Irene de Haan

The safety of young children in care: a New Zealand study

When children are looked after in public care it is critical that they remain free from abuse. Understanding the safety of such children is important both to the child’s well-being and to the continued improvement of the care system. This article explores the research relating to the safety of young children in care and reports on a five-year follow-up study of 228 New Zealand children who entered care when under two years of age in 2005. Based on re-notification data, the study found that the majority of children were identified as being safe in care. As the research was undertaken in New Zealand, the article also provides an example of how services can respond to evidence about child development while maintaining sensitivity to local circumstances.

Focus on stability: A cohort of young children in statutory care in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article reports on a sample of young New Zealand children under two years of age entering care in 2005 (n = 228) and follows their progress over a five-year period. The study, the first of its kind in New Zealand, used a clinical data mining method to focus particularly on issues of stability, continuity and permanency. In these areas the research findings were generally positive for this cohort of children. Most children had only one or two caregivers. Almost all were ethnically matched with their caregivers in both kinship and foster care, and permanency, or a stable, permanent living situation, was achieved for the majority of the children.

More Nuanced Universal Services for New Parents: Avoiding Assumptions of Homogeneity

Abstract Universal services focus on prevention and providing the support to parents that will help them meet the challenges of parenthood and deal with problems before they become entrenched. Many countries now have good universal services available for new families, and significant advances have been made in recent years to recognize the importance of the early years in the optimal development of the child. This article is based on a qualitative study of transition to parenthood. The study explored the experience of 25 first-time mothers in socioeconomically diverse circumstances in New Zealand. Eleven partners of these women also participated. Mothers were interviewed three times, first in late pregnancy, then 3 and 12 months after giving birth. Partners were interviewed once, mid-way through the baby’s first year. The article focuses on how participants experienced service support. It illustrates some of the diverse needs of new parents, and explains ways in which prevention services might become more responsive to parents’ expressed needs. The authors offer a case for stronger interplay between universal services and informal systems of support, and the development of a new generation of universal services that act as enablers of natural support hubs for new families within their own communities.

Anticipating Risk: Predictive Risk Modelling as a Signal of Adversity

1 concerns about risk as a major driver of professional practice 3 Nigel Parton 2 The risk paradigm and the media in child protection 15 Liz Beddoe and Viviene Cree 3 Anticipating risk: predictive risk modelling as a signal of adversity 29 Irene de Haan and Marie Connolly 4 New knowledge in child protection: neuroscience and its impacts 46 Clare Huntington 5 disproportionality and risk decision making in child protection 63 Ilan Katz and Marie Connolly 6 service users as receivers of risk-dominated practice 77 Helen Buckley 7 engaging families and managing risk in practice 91 Kate Morris and Gale Burford