ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

Chief Investigators

Associate Professor Stephanie Taplin, Emeritus Professor Morag McArthur (Institute of Child Protection Studies, ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´); Professor Cathy Humphreys (University of Melbourne)

Project team

, Associate Professor Tim Moore (Institute of Child Protection Studies), (University of Melbourne). We also acknowledge the contribution of many project staff members who moved on to other roles during the study.

Funding

Australian Research Council (Linkage Project 130100282), with significant partner contributions. ICPS was also funded by NSW Family and Community Services to expand the study into four NSW sites.

Aims

• Develop and trial an evidence-informed model of delivering contact
• Test the effectiveness of an enhanced model of managing contact for children in long-term out-of-home care and their parents (the kContact intervention)

Background

When children are removed from their parents by child protective services, 'contact' or 'access' visits between them and their parents are usually established. But current research evidence on contact provides little guidance as to what 'good quality contact' entails.

The kContact study developed and trialled a contact program for children in long-term care who were having supervised contact with their parents. The study aimed to contribute to the research evidence by conducting one of the first randomised controlled trials of a contact intervention between children in out-of-home care and their parents.

Project details

The project is a joint initiative between Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) of the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´, the University of Melbourne, and a number of government and community partners.

It was hypothesised that the kContact intervention would:

• decrease child problem behaviours
• improve relationships between children and parents
• improve the ability of carers and caseworkers to support family contact
• reduce the proportion of contact visits cancelled by parents.

The trial took place between 2015 and 2017 in Victoria and ACT, and between 2017 to 2018 in NSW.

Findings

• Significant reduction in cancellations of visits by parents
• Significant improvement in parents' satisfaction with contact
• Significant improvement in caseworkers' receptivity towards contact

Partner organisations

The kContact team partnered with a number of organisations in the ACT and Victoria who provided significant financial contributions.

ACT

• ACT Community Services Directorate, ACT Government
• Marymead Child and Family Services
• Barnardos

Victoria

Under the umbrella of the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare:

• Salvation Army Westcare
• OzChild
• Mackillop Family Services
• CAFS Ballarat
• Baptcare
• Wesley Mission Victoria
• Berry Street

NSW

• NSW Department of Family and Community Services
• CareSouth
• Life Without Barriers
• Uniting
• Anglicare (St Saviours)

Ethics

Ethics approval was obtained from the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´'s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC); ratified by the University of Melbourne HREC. Approvals were also obtained from the responsible government and non-government partner agencies.

Projected community impact

During the trial, when the program was implemented in full, caseworkers became more supportive of contact and parents were more satisfied with contact visits and less likely to cancel them. If the program were consistently implemented, workers might be better placed to provide additional supports for the parents.

Caseworkers' receptivity to supporting contact, parents' willingness to attend and their satisfaction with contact visits, might translate into improvements in child wellbeing over time as a result of more stable and improved contact experience.

Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Taplin, S., Lucas, N., Suomi, A., Humphreys, C., Kertesz, M., & McArthur, M. (2021). . Children & Youth Services Review. 127, 106127.

Suomi, A., Lucas, N., McArthur, M., Humphreys, C., Dobbins, T., & Taplin, S. (2020). . Child Abuse & Neglect.

Bullen, T., Taplin, S., McArthur, M., Humphreys, C., & Kertesz, M. (2017) . Child & Family Social Work. 22(2), 822-833.

Bullen, T., Taplin, S., McArthur, M., Humphreys, C., & Kertesz, M. (2016). . Child and Family Social Work.

Taplin, S., Bullen, T., McArthur, M., Humphreys, C., Kertesz, M., & Dobbins, T. (2015). . BMC Public Health, 15(1), 1134. (open access)

Research reports

Bullen, T., Taplin, S., Kertesz, M., Humphreys, C., & McArthur, M. (2015). Literature review on supervised contact between children in out-of-home care and their parents. Canberra: Institute of Child Protection Studies, ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´.

Other publications

Taplin, S., & Suomi, A. (2020). . Canberra: ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ Institute of Child Protection Studies.

Suomi, A., Taplin, S., & Tewson, A. (2019). How are foster carers and kinship carers faring in contact visits with birth parents? Findings from the kContact study, Research to Practice Series, Issue 24. Canberra: Institute of Child Protection Studies, ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´.

Bullen, T., Taplin, S., & Barry, E. (2015). Supporting quality contact visits for children in out-of-home care. Research to Practice Series, Issue 10. Canberra: Institute of Child Protection Studies, ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´.

Taplin, S. & Mattick, R.P. (2014). . Children and Youth Services Review. 39, 65-72.

Media

Institute of Child Protection Studies. (2013, 3 July). Half-million dollar ARC grant for ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´'s Institute for Child Protection Studies [Media Release]. Canberra: Institute of Child Protection Studies, ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´.

ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ News. (2020, 14 October).

Catholic Weekly. (2020, 9 October).

ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ News. (2020, 9 October). ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ research leads to better contact between children in out-of-home care and their parents

Mirage News. (2020, 9 October).

Project timeline

2015 - 2017 in Victoria and ACT, 2017 - 2018 in NSW

Contact

For more information contact: icps@acu.edu.au