operating in Victoria, Allen and Schultz (1987) described the current status of parent education in Australia as diverse in theoretical orientations, emphases, topics and settings. However, it appears that many programs currently operating cannot be described as systematic and theoretically based. Fine (1980: 5) defined parent education as “instruction on how to parent” and argued that this definition properly applies to organised, structured programs rather than to more informal discussions.

In an earlier article in this journal (Bates, 1988a), I concluded that the decision of the House of Lords in Re B (a minor Wardship: Sterilisation (1987) 2 All E.R. 206, would not be the end of a judicial process dealing with the enforced sterilisation of apparently mentally incapable young women. This has proved to be totally correct and, unfortunately perhaps, has meant that the issues raised by Re B have come to be litigated in two recent cases in Australia. At the outset, it should be said that both of these cases, for various reasons, confirm the decision in Re B in that the sterilisation was ultimately authorised. At the same time, it must also be emphasised that the judgments in each case were detailed, canvassing many of the central policy issues which are bound to arise in such cases.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” (Orwell, 1949). The opening lines of 1984 have passed into the collective consciousness, gathering the familiarity that is reserved for great works of literature. The ‘Ministry of Truth’ was Winston Smith's employer and the name is now applied by journalists to the Victorian Government's media unit.

Much science fiction has been treated with condescension and the label of approval, ‘literature’, has been applied sparingly, if at all. I have enjoyed the genre since reading The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The terror and adventure of the story of the invasion by Martians held me enthralled, but the real thrill for me as a schoolboy was that much of the early action took place where I lived.